Grant Given for Educating Immigrant Workers about Rights

July 13, 2006

 

www.MassNonProfit.org

 

The Legal Assistance Corporation of Central Massachusetts has received a $52,000 grant for education and outreach to immigrant workers about their legal rights from the Office of Special Counsel for Immigration-Related Unfair Employment Practices, of the U.S. Department of Justice.

 

The Legal Assistance Corporation of Central Mass. (LACCM) will partner on the grant with Western Massachusetts Legal Services and the Massachusetts Justice Project to reach immigrant workers in the five-county region covered by these civil legal aid programs. 

 

The grant-funded Central and Western Massachusetts Public Education Campaign on Immigration Related Unfair Employment Practices will educate potential victims, social service providers, and community leaders who work closely with various immigrant groups about the anti-discrimination provisions of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA). The campaign will focus on the largest ethnic and occupational groups in central and western Massachusetts: Latinos, Southeast Asians, Africans, and migrant farm workers. 

 

The need for effective education and outreach to immigrant communities about their rights is particularly significant in this region, where immigrants account for a disproportionately high percentage of the state’s labor force. While immigrants are only 14.3% of the Massachusetts population, they account for 17% of the state’s current labor force. Further, while the five counties comprising central and western Massachusetts contain approximately 25% of the state’s population, the region accounts for about 30% of the state’s impoverished residents. 

 

The campaign will disseminate information about the protections of the INA, giving vulnerable individuals knowledge of their rights, with the aims of curbing violations of the INA and ending discrimination on the basis of citizenship and national origin. 

 

The Legal Assistance Corporation of Central Massachusetts is a nonprofit legal aid organization providing free civil legal assistance to low-income and elderly individuals who reside in Worcester County. The LACCM works to secure access to basic needs and to challenge institutional barriers to social and economic justice. LACCM has an advocacy staff of 21 lawyers, one retired judge, and four paralegals.