Our partners

In 1973 a group of office workers in Boston got together to talk about issues which had no name, sexual harassment, work/family challenges, and pay equity. From this beginning 9to5 emerged as the national organization dedicated to putting working women's issues on the public agenda.  9to5's constituents are low-wage women, women in traditionally female jobs, and those who've experienced any form of discrimination. Membership is open to all. Now in its fourth decade, 9to5's mission is to strengthen women's ability to win economic justice.

9to5’s priority campaign is to win family-friendly policies for low-wage women.  They’ve also worked on the grassroots level to pass key legislation including the Civil Rights Act of 1991, the Family and Medical Leave Act, state health and safety laws, living wage ordinances and anti-discrimination measures.  Additionally, 9to5 has helped hundreds of individuals and workplaces win improved policies for pay, promotions, job training, equal opportunity and family-friendly corporate and public policies.

Alliance to Develop Power, Springfield, MA;
www.a-dp.org
The Alliance to Develop Power builds power by creating institutions and incorporating them into its membership—linking them together to leverage power, relationships and resources. Currently, ADP membership is comprised of: five tenant owned housing cooperatives totaling 1,400 units of affordable housing; four tenant associations; ADP Youth; one ethnic association; United Landscaping and Painting, a worker owned cooperative business; 130 Union, a cooperative asset holding company which owns the office building; and Casa Obrera Worker's Center. ADP serves as a convener, mediator, and resource hub for these institutional members.

Beloved Community Center, Greensboro, NC;
www.belovedcommunitycenter.org
Founded in 1991, the BCC, pursues a mission of building inclusive egalitarian community through community organizing, public meetings, protest and other forms of advocacy, as well as training and coalition building. The BCC congealed around the struggle, in the early 90's, to release Kwame Cannon, who was serving two life sentences for unarmed burglary. In addition, the BCC worked across social, economic and political divides to resolve a contentious K-Mart labor struggle. Over the years, BCC expanded its vision to include Homeless hospitality and advocacy and education reform.

CASA Latina, Seattle, WA;
www.casa-latina.org
CASA Latina was founded in 1994 by a group of community activists who had been working with Latino homeless in Seattle. They saw the need for an organization that would organize and provide Latinos a stronger voice for recent Latino immigrant laborers.  CASA Latina is dedicated to empowering Latino immigrants through educational and economic opportunities, helping many immigrants learn the skills and get the jobs that they need to lift themselves and their families out of poverty.

CASA de Maryland, Takoma Park, MD;
www.casademaryland.org
CASA of Maryland was founded in 1985 by Central American refugees and North Americans, in response to the human needs of the thousands refugees arriving in D.C.  In 1991, CASA set up a temporary trailer to provide legal and employment assistance to the workers in response to growing numbers of day laborers congregating on street corners. Today, CASA has programs in employment placement, vocational training, financial literacy, job development, ESOL instruction, Spanish literacy, citizenship classes, legal services, health outreach and education, health information services, social services, and community organizing and advocacy. CASA operates 3 workers' centers and a community education center, and is in the process of opening 2 more workers' centers, a vocational training school, and a 20,000 square-foot multicultural center in the heart of Langley Park.

Chicago Coalition for the Homeless, Chicago, IL;
www.chicagohomeless.org
The Chicago Coalition for the Homeless (CCH) was founded in 1980 to eradicate homelessness. The organization is based on the principles that housing is a human right and that homelessness is a solvable problem. Using organizing, and advocacy, CCH connects and equips people with the tools to understand and undo the complex web of social and economic disparities, such as violence, discrimination and a scarcity of affordable housing, living-wage jobs, and access to education. By creating job opportunities and business training with programs like the Home Grown Coffee initiative that connects low-income and homeless people in Chicago with family farmers fighting to receive adequate compensation for their coffee crop and a Youth Committee to get kids off the street and into school and the workforce CCH develops leaders. In addition, these leaders can join the speakers' bureau that is frequently engaged to speak at various functions about social and economic dimensions of homelessness.

Chicago Workers Collaborative, Chicago, IL;
www.chicagoworkers.org
Chicago Workers Collaborative sprouted from The Chicago Workers Collaborative has brought the plight of Illinois' 300,000+ day laborers into the public eye and broke ground with Governor Rod Blagojevich to overhaul and strengthen the laws regulating the day labor industry in Illinois.  The Collaborative has successfully pushed 5 bills through the Illinois general assembly resulting in some of the toughest restrictions on staffing agencies (ie day laborer and temp agencies) in the nation, including a measure that makes it illegal for any employer in the state to sign-up and use e-verify to determine employee immigration status.

Colorado Progressive Coalition, Denver, CO;
www.progressivecoalition.org
Colorado Progressive Coalition ("CPC") was formed in 1996 by community activists and leaders looking to improve the political and social climate in Colorado. CPC builds coalitions, conducts research, organizes communities, gets out the vote, develops new leaders, registers thousands of new voters each year, and lobbies elected officials at the local, state, and national levels to build a progressive future for Colorado on issues of racial, economic, environmental, and social justice. Their programs center on health, economic, and racial justice; voting power and community organizing.

CPC members and staff worked hard to mobilize low-and middle income voters that passed a ballot initiative raising Colorado's minimum wage for the first time in 10 years. An exciting grassroots effort by the Southern Colorado regional office led to the clean up of raw sewage dumped into Pueblo's Fountain Creek by Colorado Springs Utilities. Every year CPC engages young people through a summer internship program in health, voter, and criminal justice.

Enlace, Portland, OR;
www.enlaceintl.org
Enlace is a membership organization comprised of worker centers, unions and organizing groups in the U.S. and in Mexico.  Enlace has 23 affiliates that represent a base of approximately 300,000 low-wage workers.  These member organizations are engaged in base-building through organizing campaigns for economic and social justice.  Enlace uses an integrated approach to organizing which involves creating unique campaign strategies while developing systems that strengthen organizations internally.  Enlace is building the base of low wage workers to bring balance to the struggle between the rich and working poor.  The 17 founding members of Enlace created the organization to be able to learn from each other’s experiences and to explore other ways to build and train a strong, democratic leadership, to become strategic, and to constantly incorporate new people and new energy into their campaigns.

Georgia Stand-Up, Atlanta, GA;
www.gastandup.org
Georgia Stand-Up is an alliance of community, labor, and faith organizations that promote economic justice and smart growth strategies through research, education, and advocacy. Georgia Stand-Up has four bodies of work:    Our Alliance & Community Organizing, Grassroots Leadership Education, Research & Policy Analysis, and Campaigns for Community Benefits. Many programs integrate components of these areas, such as the Policy Institute for Civic Leadership is a bi-annual for local leadership-grassroots, elected officials, youthe, etc-to learn and build greater networks through their communities. Throughout the year, Georgia Stand-Up also conducts a variety of workshops throughout the state, and in the 2007 launched Community Organizing 101 a workshop that teaches community leaders how to utilize traditional labor organizing techniques to mobilize their neighborhoods and communities.

Hopeful City, Wheeling, WV;
www.hopefulcity.org
Hopeful City is an organization of faith-based communities dedicated to equipping people with the tools to fight for positive, systemic change in the Wheeling metropolitan area. In 2001, Hopeful City trained 350 congregational leaders to conduct a Listening Campaign.  After 3,700 meetings with community members, they identified priority issues: Community Renaissance: Jobs, Business & Downtown; Neighborhood Revitalization; and Needs of Youth as priority issues.  Hopeful City continues to provide training and opportunities for task force leaders to understand the issues that affect their lives and develop a broad group of allies in order to impact decisions concerning these issues. Hopeful City expanded these activities with MOSAIC, the first statewide initiative to issues of poverty that many West Virginians face and SPIRIT, a religious network that participates in MOSAIC.

Interfaith Worker Justice, Chicago, IL;
www.iwj.org
Interfaith Worker Justice is a network of people of faith rooted in religious values to educate, organize and mobilize around issues and campaigns to improve wages, benefits and conditions for workers, and give voice to workers, especially low-wage workers. Interfaith Worker Justice and local interfaith committees work with Department of Labor (DOL) staff to: educate workers about their rights, train worker advocates, and develop secure protocols and locations for workers to file complaints. IWJ also works with religious employers and the religious communities in Poultry towns throughout the southeast to protect workers rights. Current IWJ campaigns work to acheive paid sick days and living wages for all workers, support the Employee Free Choice Act; and engage farm-workers, immigrant workers.

Intervalley Project, Newton, MA; 
www.intervalleyproject.org
IVP is a network of regional organizations of congregations, labor union locals, community and tenant groups combine citizen organizing and democratic economic development strategies to save and create jobs, affordable housing and critical public services in some of the oldest and poorest industrial areas in the nation.  The oldest IVP group was organized in 1983.  The initial four IVP groups formalized their working relationship by creating IVP as a staffed network in 1997.  IVP has helped organize three additional member groups since then.

Most of IVP’s urban communities face a hollowing out of the middle class and a new concentration of the poor, including thousands of new immigrants and refugees.  Most of these communities have suffered from the loss of union-represented skilled manufacturing jobs, vital public services, and private investment.  With the loss of these resources these communities often lose their next generation of talented young people moving away to find work.  IVP organizations unite low-, moderate-families, and their allies across a region around the common work of their congregations and other organizations to organize to bring about specific concrete changes, while developing leaders and building a stronger sense of community.

Maine Women's Lobby, Hallowell, ME;
www.mainewomen.org
Since 1990, the Maine Women's Policy Center (MWPC) has championed public policy that betters the lives of Maine women, and the political empowerment of women and girls throughout the state. It is a statewide organization that has a broad network of mutli-issue and multi-constituency partnerships; and plays a leadership role in Engage Maine, a collaborative built to increase progressive power in Maine.

The focus of the MWPC and sister organization the Maine's Women's Lobby is to increase women's economic security, leadership, and civic-engagement through organization and research around health care, freedom from violence, civil rights, and economic security. The two organizations pushed for the passage of Maine's Family Medical Leave Act, implemented Maine's model comparable worth statute, collaborated to develop the Parents as Scholars program for TANF recipients, enacted first-in-the-nation Employment Leave for Victims of Violence, advanced model legislation protecting female computer operators, repeatedly helped increase the minimum wage, and successfully fought for unemployment insurance being extended to part-time workers. Most recently, they successfully promoted the Family Care Act that allows workers to use their sick time for family members, and expanded Maine's FMLA law to include coverage for domestic partners and use of intermittent leave.

Make the Road NY, Brooklyn, NY;
www.maketheroad.org
Make the Road New York promotes economic justice, equity and opportunity for all New Yorkers through community and electoral organizing, strategic policy advocacy, leadership development, youth and adult education, and high quality legal and support services.  Make the Road New York was created in 2007 by the coming together of Make the Road by Walking and the Latin American Integration Center.  Make the Road New York is an effort to increase the scale of their operations to build power for all of New York City’s low-income and immigrant majority.

Make the Road New York combines participatory decision making, deep community roots, and democratic accountability with experience, a solid track record of success, high- functioning infrastructure and citywide reach.  Through Make the Road NY, low-income people are becoming the driving force behind citywide public policy decisions that affect their children, their families and their communities.

The Nashville Movement, Nasheville, TN;
www.thenashvillemovement.org
The Nashville Movement ("The Movement") is a growing coalition of workers, community organizations, students, congregations and people from all walks of life, committed to ending poverty and winning respect for and with the poorest workers in Nashville.  The coalition was formed in 2007 and works to build and solidify power across racial lines, and create unity among homeless, immigrant, and other low wage workers. Member organizations include: The Nashville Homeless Power Project, Mid-Tennessee Jobs with Justice, the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition, and the Urban Epicenter.

New Labor, New Brunswick, NJ;
www.newlabor.net
New Labor was founded in 2000 to strengthen, connect, and engage low-wage, youth, and immigrant workers in central New Jersey. The organization is structured so that all members participate in running the organization. El Comité a monthly public community meeting in which organizational business is decided through consensus; and project leadership is based on volunteerism and availability. El Comité conducts all outreach and recruitment required to complete projects as well working with staff to develop plans for new initiatives. Today, New Labor has over 1,100 dues paying members.

New York Immigration Coalition, New York, NY;
www.thenyic.org
The New York Immigration Coalition (NYIC) is an umbrella policy and advocacy organization for more than 200 groups in New York State that work with immigrants and refugees. NYIC was founded in 1987 to mobilize the leadership of New York's immigrant communities in response to the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986. It has since evolved into a powerful advocacy voice, analyzing the impact of immigration policy proposals, promoting and protecting the rights of immigrants and their family members, improving newcomers' access to services, resolving problems with public agencies, and mobilizing member groups to respond to emerging issues and needs. NYIC focuses on civic and voter participation, education, English language literacy, health access, housing immigration law, civil rights and civil liberties, language access, public benefits, workers' issues, driver's liscenses, disaster relief, and the city and state budgets.

Northwest Bronx Community & Clergy Coalition, Bronx, NY;
www.northwestbronx.org
Founded in 1974, the Northwest Bronx Community and Clergy Coalition organizes residents to fight for long-term solutions to the problems in our community. The Coalition unites the Northwest Bronx communities and a youth organization, Sistas and Brothas United (SBU), in an effort to influence the most important decisions that are made about our neighborhoods; delivery of government services, private investment patterns, and major land use considerations.

As the Bronx has changed over the years, so has the Coalition. The Coalition has restructured to meet the needs of the community and has expanded to do more institutional organizing, while remaining true to the mission of its founders. The Coalition has consolidated nine neighborhood associations into three Regions and uses a broad-based organizing style. Focus issues include: education, affordable housing, redeveloping Kingsbridge Armory, immigrant rights, living wage, youth, and developing new leaders.

North Carolina Justice Center, Raleigh, NC;
www.ncjustice.org
The Justice Center's mission is to reduce and eliminate poverty in North Carolina by helping to ensure that every North Carolina household gains access to the resources, services and fair treatment that it needs in order to enjoy economic security. Founded in 1996 through the merger of two former Legal Services organizations and staffed by a diverse array of professionals, the Justice Center pursues its ambitious mission through four main strategies: litigation, research and analysis, public policy advocacy, grassroots action. Throughout its history, the Justice Center has won acclaim from elected officials, judges, the media, community leaders and the general public as a well-informed, passionate and influential voice for progressive change in North Carolina. Its highly skilled staff is responsible for improving the lives of literally hundreds of thousands – if not millions - of North Carolinians.

Tenants and Workers United, Alexandria, VA;
www.tenantsworkers.org
TWU was organized in the 1980s when developers attempted to push thousands of low-income renters out of the Arlandria neighborhood of Alexandria. Tenants fought back and won a class-action lawsuit that stopped the evictions. Fired up by the victory, TWU entered an era of the "politics of permanency," and a nearly ten-year campaign that resulted in the resident owned and democratically run 282-unit, Arlandria-Chirilagua Housing Cooperative.

Today, TWU has community based chapters across Northern Virginia and conducts public policy/issue campaigns on education, healthcare, and housing, and engages in low-wage worker and community organizing. Alexandria Teens United is a youth led initiative to increase opportunities in education and leadership. TWU works closely with a number of organizations around the region and country; is a member of the national Right to the City Alliance, Grassroots Global Justice, and the National Capital Immigrant Coalition; and an affiliate of Virginia New Majority and the Virginia Organizing Project.

Transportation Equity Network (Gamelial), St. Louis, MO;
http://transportationequity.org
TEN is a coalition of faith based and community organizations that came together in 1997 to improve federal transportation law to increase access and mobility for low-income communities, job opportunities in constructed related to transportation system, and land use regulations. In the last eight years, TEN membership grew from the five original co-founding groups to over 300 group members from across the nation. At least 14 TEN members in 11 states are currently engaged in transportation-focused campaigns to improve public transit funding, environmental justice, public participation or workforce development (JOBS NOW).

Restaurant Opportunities Center—United, New York, NY;
www.rocunited.org
Although initially founded after September 11th, 2001 to provide support to restaurant workers displaced from the World Trade Center, the Restaurant Opportunities Center of New York (ROC-NY) has grown to organize restaurant workers all over New York City for improved working conditions. Over the last five years, ROC-United has won more than eight campaigns against powerful restaurant corporations totaling more than $580,000 in unpaid wages and discrimination payments for immigrant restaurant workers, published two ground-breaking reports on the restaurant industry, played an instrumental role in winning a statewide minimum wage increase for tipped workers, organized 40 restaurant workers to open their own cooperatively-owned restaurant, and grown to include more than 2000 restaurant workers in our membership.

Workers Defense Project/ Proyecto Defensa Laboral, Austin, TX;
www.workersdefense.org
Workers Defense Project / Proyecto Defensa Laboral (PDL) is an organization that empowers Latina/o immigrant workers to act collectively for racial and economic justice in the workplace through leadership development, education, organizing and collaborating with strategic allies.

PDL is a worker center, part of a national movement of organizations that seek to provide low-wage immigrant workers with the resources they need to fight to eradicate hazardous and unsafe working conditions. PDL provides a source of power and hope for many low-wage workers who have access to few resources to improve their living and working conditions. PDL is one of the few organizations in Texas working to address workplace abuse faced by immigrant workers.

Young Workers United, San Francisco, CA;
www.youngworkersunited.com
Young Workers United is a worker center that was founded in 2002 to meet the needs of unprotected service and increasingly youth and immigrant industry employees. It is a multi-racial and bilingual membership organization, run by committee and uses organizing, direct action, and collaborative learning to fight for worker justice.

Young Worker's United has won over $100,000 in back pay since its inception and participated in a number of campaigns including "San Francisco Deserves a Raise," that successfully achieved wage improvements in CA, "Hands off our Lunch" campaign to protect worker's lunch hour, and the campaign to win sick days for all workers. YWU collaborated with the University of California, Berkeley Labor Center and Graduate School of Education to produce several studies of young workers that can be found on their website.