
Today, we’re launching a major expansion of our Fair Workplace Collaborative program to help people understand and apply for the resources and support that are so desperately needed right now.
As thousands of our friends and neighbors lose their jobs or face significant cuts to their hours because of COVID-19, we know people are trying to figure out how they will pay the bills and what resources are available to help them navigate this crisis.
In the past few weeks, we’ve received hundreds of calls to our Fair Workplace Collaborative advice line from people asking about unemployment insurance, state disability insurance, paid family leave, and other resources.
It is clear we need to scale up significantly to address the need for guidance and support in this moment.
Together with the County’s Office of Labor Standards Enforcement and our community, legal aid, and small business partners in the Fair Workplace Collaborative, we are launching Santa Clara County CAN: COVID-19 Assistance Navigation.
Santa Clara County CAN will help people:
- Navigate safety net services, such as helping people understand what assistance they are eligible for and walking them through the application process.
- Connect with legal aid attorneys who can answer questions about work related issues, such as questions related to employment and income.
Anyone with questions should call our new hotline at 408-809-2124. Support is available in English, Spanish, and Vietnamese, with more languages to come.
Last year, we worked with the County of Santa Clara to establish the Office of Labor Standards Enforcement, a new department focused on curbing wage theft, sexual assault, and other workplace abuse so we are all treated with dignity and respect at work. Together with the OLSE, we created the Fair Workplace Collaborative — a group of community organizations, legal advocates, nonprofits, and small business leaders — to be on-the-ground trusted messengers providing education and outreach to workers and small businesses.
As COVID-19 has upended all our lives, we’ve refocused the Collaborative to provide the information and advice workers need right now. With this expansion, we’ll be able to address the surging demand for information and advice.
Now more than ever, we are all seeing how thin the line is between getting by and financial disaster. As thousands of families face months of uncertainty, here at Working Partnerships USA and the Fair Workplace Collaborative we are committed to both providing immediate support, and driving the long term change we need so our community makes it through this pandemic and emerges stronger and more resilient.
On behalf of the entire Fair Workplace Collaborative: Vietnamese American Round Table, Pilipino Association of Workers and Immigrants, Day Worker Center of Mountain View, Step Forward Foundation, Enterprise Foundation, Latino Business Council of Silicon Valley, Working Partnerships USA