OUR WORK
Every generation moves us forward.
Every program and campaign on this page exists because an injustice was active and going unanswered.
These aren't initiatives. They're fights we're in the middle of, right now, with real people on the other side of every dollar.
Workforce Equity
The Workforce Equity Demonstration (WED) Project is a formal partnership between our 1000 Strong coalition and the City of Los Angeles, bringing together the LA County Federation of Labor, SEIU 721, AFSCME DC 36, and the City Workforce Development Board and Department of Public Works.
Together, we designed a full-employment model, intentional recruitment, hiring, training, and mentorship, that moves Black workers past entry-level roles into pre-apprenticeship and career-track public sector jobs.
UCLA's Labor Center found a 59% placement rate across our first two cohorts. That's not the finish line. It's proof the model works, and the case for making it permanent.
We built the pathway to good jobs for Black workers in the City of LA, and the City chose to walk it with us.
SoCal Black Worker Hub
Southern California Black Worker Hub for Regional Organizing expands the field of Black worker organizing by consolidating and coordinating functions, sharing best practices, and collectivizing sustainability approach needed to develop Black Worker Centers across the region and unify Black worker voice and power in Southern California and beyond.
Access, Pathways, Protections & Wellness for Black Workers
Legal Clinic
Workers have about 45 days to file. Most Black workers don't know that yet.Our free, one-on-one legal consultation for discrimination, wage theft, retaliation, and wrongful termination.
The information gap between employers and workers isn't an accident, it's the system working as designed.
Every unfunded case is a Black worker facing that clock alone.
Ready 2 Work
6am. First day of bootcamp. Malik doesn’t have a job yet. Six weeks later, he does."In six weeks I had a union card, a Class C license, and an offer letter from the City."
— Malik B., R2W Graduate, Bureau of Sanitation
Our Ready 2 Work workshop series provides job skills training and industry-specific mentorship to Black workers. Our goal is to support our communities to succeed professionally and have access to meaningful careers with fair wages and benefits.
Stewards Council
Nobody should have to learn their rights the hard way, alone, after the damage is done.The Stewards Council, also known as My Siblings Keeper, trains Black workers to recognize and confront wage theft, discrimination, and unsafe conditions before they escalate. Steward Leaders complete training in wage theft, discrimination, racism, anti-Blackness, workplace rights, safe work environments, and health and well-being. They carry that knowledge back into their workplaces, helping fellow workers identify, build, and file claims with CRD/DFEH, EEOC, the Wage and Hour Division, and OSHA.
Black workers, teaching Black workers, so no one fights the battle alone.
PROGRAMS & CAMPAIGNS
1000 Strong
Our campaign to place 1,000 Black workers in career-track, union-backed city jobs. The coalition is built. The contract is signed. The model works, with 80% retention at year 1, five cohorts completed, and 200 City positions committed.
What's missing is fuel to run the next cohort and keep the organizing operation moving.
