Keeping Faith

LA SALLE, ILLINOIS

Sylvia Twardowski spends her workdays at Horizon House here caring for some of Illinois’ most helpless residents: developmentally disabled adults. It’s an emotionally rewarding job, and she loves it. But sometimes she feels she is putting her family at work ahead of her family at home.

"Our income is not enough to support a family," she says of Horizon House caregivers. "Those of us who stay do so because we are committed."

That commitment led the Faith & Politics Institute to select Twardowski as one of four honorees at this year’s St. Joseph’s Day Breakfast. The annual event was initiated to raise Capitol Hill’s awareness of the religious and moral issues affecting U.S. workers.

To the institute, Twardowski’s life exemplifies many of those issues. It drew her to Illinois Council 31’s Campaign for Care and Dignity. Twardowski was active in the union campaign at Horizon House and in winning the employees’ first contract, which increased their wages and their rights at work. She is now president of Local 1555.

Her involvement didn’t stop there. When Twardowski learned that community mental health workers were trying to organize, she volunteered to help them. And she participates in Council 31’s efforts to educate and lobby Illinois legislators about the importance of significantly raising the wages of direct care workers.

Twardowski emphasizes, "As workers, we shouldn’t be torn between taking care of these very special people and supporting our families."