The Origin Story
How we got here
In 2015, Amy Henderson began a journey to educate companies about the critical value of building parent-friendly work cultures. With her co-founder, Janet Van Huysse, she created a research and data-backed program to appeal to employees at all levels, using neuroscience and behavioral psychology to reveal how parenting makes us stronger at work. Through TendLab’s engagements inside a broad range of companies, Amy has developed a nuanced and deeply informed perspective on the challenges and opportunities parenthood brings into the workplace, and why we should embrace a future that supports working families. But while facilitating this education was a necessary and informative part of her work, Amy knew she wanted to do more to impact the future of parenting and work.
Amy and Janet's original vision for TendLab was a laboratory-style environment, where researchers and company leaders would come together to build solutions for working parents that would benefit all employees. In October 2020, Kim Rohrer joined the team to both expand TendLab's offerings and operationalize the vision for a connected, collaborative community of changemakers.
Launched in 2021, the new TendLab is an incubator and an instigator, convening the people who want to create better futures for working parents. We recognize the power and potential of parents at work, and we are galvanizing the leaders of the movement to build an emerging future that works for everyone.
Who We Are
Vision, Mission, and Values
We envision a future where parents are seen as valuable assets in the workplace, where federal policy supports working parents, and where caregiving and work can coexist peacefully and productively.
Our mission is to create a better future for working parents, through research, education, community, and collective action.
We value community, creativity, and care.
Community
We are stronger with our village; we all have strengths to bring to the table, and we need each other’s skills and passions to build something better. Our unique talents make an outsized impact when we join with others, to create not just a rising tide but a groundswell. We don’t reinvent the wheel, and we always give credit to the creators.
Creativity
We believe that if you do what you’ve always done you’ll get what you’ve always gotten. We’re building a new future, and we’re exploring and testing lots of different paths and opportunities to get there. We embrace failure, seek inspiration, and challenge ourselves to find new patterns and ways to succeed.
Care
We work with empathy and kindness, commitment and persistence. And also a fundamental belief in giving a huge shit about what we’re doing. Caring enough to solve the problem, caring about each other, and caring about people we don’t know. We want everything we do to be additive to our lives, our communities, and our world.