Wild team members Jake Waxman and Nneka Akubeze, along with colleagues from the Workplace Justice Lab, recently wrapped up the second year of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) 2015 Distributed Leadership Project (DLP). This ongoing partnership with SEIU 2015 focuses on adapting an organizing framework that empowers staff and members to step into leadership roles and transition from mobilizing to organizing. This is critically important for a union that represents over 500,000 nursing home and homecare workers throughout the state of California relying on motivated efforts from members to expand reach. While this organizing approach, based on relationships and teamwork, works in any setting, it is particularly vital for a workforce scattered across homes rather than a shared workplace. The teams and relationships created meaningful structures that allowed a sense of common cause to be sustained outside of the worksite.
The project’s success was driven by 22 dedicated staff members who took the initiative to form volunteer leadership teams, along with the hundreds of members who joined them. Together, they held hundreds of team meetings throughout California—whether in offices, living rooms, Zoom rooms, or coffee shops—engaged thousands of union members in critical elections, and built enduring bonds to sustain their mission. They are steadily building the power needed to advance a caregiver’s agenda across the state.
A recent full-day debrief revealed several key takeaways that contributed to the project’s success: in-person training fostered motivation, relationship-building, and a learning culture; regular team meetings created space for strategizing, motivation, and accountability (focusing on growth rather than criticism); and ongoing coaching support helped organizers overcome challenges and continue expanding leadership capacity among union members. The volunteer district leaders grew in confidence and were better equipped to engage fellow caregivers, while the team collectively increased election turnout in major ways compared to previous years.
