WIN Committee Providing a Win for Families

I-O professionals with children or those who provide care for parents or other family members often face serious hurdles when trying to attend a conference. Although companies and universities allow leave for conferences and may even cover some or all of the expenses, there are few options for covering the caregiving that must be maintained while out of town. To help alleviate this additional stress, the Women’s Inclusion Network (WIN) has come up with a solution for some SIOP members.

Family Care Grant

The SIOP Family Care Grant will provide $500 awards for up to 20 members who require caregiving support to facilitate their conference attendance. This option would allow members to use a lump sum of money for care as they see fit. The Family Care Grant will be offered for the 2021 SIOP Annual Conference in New Orleans and the 2022 SIOP Annual Conference in Seattle. We will evaluate the long-term potential of caregiver support based on the experiences at these conferences.

The family care grant expands support options to help attendees meet the financial burdens of caregiving either for themselves or for their dependents. This would allow attendees to make decisions based on their unique needs, such as bringing a caregiver along or funding caregiving for a dependent at home. In summary, this is the most flexible option with the possibility of supporting various types of caregiving needs that may currently preclude members from attending the conference.

Eligibility

In order to be eligible to receive funds, applicants must (a) be a current SIOP member; (b) be a caregiver, defined as a person providing care to another person who requires care (e.g., children, elders, persons with disabilities) or a person who requires caregiving support at the conference (e.g., members with disabilities); (c) be the only caregiver in the family applying for the grant funds; (d) report facing some financial difficulty attending the conference due to financial caregiving needs; and (e) plan to travel to the 2021 SIOP Annual Conference in New Orleans. If there are enough grants to serve each eligible applicant, all applicants will receive a grant. If there are more applicants than grants, the WIN committee will prioritize graduate students and early career professionals (who likely have more limited funds than other members). More information on the Family Care grant is available on the SIOP conference awards website: https://0-www-siop-org.library.alliant.edu/Foundation/Awards/Conference-Awards.