voces unidas | vwa ini
Voces Unidas | Vwa Ini is a coalition led by WeCount!, Miami Workers Center, Community Justice Project and the University of Miami School of Law Human Rights Clinic. Supported by the Time's Up Legal Defense Fund, we are building a local movement to end workplace sexual harassment and violence against low-wage immigrant women workers in South Florida.
South Florida Community Organizations Awarded Grant from
TIME’S UP Legal Defense Fund to Support Low-Wage Immigrant Women Workers
Miami, Florida – Today, the TIME’S UP Legal Defense Fund announced a coalition of four South Florida-based community organizations—WeCount!, Miami Workers Center, Community Justice Project, and the Miami Law Human Rights Clinic—as the joint recipients of a grant to support low-wage immigrant women workers in South Florida who have experienced workplace sexual misconduct or related retaliation. This coalition will use this grant to collectively initiate a new project, Voces Unidas/Vwa Ini: Building a Local Movement to End Workplace Sexual Harassment and Violence against Low-Wage Immigrant Women Workers in South Florida.
The TIME’S UP Legal Defense Fund, which is housed and administered by the National Women’s Law Center Fund (NWLCF), awarded eighteen grants to organizations around the country to build on its commitment to support survivors of sexual harassment and retaliation across all industries and connect them to attorneys and public relations experts.
The goal of the Voces Unidas/Vwa Ini Project is twofold: (1) to increase public awareness about the disproportionate impact of workplace sexual harassment and violence on low-wage immigrant women workers in South Florida, including domestic workers, farmworkers, and plant nursery workers, and (2) to connect these low-wage immigrant women workers to information, resources, and campaigns, so they can help themselves and other workers end this problem.
The TIME’S UP Legal Defense Fund received more than 120 applications for these funds. The applications proposed a broad range of diverse public engagement projects, including those offering targeted resources for Latinx workers, Asian immigrants, transgender workers, domestic workers, farmworkers, retail workers, restaurant workers, hotel workers, poultry workers and more.
Awardees were determined based on organizations’ community ties, planned outreach to low-wage workers in target populations, demonstrated commitment to advocacy on behalf of workers’ rights—and with attention to geographic distribution across the United States and diversity in populations served.
About WeCount!
WeCount! is an immigrant workers’ center that builds the power of the immigrant community in Homestead, Florida through education, support and collective action.
About the Miami Workers’ Center
The Miami Workers’ Center is a strategy and action center dedicated to organizing low-income women of color and advancing an intersectional Femme Agenda around workplace, housing, and health justice.
About the Community Justice Project
The Community Justice Project is a community and movement lawyering organization that provides strategic legal, policy, and capacity-building support to grassroots organizations and
movements throughout South Florida.
About the University of Miami School of Law, Human Rights Clinic
The Miami Law Human Rights Clinic works for the promotion of social and economic justice globally and in the U.S. The Clinic uses international human rights laws and norms, domestic law and policy, and multidimensional strategies, such as community organizing, political activism, and global networking, to draw attention to human rights violations, develop practical solutions to those problems, and promote accountability on the part of state and non-state actors. The Clinic represents clients in litigation before international, foreign, and domestic tribunals, and collaborates with organizational partners on human rights advocacy campaigns, documentation projects, legislative advocacy, report-writing, and research. Focus areas include gender violence, racial justice, and immigrants’ rights.
About the TIME’S UP Legal Defense Fund
The TIME'S UP Legal Defense Fund, which is housed at and administered by the National Women’s Law Center Fund, connects those who experience sexual misconduct including assault, harassment, abuse and related retaliation in the workplace or in trying to advance their careers with legal and public relations assistance. The Fund will help defray legal and public relations costs in select cases based on criteria and availability of funds. Donations to the TIME'S UP Legal Defense Fund are tax deductible through the Direct Impact Fund, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization or through the National Women's Law Center, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. The initiative was spearheaded by actors and others in the entertainment industry, attorneys Tina Tchen and Roberta Kaplan, and top public relations professionals. Women in Hollywood came together around their own experiences of harassment and assault, and were moved by the outpouring of support and solidarity against sexual harassment from women across sectors. This inspired them to help create a Fund to help survivors of sexual harassment and retaliation in all industries—especially low-wage workers. They worked together in an historic first to design a structure that would be both inclusive and effective.