Hope from the Front Lines is a weekly podcast featuring stories of black and brown women who are members of SEIU HCIIMK on the front lines of the COVID-19 crisis. 

Throughout Illinois and across the country nursing homes continue to bear the brunt of the Covid-19 pandemic.  For the past 11 months the linoleum tiled hallways of these facilities have carried not only orderlies, gurneys, and residents, but also more than 38% of all Covid-19 related deaths in America.  But what many don’t know is that staff of these facilities, and the industry advocates that fight for them were not in the least bit surprised by the magnitude of the tragedy.  For decades now they have watched owners cut staff in favor of profit, leaving facilities unable to properly care for their residents.

Chronic short-staffing during COVID has turned nursing home jobs from difficult to deadly. Regina Rodriquez – nursing home worker from Sandwich, IL – describes to Hope From The Front Lines what it’s been like working short-staffed during a global pandemic.

Reporter Bio: MAURICE BISAILLON is a media producer with more than 20 years of broadcast production experience, working with A&E, History Channel, Discovery Channel, PBS and more.  His A&E Biography on Barack Obama is the most widely viewed episode in the history of the franchise. He’s a recent transplant to Chicago and has thoroughly lost his mind trying to furnish his apartment through Facebook Marketplace. Executive Producing Hope From The Front Lines has opened his eyes to the fact that the word caregiver describes far more than doctors and nurses.