Instituto De Educacion Popular Del Sur De California

Programs: Workers rights and economic development: day laborer and household workers program -idepsca operates four (4 )day labor centers in the city of los angeles. These centers are located in wilmington, cypress park, downtown los angeles, and hollywood. The centers serve as the home for the majority of our base, predominantly immigrant day laborers and household workers. The program has re-invented itself, developed a new vision, new objectives and has begun new partnerships to be able to deliver quality services and grow in support, exposure and meet the program goals. Moreover, the potential to start new pilots to strengthen the skills and abilities of day laborers is undergoing. For example, while retaining their core function as safe alternatives to street corners in order for workers to find employment, the centers have also served as spaces of advocacy especially in the area of filing wage theft claims. With the impending expansion of daca and implementation of dapa, the centers have also served as sources for community education and access to legal resources. Moreover, the worker centers serve as capacity and skill building centers for workers offering health and safety trainings such as osha 10 certification. Most recently the day labor centers have begun expanded relationships with local governments by providing workers for neighborhood clean ups and bulky item pick up.

workers health program -the health program focuses on education, health and safety, and networking & advocacy. These components fit with the endless and unique health needs and problems of low-wage workers, and other marginalized populations, such as day laborers & household workers whom are among the most marginalized worker populations in the u. S. As members of the informal economy, the vast majority does not have access to critical work benefits, including worker's compensation, disability benefits, and health insurance. Furthermore, their mental and physical health is challenged on a daily basis by the lack of work or hazardous work and living conditions, wage theft, anti-immigrant policies and practices, and other socio-political economic factors that impact the livelihood and well-being of low-wage immigrant workers communities and their families. Part of the program includes a weekly educational space dedicated to the unique needs of predominantly female household workers including advocacy on their rights in the workplace. Staff and volunteers have developed a health program where the participants are able to understand the root causes of issues they face by analyzing their own experiences through a holistic and preventive approach that addresses their work and living conditions, as well as their migrant experience (mental and physical), and access to health care, food and other services (community). This integral approach to base building focuses on the construction of popular power and social change makes participants become subjects of their own programs rather than objects. Access to health: we have actively participated in advocacy for universal health care through our workers health program. Over the last three years the variety of workshops conducted in day laborer centers on health and safety, gender and sexuality, holistic and preventive health, have lead to the development of a day laborer health promoters leadership program. This fiscal year the program graduated its first generation of day laborer health promoters, 12 worker-leaders who are now armed with the skills and information to conduct peer education across worker centers. The health program in the current fiscal year has reached over 3087 community members.

education, literacy, and parents engagement -idepsca's education, literacy and parents engagement is achieved mostly through aprendamos. The aprendamos program has exceeded our expectations in the educational outcomes it has achieved for participating families and youth in pico union, westlake in providing quality summer school programming with little to no funding. Furthermore, we have been able to train over 80 young educators in popular education to teach in aprendamos from many universities (including uc santa cruz, ucla, azusa pacific university, usc) that are partnering with us so that their students receive credits and experience while providing their services to aprendamos as volunteers. Parents were engaged through our aprendamos program in 3 models of education throughout the grant period: after school, before school and summer school. In each of our models, we engaged and trained an average of 60 parents were consistent in attending leadership workshops that provided them with the necessary training and tools to become advocates in the lives of their children, elementary, middle and high school youth in the pico union neighborhoods by effectively impacting their educational outcomes as 75% of parents become active agents within their school site and district. The project manager of aprendamos has worked to consolidate the education department and maintain the aprendamos program doors open year round, but we have not achieved the objective of hiring an education department director to oversee the education curriculum in all of our projects. Nonetheless our focus on aprendamos in pico union and westlake neighborhoods has helped us strengthen our work with families and children in one area, upon removing our organizing efforts in pasadena through la escuelita and apple program. New partnerships with best start la and para los nios have increased our education program capacity and sustainability. Aprendamos has been able to operate programs from gratts primary center, glays elementary, esperanza elementary, koreatown immigrant workers alliance (kiwa), and ambassador school of global education. Fortifying partnerships with our local aclu chapter exceeded our expectations. Through this partnership idepsca has been involved in creating popular education-based curriculum for know your rights trainings to protect immigrant families. Idepsca has reached hundreds of community members outside of our constituency in baldwin park, pomona, and long beach, although the coalition is based in los angeles. These neighboring communities are seeking our support in using our coalition-organizing model to initiate similar efforts in grassroots organizing toward policy change. Altogether idepsca was able to serve over 400 clients in the present fiscal year. Additionally, because of a partnership with the los angeles water and power department, this year the program has developed and implemented a curriculum on water awareness and conservation that has extended beyond the classroom. Through a relationship developed with the the mountains recreation and conservation authority (mrca), aprendamos youth and families participated in a junior naturalist program and helped to create two murals on the issue of water conservation.