(part 1) MassUndocuFund: One Year of Solidarity

A note from the MassUndocuFund Steering Committee

As we write to you a little over a year from when our three organizations started MassUndocuFund, it is hard to believe that we’ve been able to fundraise over $1.5 million and provide financial assistance to over 3,400 undocumented individuals and families throughout every county in Massachusetts. Now, a year out and with the pandemic still a real threat to our communities, we still continue to fundraise and distribute financial assistance More importantly, we continue connecting our beneficiaries to their local workers' centers, food pantries, and existing efforts to fight for justice for the undocumented people of Massachusetts.

Massachusetts Jobs with Justice, Matahari Women’s Worker Center, and the One Fair Wage campaign came together to create MassUndocuFund because we saw that the state was not stepping up to take care of some of the communities in this state hardest hit by this pandemic. Where we saw inaction, we knew our only reaction could be action. In a true example of building the plane while flying it, we were able to create something truly transformational. This was a community effort, with over 100 volunteers (many of whom were directly impacted individuals) and more than a dozen community organizations and workers centers taking on leadership by making intake calls, creating training materials, helping connect with funders, and all the important things an effort as large as this one needs.

What sets this fund apart is that it is not based on charity. This fund is based on the idea that we can move from mutual aid to power, so that our communities can change the systems of oppression that set the stage for this pandemic to hit undocumented folks particularly hard in the first place. One year later we know that this struggle is far from over, and that systemic oppression, racism and xenophobia will continue even after Covid-19 is behind us. We invite you to learn more about the fund and all we’ve been able to do in this past year. But more importantly, we invite you to join this struggle and help our community create the change they want to see

You can donate to MassUndocuFund here.

In solidarity,

Lily Huang and Alicia Fleming, co-Executive Directors, Massachusetts Jobs with Justice

Monique Tu Nguyen, Executive Director, MataHari Women’s Worker Center

Yamila Ruiz, National High Road Director, One Fair Wage campaign

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

In the first year, we provided over $1 million to more than 3,400 households across the Commonwealth. We reached families in 154 cities and towns in Massachusetts across all 14 counties. Recipients work in over 68 different job industries, including some of the sectors most heavily impacted by workforce reduction and business closures during the pandemic. The majority of MassUndocuFund recipients are households headed by women ages 26-45. This is significant because women have had to leave the workplace in alarming numbers since COVID, not just because they are getting laid off but because the majority of childcare, housework, and schooling falls on them.

We persist to ensure that our work will continue to have felt impacts beyond the duration of the pandemic. Community building is one of these direct results of our work. During a time when much of our human interactions have to be made through a computer screen, our team effectively created an online space of safety, support, connection, and community for our volunteers and community partners. They were then able to extend this feeling of connection and care to the wider community of recipients and their families and neighbors across Massachusetts. Additionally, despite having to adapt faceto-face fundraising strategies to an allvirtual environment, our team and

supporters innovated to create a series of fundraising initiatives that brought in over $1.5 million in year one.

As the sun sets on the first year of MassUndocuFund, our team is working toward another strong year of building solidarity and worker power. We will continue to conduct intake calls and connect families to avenues for engagement in campaigns for worker autonomy and agency. This will include leadership development and training for unemployed and underemployed workers of color in impacted communities to form the Massachusetts BIPOC Workers Council. We have already begun to build crosssector bargaining power and worker agency power through the Fair Work Week legislation campaign.

Together, these approaches position working people and their leadership at the forefront of this struggle and enable us to advocate for the issues and campaigns identified by the Massachusetts BIPOC Workers Council as most important and prevalent in the lives of Massachusetts’ working people. With your support, we continue organizing to achieve systemic change that will achieve equity and ensure our communities are not overlooked in the face of the next crisis.

INTRODUCTION

Massachusetts is made up of beautiful and diverse communities. A significant number of people born outside of the United States have made their home here: over 1.2 million people living across the Commonwealth identify as immigrants. That is about 1 in every 6 Massachusetts residents. Of this community, up to an estimated 275,000 people (22.9%) are undocumented. An additional 100,000 US citizens in Massachusetts live with at least one family member who is undocumented.

Immigrants make up a critical part of Massachusetts’ communities, life, and culture. The cultures and languages represented in our communities are one example of our rich and global diversity. Our community represents six global regions, including Latin America (37.0%), Asia (30.5%), and Europe (20.4%). In those regions, immigrants in Massachusetts selfidentified over 150 countries of origin. The most commonly reported countries include China (9.2%), Brazil (7.9%), Domincan Republic (7.8%), India (7.2%), and Haiti (5.0%). Additionally, over 40 different languages are spoken across the Commonwealth, including Spanish (38.7%), Portuguese (12.9%), Chinese including Mandarin and Cantonese (9.0%), and Haitian Creole (5.5%).

Our community is also racially diverse. The most frequently self-identified racial groups of immigrants in Massachusetts are White (40.8%), Black or African American (16.8%), and Asian (27.1%). And 23% of all

racial groups self-identified with a Latinx or Hispanic origin.

The majority of immigrants across the Commonwealth are considered working age, meaning fall between the ages of 18-64 years (77.7%), much like US citizens (60.4%). However, the median age is higher in the immigrant community 43.9 years compared to 38 years.

Additionally, immigrants make invaluable contributions to the economy. In 2020, immigrants of all statuses in Massachusetts paid over $15 billion in taxes and have established over $37 billion in spending power. Immigrants also make up an integral part of local businesses with an estimated 77,000+ immigrant entrepreneurs in the state. Recent immigrants in the Boston area and Massachusetts have made vital contributions to the knowledge economy as engineers, scientists, and doctors, as well as to the service economy, through positions in food services, hospitality, childcare, and healthcare industries.

Our community has always done a beautiful job of lifting one another up and supporting one another through challenges and celebrations. In March, UndocuFund volunteer Gloribel Rivas was honored by Neighbors United for a Better East Boston (NUBE) for her work as a legislative aide in the State House ensuring that the East Boston immigrant community remains a priority for our local legislators. In April, UndocuFund co-founder Monique Nguyen

was honored by the Immigrant Learning Center for her contributions to the community through MassUndocuFund.

Many of the mutual aid projects created during the pandemic were also grown within our immigrant communities through strong community ties and dedication to one another’s care and wellbeing. Indigenous organizers led by Erika Perez from Guatemala launched the Mayans Without Borders initiative to support Mayan and non-Mayan immigrants in the greater Boston area to meet their needs for food and safety supplies. Domestic workers on the front lines across Massachusetts, many of whom are immigrant women have

organized together through Matahari Women Workers Center to advocate for workplace safety and vaccine access. The People’s Pantry at Pioneer Valley Workers Center, started by farmworkers of the Springfield worker committee in 2017, expanded to four distribution sites in Springfield, Holyoke, Northampton, and Great Falls to provide groceries and meals to their largely immigrant membership base.

We take care of one another and build up our communities even from a place of vulnerability as we continue to grapple with systemic racism.

THE IMPACT OF COVID-19 ON MASSACHUSETTS’ IMMIGRANT COMMUNITY

Immigrants are disproportionately impacted by COVID-19 due to systemic racism in jobs, housing, and healthcare. Immigrants are disproportionately employed in fields considered part of the essential workforce unable to work from home. Massachusetts’ immigrants make up an estimated 23% of frontline workers in grocery, convenience, and drug stores; public transit, trucking, warehouse, and postal industries; building cleaning services; and healthcare, child care, and social services. Immigrants who are frontline workers are also more likely to use public transit, and are more likely than nonimmigrants to live in crowded, multigenerational homes. These factors increase the risk of exposure, make immigrants particularly vulnerable to contracting COVID-19, and increase the

likelihood that the virus will spread within immigrant communities. As a result, towns with large immigrant communities have some of the highest rates of COVID-19 cases across the Commonwealth.

Systemic racism in health care and social services also makes communities of color and particularly our immigrant communities especially vulnerable to the impacts of COVID-19. Early diagnosis of COVID-19 helps to both improve patient outcomes and prevent community transmission. Yet, immigrants are more likely to be uninsured or underinsured, increasing reliance on Federally Qualified Health Care Centers (FQHC), free clinics, or safety-net public health systems—which are systemically under-funded and may have limited COVID19 testing and follow-up management.

Underfunding in preventative care and public healthcare systems also increases immigrants’ risk of developing health conditions (such as diabetes and hypertension) which have been linked to more severe COVID-19 symptoms and higher risk of death. Immigrants are also afraid to seek COVID-19 testing and medical care due to fears of deportation. This fear is exacerbated by the public charge rule, which allows authorities to deny immigrants’ claims for permanent residency if perceived to be using too many public benefits.

Immigrants are also more likely to be impacted by the economic fallout of the pandemic, being disproportionately represented in industries which had a large number of job losses. For example, in 2020, Massachusetts’ labor force participation declined by 33.5% in leisure and hospitality, and immigrants make up 27% of the accommodation and food services workforce, which includes these industries.

GOVERNMENTAL RESPONSE

Despite these systemic vulnerabilities, many immigrants, and all undocumented people, were excluded from CARES Act relief, Congress’ stimulus bill to combat the economic fallout of COVID-19. Clinton’s social welfare policy reform in 1996 paved the way for systemic discrimination against immigrants that prevents access to federal relief and safety net services for families without documentation, including the CARES Act. It requires a social security number to qualify to receive federal economic stimulus payments. As a result of this prohibitive requirement, an estimated total of 14.4 million immigrants in the US were excluded from the CARES Act.

In 2020, Massachusetts Senator Jamie Eldridge (D-Acton) filed a bill to allow taxpayers without social security numbers to be eligible for the stimulus checks.

"Immigrants play a crucial role in Massachusetts’s economy, and we need to ensure that undocumented immigrants and their families receive the same financial support as other taxpayers have through the federal CARES Act. At a time of a pandemic, more than ever, we need to take serious action and provide financial help to all vulnerable populations. While the federal government did not provide direct financial relief to tens of thousands of Massachusetts immigrant families, the Legislature, reflecting Massachusetts values, can."

Senator Eldridge noted:

Despite congressional support, Senator Eldridge’s bill died in the Senate, creating a substantial gap in support services at the federal and state level available to immigrant community members in Massachusetts.

Many municipal and nonprofit services also presented barriers to access for undocumented and other immigrant residents: many food pantries require an individual to show identification or proof of residency; city agencies often require a social security number or tax form in order to qualify for services; and many COVID

vaccination clinics are being staffed by people in military fatigues and under the watchful eye of police details. The services are inadvertently closing themselves off to undocumented and other immigrant community members who may not have those forms of ID, who may be afraid to disclose their contact information in fear of being reported to ICE, or who have experienced trauma or threats of deportation by people in these types of law enforcement uniforms. These gaps point to the need for grassroots solutions to systemic issues to support undocumented immigrants. 19

"I tried looking for a job because this month was so hard. I tried to help my boyfriend. Now he's better off, so now I can look for a job and support my family. Until then, I'm grateful for the support from my community."

-Ada, community member

MASSUNDOCUFUND

Three local organizing leaders saw these gaps in services and relief and came together to create a solution to support the undocumented community in Massachusetts. We represent three statewide organizations and campaigns across the Commonwealth:

We were inspired by North Bay Jobs With Justice in Northern California who created a fund in collaboration with Graton Day Labor Center and North Bay Organizing Project in response to the Tubbs wildfire in Northern California in 2017. From this model, we built a program to address the emerging needs here in Massachusetts. We founded MassUndocuFund to provide financial relief in the form of cash assistance with no strings attached to the undocumented community in the Commonwealth.

"In the midst of this pandemic, it is more important than ever that we remove barriers to critical health care and economic security for everyone, including undocumented immigrants and their families. As the Trump administration leaves behind and vilifies these families, we need to fight to ensure everyone is included in federal aid and to support efforts like the MassUndocufund that are working hard to fill the gaps ” .

Lily Huang, Massachusetts Jobs With Justice (Mass JwJ)

Monique Nguyen, Matahari Women Workers' Center (Matahari)

Yamila Ruiz, One Fair Wage (OFW)

- Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley, (D-MA 7th District)

BUILDING UP FROM THE ROOTS

We built MassUndocuFund from the ground-up, quickly but intentionally, and with the goal of raising $1 million. This process required collaborative deliberation to decide essential components, while allowing flexibility to adjust decisions and processes throughout the program.

Our first decisions were about safety and efficiency. We created basic infrastructure to safety receive and manage applications and launched the Fund almost immediately after that. These decisions allowed us to ensure that the information we received about recipients would be secure and that we could get the raised funds into the hands of community members quickly.

Another consideration made during this process was how much money each applicant would receive. Some considerations included program goals, organizational capacity, operational requirements, cost of living, and other hardships undocumented families were facing at the time. We decided to provide checks of $300 per household. This amount would meet basic needs for families while also allowing for the program to reach as many households as possible in the state.

Additionally, the funds were disbursed directly to the recipient with no strings attached. We did not use gift cards or other sources that would have limited or dictated to families in how they could spend the money. During a time when our government refuses to care for our immigrant community members, this type of

unstipulated support demonstrates our trust in an immigrant parent’s ability to make the decisions that are best for their family. It also means that all recipients could use the funds for specifically what they need according to the unique impact of the pandemic on their household.

We began outreach to eligible families in April through our partnerships with grassroots immigrant organizations and workers centers. These existing relationships and networks provided trusted pathways for us to reach undocumented community members throughout the Commonwealth. We spread word about the opportunity through organizations, friends and organizers, community health centers, faith centers, schools, and social media. Within the first month, over 3,000 households had applied and were waiting for intake calls.

We recruited trusted volunteers from our network to conduct intake calls to applicants. Many of our volunteers are personally connected to the undocumented community or have personal experience with the immigration system. Over the course of a few months, we recruited and trained over 90 intake volunteers and a small team of data entry volunteers. Our intake volunteers made one-on-one phone calls to connect with each recipient to find out how to get the money to them, how they had been impacted by COVID-19, and what other resources we could connect them to.

Our coordinating team, steering committee,

and volunteers worked flexibly to maintain safety while creating more structure and adapting our process throughout the year. During our bi-weekly intake debrief calls, we also received valuable feedback from

our volunteers who had direct conversations with recipients. This feedback allowed us to constantly adapt and improve our process as the year progressed.

SAFETY AND SECURITY

Our top priority when designing the intake process was to ensure the safety and confidentiality of recipients and their personal information. We collaborated with people in our network with digital security expertise to design secure processes to store and send intake data (see Figure 2).

The process we designed also intentionally centers people and relationships. This allows us to build trust and community, resulting in emotional safety. However, it

also required additional time, deliberation, and planning to combine these opportunities for community building, emotional safety, and data safety. We sacrificed some efficiency by delaying the launch of the program until these security protocols were in place.

The process we agreed on balances safety with efficiency of time in a way that reflects our values of self-determination, unity, and dignity for all people.

Figure 2. Reinforcing Community & Security: Intentionally Building into Our Process Opportunities to Strengthen Community and Secure Data

WHY WE ARE PARTICULARLY SITUATED TO DO THIS WORK

MassUndocuFund has a unique statewide reach. Through our network of partnerships, we were able to reach undocumented community members across the Commonwealth through trusted organizations and leaders.

Resources in Massachusetts are often deeply siloed geographically, with many communities in the state omitted from these opportunities.

MassUndocuFund’s existing relationships statewide, as well as our ability to coordinate

with new partners in these often overlooked communities, make it possible to center geographical equity. And we are able to do so with confidence from recipients that our security measures will that our security measures will maintain their confidentiality and safety. As a result, households from all fourteen Massachusetts counties and 154 cities and towns across the Commonwealth have received funds from us.

PARTNERS AND COLLABORATION

Community-based organizations from across Massachusetts collaborated with MassUndocuFund in order to reach communities in the Commonwealth who were not already part of our network. Representatives from these organizations coordinated teams of their staff and/or volunteers to conduct intakes in their communities and submit those intakes to the steering committee. In our first year, we worked with 11 community partners:

Brockton Worker Center

Centro Comunitario de Trabajadores, New Bedford

Comité de Vecinos Fitchburg

Dominican Development Center Boston

Southeast Asian Center (SEAC)

Worcester

MassCOSH

Matahari Women Workers’ Center

Mayans without Borders, Greater Boston

North Shore Families Together/One Fair Wage PUMA (Parents Union of MA)

Volunteers in Medicine, Berkshire County

“You know, we have a relationship of trust that it's already built in there, maintained, and that has really evolved during the last six months because we became like a home for our patients. You know, everybody who had a tragedy or a need they will reach out to us immediately for all kinds of needs. From housing and utilities, childcare, funeral costs, and all these things… [And it] was really the resource that gave and served with more equity to this population because it was the only resource that was not attached to a specific purpose...you basically use the money in the way that you consider is best for you...So having access to UndocuFund really created this increased amount of funding that allowed that wellness to be a spread in a big part of the community. Because we were able to serve about 350 families and that really creates a lot of impact.”

-Natalia, Volunteers in Medicine, community partner

OUR VOLUNTEERS

Our intake volunteers are trusted individuals from our network across three states who each contributed several hours each week to MassUndocuFund during year one. More than half of our volunteers (58.3%) were referred to the Fund through a personal connection, such as a friend or family member, and more than 40% were referred to the Fund through Mass JwJ. Currently, we have about 60 active volunteers, but more than 90 have been trained throughout this process.

More than one third of our volunteers have been working with MassUndocuFund since the beginning of the project. This sustained commitment, in the words of our volunteers, is a direct result of their personal connections to the community. During interviews, many of our program staff, volunteers, and community partners revealed a personal connection to the undocumented community (46.4%), or lived experience of being undocumented (18%),

which is motivating and sustaining for them.

Additionally, 73% of our volunteers speak two or more languages, and 81% of our volunteers conducted intake calls in a language other than English. This includes 4% of our volunteers who conducted intake calls in the Indigenous Mayan language K’iche’.

These connections help our intake volunteers build trust with people during intake calls. They understand personally the cautiousness of applicants when they pick up the phone to an unknown number, and the importance of patiently building that trust in order to get the information required to get the funds to each family and to connect them to additional resources. Our volunteers, regardless of their background, often share their own story and vulnerability during an intake call in order to build that trust.

“I think part of what was so successful with UndocuFund too is that a lot of us were either at the moment or before, directly impacted by this. So I think a lot of our volunteers had a very clear understanding of the stakes. And understood why we took all these...steps to make sure security was really, really big in all of our processes. But also just being able to speak to folks in an empathetic way. It also helped gain trust. Like a lot of folks, I shared my immigrant status and my story with them over the phone because there's so many people getting scam calls now. They'll be like, ‘Hey, give us your information and we'll send you a check.’ And they don't, they just get scammed or something like that. So I feel like that helped break a lot of barriers.”

-Juan Pablo, intake volunteer and later, MassUndocuFund staff

F U N D R A I S I N G

FUNDRAISINGSUCCESS

Through collaborative community effort, we have raised over $1.5 million for MassUndocuFund! The following fundraising statistics are approximate numbers.

RAISEDOVER $1.5MILLION

3,560 CONTRIBUTIONS

2/3 DONATIONSFROMINDIVIDUALS

DONATIONSRANGEDFROM TO $5 $6,000

AVERAGECONTRIBUTION $167.07

INNOVATION

MassUndocuFund supporters faced the added challenge of needing to conduct all fundraising efforts digitally during the quarantine. As a result, they created

unique fundraising efforts as well as adapted more traditional fundraising methods to the virtual space. Here are some examples of these innovative ideas.

CHILDREN’S BOOK LAUNCH PROJECT

Ori Gutin, author of the children’s book

The Butterfly Who Flew in the Rain, and Winny Kwong-Sito, the book’s illustrator, partnered with MassUndocuFund and the Bay Area’s Compass Family Services to pledge a portion of the book sales to these two efforts. Winny, who lives in the Boston area chose the fund as a beneficiary due to the impact we were having on a community

that was underserved by most pandemic relief efforts. The book release and launch event was not only an opportunity to spread awareness about the fund, but also to connect with folks in the West Coast doing their own pandemic relief work with unhoused people. Ori and Winny raised over $1,000 for the fund.

IMPROV NIGHT

On Point’s Improv Night fundraiser for MassUndocuFund was a traditional fundraising event that they adapted to a virtual platform. It took place over the month of May with three shows each featuring a different roster of performers. The shows were streamed live on Twitch (twitch.tv/onpoint improv) and brought in around 100 viewers across three events.

Several Boston-based comedians were featured, including the groups Party of One and Bearskin Rug See Less, and donated their time to make this fundraiser a success. Between online donations and a company match, On Point raised $800 for MassUndocuFund. The fundraising organizer shared what this program means to them:

“When covid relief started rolling out and the first round of stimulus checks were going out I realized that undocumented people were going to be left out despite the fact that many of them were working essential jobs, or if their work had been ended do to covid they wouldn't be able to get unemployment benefits and that just plain wrong.

I have friends who were going to be screwed over by this system despite being some of the hardest working people I know, and there are a lot more people that I don't know who had families to feed and bills to pay and no relief in sight. And I wanted to do something about it. I was very happy that an organization like MassUndocuFund existed to provide some relief to undocumented workers, otherwise they may never have gotten any relief at any point during all this. And, as far as I know, there weren't other organizations doing this. I'm grateful to have someone to raise money for who is doing this work.”

SWEATSHIRT FUNDRAISER

The Immigrant Health Committee (IHC) of the Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program, Inc. (BHCHP) used digital fundraising to support MassUndocuFund during Latinx Heritage Month in September 2020. IHC member and BHCHP staff Yesenia Mejia designed a colorful “Migration is Beautiful” logo that they printed onto hooded sweatshirts to sell online. The monarch butterfly is a symbol of freedom of movement used among immigrant rights groups nationwide. They donated all funds collected to MassUndocuFund, and raised over $3,700!

The IHC is dedicated to promoting and advocating for health, economic, and race equity and language access among immigrant patients in Boston and surrounding areas who are experiencing

homelessness. Their values and goals align with those of MassUndocuFund, and therefore wanted to take action to help our efforts to support undocumented families during the pandemic.

In fact, there is also a personal connection to the undocumented experience. The IHC member that started the fundraiser grew up undocumented and has been organizing with MassUndocuFund co-founders for 15 years. They write:

“The pandemic impacted communities of color and underserved populations in so many ways. Many of the public assistance programs do not help undocumented immigrants. The creation of the UndocuFund helped provide relief to the many families affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Being undocumented adds another layer of stress and during a crisis such as the pandemic. Undocumented families face even more barriers and vulnerabilities than the rest of the already undeserved communities of color.”

-Immigrant Health Committee Member, BHCHP

MUSIC FUNDRAISER

Musician Rachel Marie (www.rachelmarie.com) recorded a cover of Rebecca Loebe’s song Marguerita and used it as an opportunity to raise funds for MassUndocuFund. Rachel shared with us why they chose this fundraising project:

"My mom was an ESOL teacher for a long time and is now the Supervisor of English Learner Services for the school district I grew up in, so it has become second nature for me to wonder how circumstances that affect me affect immigrant, and especially undocumented, families more severely. Last year, when live music basically shut down, a lot of my friends in the music industry were filing for unemployment, it occurred to me that undocumented folks who were also potentially losing their entire livelihoods couldn't do the same. By the same token, I knew that I would be receiving a stimulus payment and that there were plenty of people flying under the radar for the sake of their own safety who wouldn't be.

I don't remember how exactly I found out about MassUndocuFund, but once I did, I

knew that was where my monthly donation would go. About a week after I made that donation, I posted a cover of Rebecca Loebe's song "Marguerita" to YouTube and shared it on my socials, encouraging others to donate similarly (I don't know whether anyone did, but I hope so). I was scheduled to open a show for Rebecca at the Burren Backroom Series in Somerville last May, which didn't happen, so playing that song seemed like a nice way to tie all of the present circumstances together.

Basically, I make music to facilitate human connection and compassion, and I try to stress to my audience (which is made up predominantly of white US citizens) that if compassion stops with people whose circumstances are similar to ours, it's not really doing its job.”

Y E A R O N E

I M P A C T

OUR REACH

3,490 Total Household Recipients

$1.5 million+ Funds Raised

86 Average Weekly Intake Calls

CITY AND COUNTY

MassUndocuFund was a statewide effort, and we were able to reach communities in all four corners of the Commonwealth. Recipients reside in 154 different cities and towns in Massachusetts plus 11 different neighborhoods of Boston. The most frequently represented cities/towns/ neighborhoods by recipients are East Boston (12.2%), Worcester (9.1%), Revere (7.8%), Chelsea (6.5%), Brockton (4.7%),

Pittsfield (4.7%), Lynn (4.6%), Everett (4.1%), and Great Barrington (4.0%).

MassUndocuFund recipients also reside in all 14 Massachusetts counties. The most frequently represented MA counties are Suffolk (38.0%), Middlesex (17.4%), Worcester (11.8%), Berkshire (11.1%), and Essex (8.2%).

Cities and Towns* in Massachusetts where More than 100 UndocuFund Recipients Currently Reside

*Also includes individual Boston neighborhoods as reported

RECIPIENTS AT A GLANCE

In year one, we had hundreds of meaningful and personal conversations with community members. Each person’s situation and experience during this pandemic has been unique and complex, which is impossible to represent completely through our data. However, we can begin to uplift these stories and unravel some of the common threads of experiences.

The majority of MassUndocuFund recipients (66.9%) are households headed by women ages 26-45. This statistic is significant because without access to unemployment benefits, paid sick leave, or affordable health care and childcare, women have had to leave the workforce in alarming numbers since the COVID shut-downs began.

Women compose one-half of the world’s population, but perform two thirds of the world’s work hours. Immigrant women workers especially are disproportionately employed in care work industries, such as nursing, food service, hotels and hospitality, domestic work, and care for children, elderly, or ill people. In 2020, the leisure and hospitality industries were responsible for almost one-third of all job losses, restrictions that have not yet lifted in these sectors. This has resulted in much higher rates of unemployment and layoffs for immigrant women than most other demographic groups. These other essential care work industries, however, continue to employ immigrant women workers at high rates, making these workers more frequently getting exposed to the COVID virus, getting sick, and suffering layoffs due to the lack of worker protections such as paid sick leave.

MassUndocuFund recipients experienced this same phenomenon. Many recipients reported that their most recent employment had been in domestic work, leisure, or hospitality (29.02%). However, almost a third (32.9%) of recipients reported working or most recently working in food service industries such as restaurants, grocery stores, Instacart, or food packing and manufacturing, or

industries such as childcare, elder care, or healthcare/nursing.

Immigrant women’s drop in labor force participation is also due in part to their often dual roles as workers and parents. Women with school-age children (ages 5 to 17) faced a steeper decline in labor force participation than women without such children, and immigrant women were more likely than their US-born peers to have children within this age range. The jobs that immigrant women are filling are also not jobs that can be adapted to telecommuting, which made it challenging to reconcile work with childcare once schools closed and shifted to online learning from home. MassUndocuFund recipients did not significantly report the ages of their dependents, but more than half (56.7%) reported having dependents in their household, the majority of whom reported having 1-2 dependents per household (79.1%).

As a result, almost 70% of UndocuFund recipients in year one were women. Without this resource, and without access to federal, state, or local government relief, these women and their families would have faced an even more precarious situation during this pandemic.

HOUSEHOLD SIZE

Recipients reported household sizes between 1-11 people, but the typical household size for MassUndocuFund recipients is between 1-4 people.

Number of Dependents per Recipient Household

DEPENDENTS

The number of dependents per household identified by MassUndocuFund recipients ranges from 0-7, and recipients most frequently reported 0, 1, or 2 dependents in their household.

WORK TYPE AND JOB INDUSTRIES

Over 68 different work types/job industries were identified by recipients as their most recent employment, while over 4% of recipients had not been working before we spoke with them. The most frequently reported work type/job industries of recipients include:

food services, 31.3% (including restaurants/bakeries, bars and liquor stores, food delivery/Instacart, grocery,

and food manufacturing)

domestic work, 26.7% (including nanny, elder care, and housekeeping) construction professions, 7.0% (including carpentry, contractor, electrical, and insulation)

Fourteen different work types were identified by 20 or more recipients as their current or most recent industry.

PRIMARY LANGUAGE OF RECIPIENTS

Eight different languages were identified by recipients as primary languages, including 24 speakers of K'iche, one of the Indigenous Mayan languages. Recipients most frequently identified Spanish (57%) or Portuguese (20.7%) as their primary language.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

In addition to providing financial relief during the pandemic, MassUndocuFund also connected recipients to community support from our Resource Guide. This includes local mutual aid networks, accessible food pantries, and worker centers. Although the role of intake volunteers is primarily to complete intake forms and answer

questions about the Fund, we found that our intake volunteers are going beyond these expectations. They are taking effort to get to know the applicants, connect each person to additional local resources, and even assist with translating and completing additional relief applications.

“Some of the resources that are needed most often and simple for people to go apply for or look for in their community are the mutual aid funds where applicants can receive food assistance. With the faith communities or community organizations that are doing food distribution, that has been something that I can help pretty much most of the families that are looking for assistance at this moment But then some more specific questions are parents that are looking for assistance with understanding and navigating the school system in the context of the pandemic. So we can steer people to websites on where to find out information, especially parents that have issues with needing childcare because they need to continue going to work if they're essential workers, or have children with special needs.”

-Alex, intake volunteer

This dedication has been essential, especially for recipients with children who are trying to balance working, childcare, remote schooling, and loss of wages.

The one-on-one care offered by our intake volunteers cannot be achieved through an online form. It also serves as an opportunity

to further connect individuals to resources, leadership development, and political education opportunities. It concurrently inspires and empowers community members to take control of the conditions in their lives and fight to transform them. In these ways, MassUndocuFund is a mutual aid community organizing project.

“Mutual aid takes this different path where it's not transactional because it's not like I'm going to give you something and then sort of expect you to either be grateful or to do something for me later on down the line. But rather to help empower you. Those $300 might get you groceries for this month, but next month we can connect you to things that are going to help you fight your horrible employer or make sure you don't get evicted. So that you become a leader in your own community. Or if you're already a leader in your own community, you get access to the resources that we have because we're an organization that's been known for this for a while and are very well connected… These [intake calls] were amazing opportunities to connect with folks and get to that piece of not just what do you need immediately, but how can we empower you to keep this going? Even after the pandemic.”

-Juan Pablo, intake volunteer, and MassUndocuFund staff

For example, in Worcester several of the mothers who connected with Nelly to receive funds also then became organizers in PUMA to address inequities in education

for their children. This leadership development in turn opens even more doors to pursue social transformation.

“

...The pastor from the food bank that we're building at the Rock of Salvation Church in Worcester, Massachusetts had gone to an event called Licenses for All and he talked there with a group of Cosecha Worcester. And...we were able to build community and realize that those people weren't being served. That they were not aware of really basic resources in their community And a lot of those moms who were more active are the leadership in PUMA now. So we were able to do this process, give people the support they need and bring them over to where we are so that we can reach more people on the ground. Which is really great So, it worked Like that, just that, him mentioning [our work] that day, we're bigger today.”

-Nelly, PUMA of Worcester, intake volunteer

B U I L D I N G

C O M M U N I T Y

Community building is essential to making people feel connected to one another and to the cause enough to want to build something better for the future. Doing this work in an all-virtual landscape during a pandemic quarantine is even more challenging. However, our team innovated traditional organizing tools and strategies effectively in the online space in order to build a sense of feeling supported, being in

community, and feeling connected. Furthermore, intake volunteers and community partners were able to extend this feeling of community and care to the wider community of recipients, their families, and neighbors across Massachusetts, the impact of which will extend beyond the duration of the pandemic.

OUR VOLUNTEERS

One strategy we use is providing support through regular intake debrief meetings and by offering assistance and solutions through a group WhatsApp chat. Volunteers are able to share experiences with one another through these channels, ask and answer questions, and feel connected to one another. These tools are essential to feeling supported and feeling a sense of community. In feeling cared for, intake volunteers have been able to transfer that care to recipients during intake calls and follow-up communication.

Intake volunteer debrief meetings also serve as a space for feedback and problemsolving about the intake process. Our volunteers report that this is especially helpful during their first few weeks of conducting intakes. They are actually engaged in conversations each week with community members impacted by the pandemic and through these meetings they have a voice in what works best for the process.

“Early on, I attended some of the volunteer Zoom calls so that I got to see some of the other volunteers faceto-face and learn a little bit more about how the process was going for others…And I think that we always have lively discussions [in the WhatsApp group] where any one of us that have a specific question based on an intake that we did we can chat in there and as a community we help each other with the answers. And sometimes the questions get answered even before a staff person from the UndocuFund can chime in, which is great. We're just helping each other.”

-Alex, intake volunteer

“

...The main goal was to have volunteers meet ot volunteers and see who's part of the project. But a big part of it, especially at the beginning and w COVID...it was just providing a space for people together and share what had come up with the ca think also at the time we were still figuring out p and how to answer questions, and how to best go the Fund and the little details that required of it also very helpful to get volunteer feedback of wh working and what wasn't working, what was cha them. And being able to ust take that informatio how we could create the training module...and br to the processes that we had in place.”

-Yessenia,

Our volunteers also report that they feel empowered and supported by the collaborative organizational culture and the horizontal leadership structure that organically grew out of it. One intake volunteer felt so supported, heard, and at home within the program that he also applied to work with us when we posted an administrative position. It is crucial in community-centered projects like MassUndocuFund to listen to the people directly impacted by and involved in the dayto-day work to ensure that the project aligns with the vision, goals, and expressed community needs throughout the course of the program.

“I think something that I really appreciated as a volunteer and then I also appreciate it as a staff person is that it always felt very horizontal in terms of leadership, and in terms of ideas. I felt like as a volunteer I could bring up ideas to Yessenia who was the only staff member leading this or to Lily or to other folks. And they would listen because they understood we were the ones doing the calls and speaking to the applicants. And, I've been a volunteer in so many different organizations, so many different contexts. And I don't think I've felt that in very many of those opportunities where I was sort of tasked to do something and I would do it cause I believed in people's vision, but I didn't necessarily feel part of that vision, I was just someone doing a task. And this felt different to me. ”

-Juan Pablo, intake volunteer, MassUndocuFund staff

PERSONAL CONNECTION

Our volunteers also frequently share that they have a personal connection to the undocumented community and therefore this project. This connection is motivating for them to maintain their commitment. Our intake volunteers share that their personal experiences give them a perspective of understanding the barriers that undocumented people face when attempting to access services. This type of knowledge informs our decisions and processes to ensure that they are supportive of recipients and volunteers.

For example, Gloribel is an intake volunteer in East Boston who is formerly undocumented. She now works as a legislative aide in the Massachusetts State House for her East Boston community. Because of these experiences, she knows both the everyday challenges of living undocumented in Boston as well as the lack of ability for the state legislature to effectively and efficiently take action to provide the support that was needed. Feeling like she is making a tangible difference in her community is the reason she has been and continues to be involved.

“At the beginning of the pandemic it was just super clear that [undocumented] families were going to be really hurt by the economic consequences of the pandemic because they didn't have the ability to get relief from the federal government or the state government sometimes. And the few resources that exist from the state government aren't enough to be sustainable and, you know, have a lot of flaws. Like the RAFT program takes a really long time to obtain… And then when [Lily] told me what MassUndocuFund was, I offered to volunteer because I just felt like that was a way to feel like I could do something. I think at the state level there were pieces of legislation that were introduced. But with the way that the system is designed, it's almost designed to kill every bill. So I think I felt really helpless about the legislative pieces and felt like this was a more tangible way of feeling like I could do something or could contribute to something. That's why I got involved.”

-Gloribel, intake volunteer

Alex is another intake volunteer with this personal connection. He has dedicated much of his life in the US to being an organizer and activist supporting the immigrant and undocumented communities. Alex was one of our first intake volunteers and was able to secure a large grant from his employer to support us in our early stages. Alex reported that being part of MassUndocuFund is like supporting his own family members.

Cristina is another intake volunteer who shared that she is an immigrant from Brazil. She reports that this project was a way for her to continue to support the immigrant community when other organizations she volunteered with shut down services during the pandemic. Getting to know the Brazilian community through this process while being able to speak to them in their own language is why she has stayed involved for so many months and was able to have such an impact.

“I am an immigrant myself. I have a very large family of immigrants who live here in the United States, mixed status family… And in my capacity as a community activist, I engage a lot with our brethren and immigrant communities from all over the world. I am from South America, originally from Brazil. But I engage and have worked side by side with immigrants from all over, in many different states, and here in Massachusetts. A lot with fellow Brazilians and Central Americans. I worked in restaurants for many years and worked with immigrants of all walks of life and feel very connected with that community ”

-Alex, intake volunteer

“Volunteering, I really got to have a different view of the community… We have a lot of things in common and at the same time, a lot of very different ways about them than for me because I came with a student visa… But so it opened my eyes to what the community, the undocumented immigrants have to deal with… And, I hadn't worked so closely with the community of the Brazilians so that was another appeal, to be able to talk to them and make sure that they are hearing their own language and make sure that they know there are people there that are concerned about them.”

-Cristina, intake volunteer

Some of our volunteers began with MassUndocuFund at the beginning of the project in April 2020 and many are still involved in the work. While none of our volunteers wish to continue organizing virtually indefinitely, they are grateful that we have been able to do such impactful work together in the circumstances and report how welcome it will be to finally end our Zoom meetings and see one another inperson.

These narratives and this sustained commitment demonstrate that our staff and volunteers feel supported in their work and connected to one another in community, to applicants in community, and to our long-term vision for change.

“

OUR COMMUNITY PARTNERS

Our community partners also describe their ability to more deeply connect with and understand their clients and community members through the MassUndocuFund process. Our partners coordinate teams of their staff and/or volunteers to conduct intakes in their communities and submit those intakes to the steering committee. They have existing relationships with recipients and through the intake process have been able to build and expand their sense of community together.

...It will be very welcome whenever it is possible for us all to meet in person again, to celebrate this great effort that we work on together. And of course the annual events of the organizations involved in the project, especially Jobs With Justice as an umbrella organization, have always been great about bringing our communities together. And, now we just try to do this best we can with virtual gatherings.”

-Alex, intake volunteer

One of our community partners, Nelly from PUMA in Worcester, reported that through doing intakes with her neighbors it helped her to build those relationships and to connect with the struggles of the local undocumented community. She was hesitant at first to get involved with the program because as an organizer she has limited capacity. However, the sense of community that she is building allowed her to serve over 200 families in the first year with cash assistance, weekly food deliveries, rent and utilities support, and building hope and morale. Without a sense of community, families may have gotten needed material support during this time, but without the intangible benefits.

“I think it was April if I'm not mistaken, when it started. And I was invited in... However, I thought it was going to be a lot of work so I kind of lagged. I didn't really jump until about the end of May. But once I discovered that it was not only an opportunity to get some funds into these community members' hands, but it was also bringing me closer to like the experiences they had. And I got to know the members of our groups better. I got to know how they were affected by COVID, how big their families were, what's at stake, and how they felt about their current state of being. So I think it was just really powerful. It brought me closer, I think, to the community.”

-Nelly, PUMA of Worcester, community partner

Natalia, a community partner based out of Berkshire County, feels similarly and additionally expressed how her community members feel more connected to one another as a result of her participation in MassUndocuFund. Natalia is employed at both Volunteers in Medicine (VIM) and the Berkshire Community College (BCC) where she works with adult immigrant clients in holistic case management. She reported that being part of MassUndocuFund has made a tangible difference in her ability to build community and trust in these roles. She shared that conducting intakes with her clients through MassUndocuFund enables her to prove her commitment through dedication.

“VIM has always done great things and the same with the adult learning program at BCC for the immigrant community. But this really gave them the opportunity to see how far we were able to go for them... We needed to twist a little bit in our mission because we never addressed case management in a way of providing cash assistance. We have had in the past some thousands of dollars that's an emergency fund for patients who have bills or who have a situation that they need assistance, but it has not been the focus of our case management program. So having access to UndocuFund really created this increased amount of funding that allowed that wellness to be a spread in a big part of the community. Because we were able to serve about 350 families and that really creates a lot of impact.”

-Natalia,

Volunteers in Medicine, community partner

Receiving a no-strings-attached check during a time of scarcity from a trusted organization can also contribute to building community. In Worcester, multiple Fund recipients expressed to our community partner that MassUndocuFund gave them a sense of affirmation, of feeling cared for, and feeling supported. Some also asked PUMA what they could do to contribute to their community through the project after receiving their funds.

“It shows the community that there's an organization out there that cares about them that will give them some funds so they can take care of whatever they need to at the moment. But that we're not asking for anything from them. They're protected. And I think that's important. When they see that there are organizations out there that do care for them And I think it makes them more curious about what they can do to help other people as well. A lot of the responses I got when they get their checks is, ‘I got my check. If you need anything, let me know.’ So I think it builds community. It's monetary, but right now a lot of people don't have that. And not only that, I think people like to talk about what they're going through and it helps them kind of face something, within the process. So it has multipurposes. So that's why we continue. I think I've done my own probably about 80 intakes. And I feel like it changed me. ”

-Nelly, PUMA of Worcester, community partner

Y E A R T W O

G O A L S

YEAR TWO GOALS

While this marks the end of the first year of MassUndocuFund our team continues the work to get funds raised into the hands of undocumented community members who do not qualify for government relief because of their immigration status. Our volunteers continue to conduct intake calls each week to reach the thousands of families who have applied to the Fund and remain on our intake list. Without an active fundraising campaign, we also continue to receive donations to fuel this final stretch. Our goal for year two is to distribute the remaining $400,000 and any additional funds raised within the next six months.

In year two, we are continuing our debrief meetings for intake volunteers to maintain the supportive processing space we have co-created. These meetings are now hosted monthly and include guest speakers and workshops from community collaborators to talk about resources around housing, child care, education, and more. This information will provide our volunteers with more concrete skills and resources to provide during intake calls. Our team also

continues to expand our statewide reach and regular updates of our Resource Guide. We continue to reach families in every corner of the Commonwealth and provide them with information about relevant and safe local resources.

However, MassUndocuFund is only the first phase of a three-phase multi-year strategy to organize for justice for immigrants and workers. We have always supported and fought for workers' rights as part of National Jobs With Justice’s #AlwaysEssential campaign. And now, restaurant workers, domestic workers, and teachers have been nationally recognized as essential workers in the same category as nurses and doctors.

However, the state legislature and local officials persist in failing to rise to the needs of workers in our community despite their continued reliance on these same workers to pull us through the economic impacts of the COVID pandemic. Simultaneously, low-wage retail, restaurant, and hospitality workers many

of whom are currently unemployed due to COVID-19 face dangerous conditions at work as a result of institutional racial injustice that threatens our community’s ability to endure and survive the convergence of these two pandemics. Though their labor is deemed essential, low-wage workers of color are excluded with no legislative protection or bargaining power to advocate across industries for dignity and security at work that operates in tandem for their social responsibilities as community members, family members, parents, caregivers, and guardians.

MASS WORKERS RISING

MassUndocuFund has laid a foundation for organizing as and alongside impacted working people and community members. Massachusetts Jobs With Justice, Matahari Women Workers’ Center, and One Fair Wage are continuing this work using a dual strategy to build collective power and worker agency for equity in our workplaces.

The first strategy is organizing individual workers bearing the brunt of the public health, racial injustice, and economic crises. Drawing from the networks of worker centers, community organizations, and mutual aid networks that converged to make MassUnodcuFund a success, we are pivoting to a second round of direct digital outreach to provide avenues for engagement around our campaigns for

This year, as we continue to provide financial assistance to undocumented community members in Massachusetts, we will also organize to achieve systemic change and ensure that our communities are not overlooked in the face of the next crisis. We will answer the call for a concentrated and unified effort to build worker power through a racial and reproductive justice lens through Mass Workers Rising and the Fair Work Week campaign.

worker autonomy and agency. We continue to work with statewide COVID Response coalitions to support housing, education, and childcare organizing efforts that are integral to justice for working people. We are also engaging with unemployed and underemployed workers across industry sectors and ethnic and language backgrounds to identify leaders in impacted communities. We will provide training for these community leaders to build skills to organize workers in their own existing networks. Through this outreach we are assembling a vibrant and active Massachusetts BIPOC Workers Council.

The second strategy is building and organizing a strong, robust coalition of multi-stakeholder partnerships with

organized labor, workers centers, and community groups to move in solidarity with low-wage workers. Our work in the first year of MassUndocuFund has created a statewide network of stakeholders, activists, and partners from which we are drawing to mobilize this coalition. We are harnessing the increasing movement energy around building collective power to create avenues that provide workers with the agency and autonomy that they require.

Together, these approaches position

working people and their leadership at the forefront of this struggle and enable us to advocate for the issues and campaigns that are identified by the Massachusetts BIPOC Workers Council. We have already begun to build cross-sector bargaining power and worker agency power through the Fair Work Week legislation campaign.

Your organization can join the BIPOC Workers Council coalition here. Su organización puede unirse a la coalición del Consejo de Trabajadores de BIPOC aquí.

FAIR WORK WEEK MASSACHUSETTS

The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the issues working families have been facing for decades—unpredictable work schedules, fluctuating paychecks, and underemployment. Working families struggle to meet basic expenses and to plan for childcare, meals, and medical appointments. Most notably, this pandemic has hurt working women and mothers, who are being forced out of the workplace at alarming rates, especially Black and Latinx women and mothers.

Fair Work Week Massachusetts is a growing coalition of non-profit organizations, unions, immigrants’ rights d i b d d

Passing Fair Work Week legislation will ensure that workers in restaurants, retail establishments, and the hospitality industry would for the first time have the right to:

14 days advance notice of work hours

Request specific hours without retaliation from the employer

Rest for 11 hours between shifts

Be offered any additional available hours before an employer can hire a new employee to fill them

Collect unemployment benefits when an employer’s failure to comply with Fair Scheduling practices is the worker’s reason for leaving a job

The public health crises of racism and COVID have a disproportionate impact on communities of color. To achieve equity and recover from these pandemics, it is imperative that we pass legislation to create predictability and secure fair wages for essential and low-wage workers. As working people, we all deserve safety, dignity and fair wages and schedules, as well as the freedom to advocate for ourselves at work without fear of retaliation.

Learn more about the Fair Work Week campaign, donate, and join the struggle at FairWorkWeekMA.com, and sign our petition for a fair work week here.

CONCLUSION

Our team at MassUndocuFund has closed out our first year of solidarity with strength and determination for year two. In distributing over $1 million in financial relief to more than 3,100 families across Massachusetts, we have rejected the implications that any person is disposable and unveiled to a wider public the disparity of services unavailable to undocumented community members in the Commonwealth.

MassUndocuFund has served as a pathway to build community during a time that is otherwise isolating and onerous. We have provided a supportive space for deep and meaningful connection between volunteers and our staff in a virtual environment. Our process has also facilitated trust-building and resource connection between

community organizations and their members. And we have strengthened our own network across the state through providing and directing resources locally where they are needed the most.

We hope to continue to build upon these relationships and connections moving into year two in order to organize for systemic change. The Mass Workers Rising and Fair Work Week campaigns will help to strengthen the power of our working class and immigrant communities. We will demand safety, dignity and fair wages and schedules for all working people, as well as the freedom to advocate for ourselves at work without fear of retaliation. We will stop the conditions that caused the need for MassUndocuFund from repeating themselves in the face of the next crisis.

WILL YOU JOIN US?

Donate to MassUndocuFund here.

Volunteer with the Fair Work Week campaign at FairWorkWeekMA.com. Your organization can join the BIPOC Workers Council coalition here. Su organización puede unirse a la coalición del Consejo de Trabajadores de BIPOC aquí.