Adriana George Leads We Dream in Black for Domestic Worker Rights
Adriana George, a domestic worker who once cared for children in New York City and Philadelphia, now runs the National Domestic Workers Alliance’s We Dream in Black program in Pennsylvania. She left caregiving for full-time organizing after years of hearing the same complaints from nannies about long days, abusive bosses and work with no built-in breaks.
Adriana George in Philadelphia
George immigrated to the United States from the Caribbean at 21 years old, then worked as a nanny in New York City. After she and her husband moved to Philadelphia, she kept working in the same field and found a second family among other nannies who gathered at a local park.
That park became a place where workers compared notes on the pressure of caring for other people’s homes and children. George said, “As much as I need my job, my employers need me, too,” a view that shaped how she later described the work.
National Domestic Workers Alliance
George was already active in the National Domestic Workers Alliance before she left caregiving work. She started collecting fellow workers’ testimonies because she knew caregivers had rights and deserved better treatment, then moved into organizing full time.
She now leads We Dream in Black in Pennsylvania, a program that advocates for Black, Afro-Latina and Caribbean domestic workers. George said, “I don’t like to see injustice around me,” tying her organizing to the conditions workers described on the job.
We Dream in Black in Pennsylvania
The workers’ accounts did not stop at heavy schedules. George said, “And yet, workers were still encountering abuse and constant violations.” The program she runs is built around those stories and around people who do this work every day without much public attention.
George also said, “I’m fighting for workers to know they deserve better. Domestic workers do the work that makes all other work possible.” The practical effect is simple for the readers closest to this issue: caregivers who have felt isolated in private homes now have a named organizer in Pennsylvania working from inside a national network.
That fight links workplace rights to broader civic participation. George’s path from nanny to organizer shows how the people doing this work have begun turning private grievances into public advocacy, and she is doing that from Pennsylvania now.
