Undocumented immigrants are being disproportionately impacted by the COVID-19 crisis and are ineligible for most federal and state relief. In response, ReWork the Bay, in partnership with the San Francisco Foundation and the Grove Foundation, have mapped cash relief efforts across the nine-county Bay Area, as a first step toward strengthening the infrastructure needed to ensure undocumented residents can safely and efficiently access cash relief.

This webinar was presented on June 10, 2020,  and shared key takeaways from the landscape scan and included a conversation with leaders in the field.

 To learn more about:

• Individual funds, clarifying questions about the landscape scan or sample documents to be included in Part Two toolkit, you may contact Karina Moreno at kfmoreno@yahoo.com
• Bay Area funder coordination and/or get involved in longer term advocacy efforts, you can reach out to Tessa Callejo at trc@sff.org
• The Statewide Immigrant Relief Fund, you may contact Kevin Douglas at kevin@gcir.org

The Presenters

• Karina Moreno, Consultant to ReWork the Bay
• Omar Carrera, CEO of Canal Alliance
• Kevin Douglas, Director of National Programs at Grantmakers Concerned with Immigrants and Refugees (GCIR)
• Tessa Rouverol Callejo, Senior Program Officer, San Francisco Foundation

App-based work is a visible, yet not transparent, sector of our economy. More and more Bay Area residents work as ride-hailing and delivery workers at companies like Uber, Lyft, DoorDash, and Instacart to make ends meet, but because these workers have historically been classified as independent contractors, little is known about their take home pay and working conditions.

On May 20, 2020, a team of researchers and advocates from UC Santa Cruz, Jobs with Justice San Francisco and the San Francisco Local Agency Formation Commission shared key insights from a large scale survey of these workers in San Francisco conducted before, and during, the COVID-19 crisis.

To learn more, you can take a deeper dive into the study findings, or review the policy recommendations that were presented to San Francisco’s Local Agency Formation Commissioners in May 2020.

The research and advocacy team also connected this work to broader trends in the tech sector in an op-ed that appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle last week: “Elon Musk Reflects Silicon Valley’s ‘Move Fast and Break Things’ Culture.”

The webinar’s presentation decks for the findings and recommendations are available.

For further information about this research, you may contact:

• Bryan Goebel: bryan.goebel@sfgov.org
• Chris Benner: cbenner@ucsc.edu

The presenters:

• Bryan Goebel is the executive officer of San Francisco Local Agency Formation Commission and previously spent eight months as a full-time on-demand bicycle courier. He is a former award-winning journalist who most recently served as a transportation reporter for KQED Public Radio and the editor of Streetsblog San Francisco.
• Chris Benner is the Dorothy E. Everett Chair in Global Information and Social Entrepreneurship, Director of the Everett Program for Technology and Social Change, and a Professor of Environmental Studies and Sociology at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Rooted in an urban political ecology approach, his research examines the relationships between technological change, urban and regional development, and structures of economic opportunity.
• Kung Feng is the Executive Director at Jobs with Justice San Francisco, a labor and community coalition that fights for working class power broadly through campaigns for workers’ rights, racial justice, public education and affordable housing. He co-founded Bay Resistance, a project that has mobilized thousands in resistance to attacks from Trump and the Right. He started as a rank-and-file union activist organizing workplaces from the bottom up and organized immigrant workers while at UNITE HERE, the union of hotel and restaurant workers. An activist with Asians4BlackLives, he’s always ready to take action for our communities.

This informational session held on April 22, 2020, provided funders a broad overview of the state’s emerging responses to the COVID-19 crisis.

The presentation deck is available as well as information on unemployment insurance provided to webinar attendees.

Guest Presenter :

Abby Snay is deputy secretary for Future of Work at the California Labor and Workforce Development Agency. Snay was previously Chief Executive officer of Jewish Vocational Services since 1984, where she served in multiple positions from 1975 to 1984, including assistant director, supervisor and counselor. She is a member of the California Workforce Development Board, the California State Rehabilitation Council and a board member of the National Skills Coalition.