Your Support Helps NYC’s Workers to Bounce Forward
With the support of our partners and donors, Volunteers of Legal Service (VOLS) is proud to have assisted New Yorkers to secure over $1.5M in eligible unemployment-related benefits since the pandemic began.
Today, we invite you to donate toward our year-end appeal, and we shine a light on the critical work of our Unemployed Workers Project in 2021. Even as medical advances have helped to alleviate the devastating effects of the pandemic, New York City’s unemployment rate remains several points higher than in the beginning of 2020.
New Yorkers continue to seek our help in understanding state and federal unemployment insurance eligibility, in getting their Unemployment Insurance (UI) cases resolved at the New York State Department of Labor (DOL), and with their UI hearings. This year, we further supported our clients to access the State’s Excluded Workers Fund (EWF). Alongside pro bono partners and community-based organizations, we provide education, assistance, and legal representation to every worker who seeks our support.
A case example: Mr. M and Ms. M are undocumented immigrant New Yorkers from Mexico, living with their young child. During the pandemic, they were entirely shut out of federal and state unemployment benefits. In September, Mr. and Ms. M attended our EWF free legal clinic with Bloomberg and Cadwalader. Each of them met with their legal team and interpreters. Together, they submitted their applications for the Excluded Workers Fund.
A few weeks later, both Mr. and Ms. M received word that their applications were approved. They were overjoyed and incredulous, not believing they were about to get over $31,000 sent in the mail. In a note to the VOLS team, our clients expressed how happy they are and what a huge relief it has been to have some money to make up for lost earnings during the pandemic.
Click here to read more VOLS Unemployed Workers Project stories.
In the below email, you can read 2021 highlights from the VOLS Unemployed Workers Project. Please consider a year-end donation to VOLS through our #BrooklynGives campaign, powered by the Brooklyn Community Foundation.
Thank you for being part of the VOLS community.
Best,
Stephanie and the VOLS UWP Team
Stephanie Taylor, Project Director
VOLS Unemployed Workers Project
Support VOLS’ Year End Appeal
As 2021 comes to an end, the theme of resilience is on our minds at VOLS. Please help New York City’s unemployed workers to bounce forward. Donate today to help fund VOLS’ free, citywide legal services through #BrooklynGives, an initiative of the Brooklyn Community Foundation.
A Closer Look: Unemployment Benefits & VOLS’ Legal Response in 2021
Growing Our Team
In April, VOLS hired our new Project Director, Stephanie Taylor, who comes to us with over a decade of experience working in the public interest realm, including within the immigrants’ rights arena. In May, we hired Adama Fonah, a recent Brooklyn Law School graduate, to join Stephanie, staff attorney Tori Roseman, and legal assistant Gloria Rosario.
In 2021, our growing team of 4 has already served over 1,500 New Yorkers, trained approximately 200 volunteer attorneys and legal advocates, created resources for community members and volunteers, built infrastructure to assist immigrant New Yorkers with the Excluded Workers Fund (EWF), and recently designed and rolled out an Unemployment Insurance (UI) Hearings Clinic designed to train pro bono volunteers to meet the demand of NYC workers requesting help with their UI hearings. Since the pandemic began, we have assisted New Yorkers to claim over $1.5M in eligible benefits.
Excluded Workers Fund
In April 2021, in response to strong advocacy from immigrants’ rights groups, the New York State legislature established the $2.1B Excluded Workers Fund (EWF), which was designed to acknowledge the contributions of immigrant New Yorkers and to provide critical support for many of New York’s most vulnerable families. The Fund went live in August 2021, and VOLS was ready to lend all necessary support to immigrant workers and local community-based organizations (CBOs). We worked with many CBOs to assist their members with applying to the Fund and on their appeals. We conducted presentations on EWF eligibility and the application process to our pro bono partners at American Express, Bloomberg, Cadwalader, as well as many CBO partners and the New York Public Library. We even made our radio debut speaking about the EWF on La Colmena’s Spanish-only radio program, which reached over 1,000 Staten Islanders!
The Excluded Workers Fund closed in early October, but we continue reviewing options for claimants whom we believe were improperly denied benefits. In addition, we are part of a coalition of immigrants’ rights advocates demanding another $3 billion dollars to provide support for the thousands of New Yorkers who got shut out of this life-saving benefit.
Increased Capacity for UI Hearing Full Representation
By leveraging the incredible help of so many volunteers, the VOLS Unemployed Workers Project is currently positioned to provide full representation for all meritorious claimants at their Unemployment Insurance (UI) hearings. In Fall 2021, we rolled out our updated UI Hearings Clinics and have conducted several clinics with law firms and corporate partners. For 2021 National Pro Bono Week, we partnered with the New York State Bar Association (NYSBA) to conduct a UI Hearings clinic and are now working with dozens of trained attorneys to provide representation to claimants with upcoming UI hearings.
Focus on Immigrant New Yorkers
Moving forward, our team will continue to work with immigrants’ rights groups in all 5 boroughs on understanding New York State UI eligibility and certain considerations when engaging with the NYS Department of Labor. VOLS has identified huge gaps in New York State’s Department of Labor policies and practices when serving immigrant workers. We are monitoring and pressuring the DOL on these issues. VOLS is uniquely positioned to identify issues specific to immigrant workers when applying for and recertifying for UI benefits.
VOLS thanks Mother Cabrini Health Foundation, New York Community Trust, and the Elroy & Terry Krumholz Foundation — as well as our law firm, corporate, philanthropic, and government partners, and individual donors — for supporting our Unemployed Workers Project in 2021.