Triangle mother invited to White House Summit on Working Families
RALEIGH (WTVD) -- The Obama administration says working families need help. That includes flexible work schedules and paid leave for mothers of newborns.
A mother from the Triangle was among the invited guests at the White House Summit on Working Families.
ABC11 first met Jen Ferris, a Chapel Hill mother of two, back in the earliest days of the healthcare.gov roll out. In her words, no one wanted it to work more than she did, but she had as much trouble as anyone making it work. Still, her enthusiasm for progressive politics wasn't shaken.
"I was kind of excited that so many people were participating," Ferris said.
Fast forward seven months, and Ferris received an invite to Monday's summit.
"If there could be paid family leave, that would be a huge relief for almost everybody I know," she said.
That specifically was one of the things President Barack Obama stressed at the summit -- paid family leave for mothers and fathers.
The president also stressed the importance of family-friendly work policies. Including fair and equal pay, workplace flexibility, child care needs and raising the minimum wage.
Folks who took part in the summit said along with the speeches they were happy with the substance. It was a day of work groups and idea-sharing.
For Ferris, the value in the summit was more in the spirit she's bringing home.
"It's more trying to give me hope. And say, hey, maybe in another 10 years we'll have hopefully paid maternity leave, we'll have good worker policies," she said.
