I've thrived in both paid careers - Marketing Strategy with two superb companies, Kraft Foods and Four Seasons Hotels, and unpaid careers - The joy and grind of full-time family care, community activism and leadership in Toronto, London, UK, and now Chicago.
I've served organizations such as the Art Institute of Chicago, various school scholarship programs, war veterans’ hospitals, and the UK-based Place2B, where my work in support of Children’s mental wellness in schools led to recognition by Buckingham Palace.
As a mom of two young boys, I'm constantly asked "do you work?" The Oxford Dictionary defines work as: “Activity involving mental or physical effort done in order to achieve a purpose or result” With this definition as my guide, I can’t identify a single person who doesn’t qualify. And yet, we face a societal systematized devaluing of our unpaid labor.
I am passionate about sharing my belief in and advocacy for the recognition of unpaid labor as work. As a coach and author, my ultimate goal is to help families & communities recognize the value of this labor and reframe it as a shared source of pride, rather than a burden that women shoulder alone.
My coaching practice was born when the bubble I was thriving in – where my contributions to home, community and society felt celebrated and valued – burst.
Upon settling in the US, my husband and I both applied for disability insurance. He was approved. I was denied. Why? Since I receive no salary for my thousands of hours of home and family care, school volunteering, community and charity work, there is no amount identified for my replacement. No measurable loss if I were unable to perform my duties. No agreed upon value to society.
NO VALUE.
The realization of the systematized devaluing of the unpaid labor force lit me on fire. I began to write, research, study and train to address this endemic issue, and other issues facing people – mostly women – who carry the progress of society on their backs. Through my studies, training, and networking with powerful and inspiring voices, I realized an opportunity to be a powerful voice myself in the mission to add visibility and value to the work of home, family and community by supporting one family at a time. I enrolled in a course at Stanford University to learn more, completed my facilitator training in The Fair Play Method, wrote a children's book on the subject and founded Our Home Our Pride.
Our Home Our Pride
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Lori's Children's Book - Available Now:
Our Home: The Love, Work and Heart of Family