MomsRising, the rapidly growing online grassroots organization launched on Mother’s Day 2006, has big plans for Father’s Day 2007. On June 17, MomsRising will launch a mirror web site, www.FamiliesRising.org, to encourage more men who support family-friendly policies to join their efforts to make those policies a reality.

FamiliesRising is using an e-card this weekend to encourage men to join the organization. The e-card features the “Infant Aerial Stunt Team” and spells out the issues in the MomsRising and FamiliesRising agendas: http://www.momsrising.org/fatherecard.

“There are a lot of men who support the work of MomsRising, but they don’t really feel like our name includes them,” said MomsRising President Joan Blades. “We’ve launched FamiliesRising to make a place for men who want their own organization that’s working on things like paid family leave, flexible work and health care for all children. FamiliesRising members will support The Motherhood Manifesto with more masculine voices.” Blades co-authored The Mother Manifesto with MomsRising co-founder and Executive Director Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner. The book identifies and challenges the obstacles facing working families today, and proposes concrete solutions.

MomsRising now has more than 120,000 members (including some men), who have generated tens of thousands of emails in support of family-friendly policies to policy makers across the country, held hundreds of house parties to discuss the MomsRising agenda, decorated thousands of baby ONEsies to show support for family friendly policies and helped get paid leave passed in Washington State.

“As a father, I'm often asked why an organization called MomsRising matters to me,” said dad, filmmaker and author John de Graaf. “Well, the work that MomsRising is doing goes far beyond helping mothers. Paid family leave, flexible work, healthcare, paid sick days, childcare and living wages are equally important to fathers. We all need time and support to raise our children. When I see what mothers and fathers in other countries take for granted, I know America can do better.”

De Graaf is among the “daddy bloggers” on the new web site. Others include: Van Jones, President of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights; Markos Moulitsas Zúniga, founder and publisher of Daily Kos; Joe Kelly, President of Dads & Daughters; and Allan Shedlin, CEO of Dads Unlimited. They will blog regularly about issues related to the FamiliesRising and MomsRising agendas. FamiliesRising members will receive regular email communication from the organization informing them of new developments and providing fast and easy ways to support various issues, often by sending email or making phone calls.