Both/And: A Sexual Violence Prevention Podcast · Jess Clark

Dignity, Community Care, and Paid Family Medical Leave with Josephine Kalipeni

·1 hr 2 min·5 clips

A mother fleeing domestic violence couldn't get her child assessed for three months, trapped by a broken system.

This episode features host Jess Clark, Director of Prevention for the New Mexico Coalition of Sexual Assault Programs, in conversation with guest Josephine (Josie) Calipani, a leader in economic and racial justice policy. They explore the critical links between economic security policies, like paid family medical leave, and the prevention of sexual and intimate partner violence. Calipani brings two decades of advocacy experience, informed by her background as a Black immigrant, the oldest of six siblings, and her previous social work with families navigating domestic violence. The discussion centers on policies ensuring workers can take paid time to care for newborns, ill family members, or heal from violence without losing income. Calipani's organization, Family Values at Work, focuses on paid family medical leave and paid sick and safe days through state and national campaigns. She recounts a specific story from her social work days of a mother fleeing domestic violence whose children's trauma-related school suspensions created an impossible conflict with her job. The episode notes that Washington, D.C., passed the country's second paid sick day law in 2008, which was also the first to explicitly include "safe" days for situations like violence. Currently, 36 laws across jurisdictions include paid sick and safe days for businesses with five or more employees. A key insight is that financial resources directly impact a survivor's options, as Calipani observed in her childhood where people stayed in violent situations because they couldn't afford to leave. She argues the core question underlying policy fights is fundamentally about "who is deserving" of dignity, rest, and care. The conversation highlights the irony that sexual assault service advocates themselves are often underpaid and lack the very benefits that would support them if they experienced violence. Calipani stresses that survivors should not have to "lay their heart bare" or use their stories as "bargaining chips" to access workplace benefits. The tone is conversational, passionate, and deeply personal, with both hosts sharing from their own experiences as parents and caregivers. Listeners hear genuine excitement and shared outrage at systemic barriers, with Clark referencing a scene from the movie *Clue* to describe her frustration. This episode is ideal for listeners interested in the intersection of labor rights, economic justice, and gender-based violence prevention, or those engaged in policy advocacy and community organizing. Individuals seeking a purely clinical or detached analysis of policy might find the personal and impassioned style less appealing.

As heard by us

Leave policy, dignity, and violence prevention are tied together with clear purpose.

Paid family and medical leave comes through as more than a workplace perk. It reads as a basic safeguard, one that lets people care for themselves or a loved one, stay home with a newborn, sit with a dying family member, or recover from sexual or intimate partner violence…

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Why you'd press play

When you want leave policy to sound like safety work, not HR.

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