CWE COVID Response Program Spotlight: Worker Service Centers

Jacob A. Riis Neighborhood Settlement distributes COVID-19 relief supplies

In March 2020, spiking COVID-19 cases and social distancing requirements forced CWE partners to close their classrooms. These community organizations did not stop serving New York workers, however. CWE and our partners quickly transitioned our services online, creating digital bridges to stay in touch, and continuing to provide crucial workforce training.

Many of Brooklyn Workforce Initiatives’ graduates work in essential jobs such as bus drivers and NYCHA maintenance workers. Using Zoom and Google Classrooms, BWI ramped up new training cycles for its CDL program. BWI was able to do as much training via remote learning as possible, while safely continuing necessary hands-on training. Meanwhile, BWI placed dozens of graduates in jobs in the initial months of the pandemic. 

Per Scholas moved eleven classes and over 200 students to remote learning. Recognizing that many participants lacked the technology to make this transition, Per Scholas was able to secure loaner technology for them, leading to a 90% retention rate throughout their program.

GOLES developed a new OSHA 30-Hour Certification class that is entirely online. 

Queens Economic Development Coalition (QEDC) initiated Reboot and Restart, a series of Zoom webinars addressing issues of importance to small business owners affected by the pandemic, including health and safety considerations in re-opening a business, tailored to specific industries. 

The Center for Family Life, which supports worker co-ops, continued to provide remote ESOL workshops, workforce development, and family counseling to its participants. With COVID-19 changing the nature of business, The Center for Family Life helped workers decide how to safely return to work and to develop new lines of business in commercial disinfection services.

District 3 / St. Brigids utilized a variety of means to continue their classes. One ESOL teacher communicated with his students by phone, a second used Youtube videos and collected homework weekly from 25 students, and a third conducted classes on Zoom. The citizenship instructor continued one-on-one classes, preparing his students to take the naturalization exam.

In addition to continuing their workforce training services, CWE partners also supported their communities through health, employment, food, housing, and financial challenges. They organized food pantries, extended cash assistance, and delivered hundreds of online workshops and classes that members and residents could readily access using their cell phones and laptops from their homes or workplaces. 

Henry Street Settlement launched a community-wide response on the Lower East Side in the early months of the pandemic, which included providing three meals a day to hundreds of residents, utilizing their clinic to provide essential mental health and nursing services to hundreds of patients at shelters and senior centers, and providing direct financial support to undocumented immigrants, unemployed artists, and other dislocated workers dialing in to the Henry Street Helpline.

Opportunities for a Better Tomorrow counselors called students and helped them deal with interpersonal disputes arising when family members sheltered together and the fear and anxiety that grew out of the COVID-19 epidemic. 

In addition to continuing all of its 12 English classes online without a break, New York Communities for Change held two Zoom meetings each week to provide community members with information about pandemic health and safety, food resources, relief funds, and health policies.  

Over 70 Yemeni American Merchants Association members contracted COVID-19 in the pandemic’s first wave, so YAMA utilized Facebook to have a doctor educate the public on health and safety measures. More than 18,000 people logged on to watch this critical presentation. YAMA was also able to continue all existing ESOL classes for the wives of Yemeni merchants uninterrupted online.

With restaurants closed throughout the city, Restaurant Opportunity Center New York faced massive unemployment among its membership. ROC-NY created a relief fund and immediately was able to distribute $30,000 to 100 of its members most in need of groceries, rent, and medicine. They also reached out to hundreds of dislocated restaurant workers in order to provide them with information, services and support. 

Jacob Riis Neighborhood Settlement offered advice to their students on accessing healthcare, SNAP, unemployment benefits and cash assistance. They provided free legal assistance by phone to dozens of clients with pending immigration cases such as DACA renewals and naturalization. They also worked with their community partners to organize Know Your Rights workshops to educate immigrants about their rights. Jacob Riis did this while transitioning to online classes for 150 immigrant students enrolled in 13 English and computer courses.

CWE’s extensive network of Worker Service Center partners joined the frontline in the city’s economic and social response, working to protect the rights and livelihood of workers. In the face of uncertainty, these diverse groups demonstrated remarkable resilience and collective strength.

For more on our network’s response to this crisis, please read The Consortium for Worker Education Responds to the COVID-19 Pandemic on our website.