Popular Education

"No one educates anyone, and nobody is self educated; all of us learn from each other, mediated by the world we live in."

Paulo Freire

Can You Help Us Plan for 2017?

As we wrap up 2016, we like many organizations who count low-wage immigrant workers and their families as their base, are planning for the unexpected.

In the last six months, we have worked with almost 500 day laborers and domestic workers, connecting them with jobs, providing ESL classes, fighting wage theft, and providing critical referrals to health and legal services.

In the last year, we fiercely advocated for maintaining the day labor centers funded by the City of L.A. The centers, more than mere hiring halls, also provide space for community leadership development.

But there is so much more to do. We already expect a fight for day labor center funding, especially if Los Angeles loses federal funds. Two of our worker centers have been the target of intimidation and harassment. Our domestic worker members have shared how their children cry at night, how they ask if mommy is going to go to jail now. This is the moment to stand defiant, to reach out to one another and, most importantly, to defend and protect those among us who are now even more vulnerable and who are the targets of newly emboldened hate. We must stand together to defend day laborers and household workers.

Our immediate action plan includes:

“Know your rights” trainings

Legal clinics to support members most at risk for detention and deportation

Emergency measures to protect against and document worker intimidation and harassment

Trauma workshops for members and their families.

To rapidly address these new and urgent needs, while continuing our usual work, we must all pull together. Our community is at more risk than ever. Smaller organizations like IDEPSCA need your additional support. It is our duty to love and protect one another. Please consider volunteering and donating now. Join this effort in any way you can – in the name of humanity.

Pa’lante,

Maegan E. Ortiz

Executive Director