A rescue agreement project
PANDEMIC ASSISTANCE MUST CONTINUE UNTIL THE PANDEMIC IS OVER
#ExtendPUA | @ExtendPUA
WHO WE ARE & WHAT WE DO
IT'S PERSONAL
ExtendPUA.org is a grassroots movement of pandemic unemployed workers advocating for comprehensive COVID relief legislation focused on The People. The organization was founded in July 2020 by Stephanie Freed and Grant McDonald, two pandemic unemployed professionals in the live events and entertainment industry. Since July we have accumulated an engaged base of over 25,000 people and a wonderful volunteer team who are all directly affected by the unemployment crisis. We believe policy should be based on lived experiences and workers' voices should be at every table. Our mission is here.
Research &
Resource Cultivation
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Our website provides information, resources, monthly strategy, updates, and tools for people to advocate to their elected officials directly.
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We created a searchable and sortable full database of Congresspeople's contact information & socials.
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We culled resources for workers who are struggling in our Help Section & advice for claim issues.
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We surveyed workers are released an indepth report on our findings.
Media Creation
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We create videos,
graphics, & story cards to make issues more compelling & easy to understand for legislators & the public. -
We update a blog with news, explainers, and calls to action
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We maintain robust social media accounts.
Press Outreach
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We pitch press on the issues facing unemployed workers incessantly. We’ve garnered over 50 news media placements so far to encourage and empower others to advocate, as well as share our community’s stories.
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We connect workers to press directly to share their stories.
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We also provide press pitch tips for workers to pitch press themselves!
See our Press Coverage here.
Community & Coalition Building
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We have cultivated a community of the unemployed. We are directly engaged with over 25,000 un or under employed workers across the US.
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We use our blog, email list, and social media accounts to connect & keep our community informed.
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We have held several public zoom events to story share and build community.
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We are part of several advocacy coalitions including serving on the steering committee for ProsperUS.
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We have also partnered with national and local organizations on initiatives: Freelancers’ Union, NIVA, LEC, NITO, CPD, NELP, Spaces in Action, Restaurant Organizing Project, MWA, People's Action, and more.
Lobbying & Policy Advocacy
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We have organized & facilitated 40+ meetings directly with Senators and their staff, bringing over 150 constituents to tell their stories. We follow up those meetings with written & video stories from constituents, sharing a total of 600 stories so far.
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We write & send policy proposals & issue breakdowns directly to legislators' & stakeholders offices.
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We maintain relationships in several Senate offices.
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We submitted testimony including workers stories to a Live Events Industry Senate committee hearing & spoke about Partial UI in a NYS Joint Session (testimony).
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We facilitate community advocacy with petitions and action items on our webpage and socials. Our tools have generated tens of thousands of constituent letters & calls to legislators.
We've achieved Policy Wins Totaling over 1 trillion federal dollars to programs supporting workers through this pandemic.
Including PUA, FPUC, & PEUC extensions; a mixed income earner UI supplement; expanded healthcare coverage; rent relief; entertainment industry specific funding; & NYS partial UI reform.
We created and maintain this resource to create awareness, empower workers, and promote tangible action around an issue that is affecting not only us, but over 21 million people who are currently affected by pandemic unemployment or underemployment. Our work and our community has grown enormously in the last 9 months. We meant to start a letter campaign and now we've met with dozens of Senators and formed coalition partnerships with some incredible organizations.
Check out our 2020 Year in Review and our press coverage.
We are all volunteer and entirely funded out of our own pockets, please consider a donation to support this work if you are able.
Co-Founder
STEPHANIE FREED, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Stephanie is a Writer, Messaging Hawk, Policy Fanatic, Strategist, & Advocate, as well as a Production Electrician & Lighting Designer in the entertainment and live events industry.
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Co-Founder
Grant McDonald, Associate DIRECTOR
Grant is a Video Director and Designer for Broadway, Concert Tours and Live Events.
Our Core Team:
Julienne Bilker, Press & Government Affairs
Paul Frydrychowski, Stories & Constituent Outreach
Kathryn Schmidtt, Press Outreach
Sarah Ford, Administration
Joe Beumer, Advocacy
Amanda Holt, Stories
Kylee Loera, Graphics and Video
Corey Psoinos, Website Consulting
ExtendPUA.org Past & Current Contributors: Thomas, Savannah, Kristin, Katie, Jill, Stephanie K, Margaret, Abbe, Emma, Lois, Brian, Keith, Pamela, Joanna, Pete, Gwen, Marian, Andrew, Josh, Jimmy, Will, Greg, Shanna, Atum, Josh, Christine, Ben, Lindsey, Adam, Katherine, Sal, Diana, Nicole, Alice, Mercedes, B.A., Luke, Taylor, Alex, John, Connor, Jackie, Cathay, Devonne, Claire, Heather, Nikki, Adrian, Damien, Mike, Bre, Tracy, Chau and the Ciaooo Magazine team, Colin and the Courier Newsroom team, Michael at Stage Directions, and Alicia at Scripps.
Our CoalitionS
As well as coalitions that are not public facing: Partial UI NY & #FixUI
ExtendPUA.org's Organization Partners include: National Independent Venue Association, National Independent Talent Organization, Main Street Alliance, Live Events Coalition (National and various Locals), We Make Events, Music Workers Alliance, Recording Academy, Unemployed Action, Restaurant Organizing Project, Restaurant Workers United, ILeague of Historic Theatres, National Association of Theatre Owners, Various IATSE Locals, Groundwork Collaborative, Spaces in Action, MomsRising, NELP, People's Action, People's Bailout, Indivisible, and more.