Advocacy

We’re proud to have worked on behalf of pregnant people and families with the incredible partners below.

Transit Accessibility

UP-STAND proposed and successfully advocated for the MTA's Baby on Board pregnancy pin pilot program in New York City, the first of its kind in the United States.
The MTA is no longer sending the pins via snail mail, and is considering alternative methods of distribution.

We urged City Council Member Costa Constantinides to introduce Resolution 198 (formerly 1514), calling on the MTA to add a Pregnancy and Family Representative. Our founder Christine is now a member of the 18-person Advisory Committee for Transit Accessibility (ACTA), working with New York City Transit on a range of accessibility issues. This is the first time our constituency has a seat at the table.

We lend our voice to transit events on behalf of pregnant women and caretakers, organize speakers and participants via UP-STAND, and host transit rallies to draw attention to the MTA’s significant customer base of caregivers and children. We are happy to announce that after decades of extensions, our Astoria Boulevard station rally contributed to the efforts of many advocates/organizations in holding the MTA accountable to its commitment to complete an elevator at Astoria Boulevard; it opened in August, 2020.

UP-STAND worked with Assemblywoman Linda Rosenthal to create and support New York State Assembly Legislative Bill A586, an act to increase priority seating for pregnant, elderly, and disabled passengers and to introduce reserved seating on public transit. This bill was reintroduced in 2018.
Pregnancy and lap infant courtesy seating signage is now displayed on NYCT buses.

UP-STAND is a proud member of the Fix the Subway Grassroots Coalition and our founder, Christine, serves on New York City Transit's Advisory Committee for Transit Accessibility (ACTA) as well as on the LIRR's ADA Task Force.

General Accessibility

Christine serves on the March of Dimes Queens Steering Committee, and served as a 2017 and 2018 CIDNY Poll Site Accessibility Monitor in the NYC General Elections. Christine was awarded two 2018 neighborhood grants from the Citizens Committee of New York City to improve accessibility locally, The Ramp Project NYC and One Stop Family Pop Up.

In direct response to our community poll, in which UP-STANDers ranked Queens Library as one of the top 5 locations where they wanted to see "Breastfeeding Welcome Here" signs displayed, each of the Queens Library locations displayed signage at the beginning of 2019. Queens Library hopes "that these signs will serve as a good reminder for everyone and, more importantly, help our breastfeeding customers to feel welcome, safe and comfortable in our spaces." Read more.

We teamed up with Assemblywoman Aravella Simotas to create The Family Accommodation in Entertainment Act (A9775) to make spaces more family friendly. This legislation requires places of entertainment such as stadiums, arenas, convention centers, theaters, gardens or other places of amusement to provide accommodations, including high chairs and booster seats, changing tables and child protection seats in all public restrooms, stroller parking, and a private, hygienic location for nursing or pumping breast milk.
Read more here.
Find your NY Senator to support this legislation and make New York more accessible!

Read our Memo of Support for A7213, which would require full service family restrooms in public buildings.

During COVID-19, our founder Christine became a volunteer with NYC's Open Streets program and helped to introduce a Kids' Bike Hour for the Astoria neighborhood.

Want to make your local establishments more family-friendly? Get help here.

If you have an issue or item you would like us to consider addressing, please email us at info@up-stand.com.