The Domestic Worker Employment Rights Amendment Act of 2022 established the Domestic Worker Employment Rights Grant Program at the Office of the Attorney General for the District of Columbia (OAG) in fiscal year 2024. The purpose is to provide grants to community-based organizations working to develop educational materials for domestic workers and hiring entities, including safety and health information.
Fiscal Year 2024 Grants
Through a competitive process two grants were awarded to two DC based organizations working to extend, protect, ensure dignity, respect, fairness, and a safe working environment for domestic workers in the District. Many Languages One Voice, and National Domestic Workers Alliance-DMV Chapter received awards under the Domestic Worker Employment Rights Grant Program.
Many Languages One Voice (MLOV): MLOV is a BIPOC immigrant-led organization that empowers low-income immigrant communities of color in Washington, DC to access opportunities, impact change, and advance immigrant rights. It seeks to address the needs of its members and amplify their voices to find solutions to the systemic inequities that impact their lives. Founded in 2010, MLOV’s mission is to foster leadership and greater civic participation of immigrants who do not speak English as a primary language.
Through the “Immigrant Domestic Worker Rights Project” MLOV seeks to conduct education and outreach to domestic workers, hiring entities, and the public about the rights of domestic workers. This project will focus on reaching domestic workers who are at highest risk for exploitation/unfair labor practices, e.g., BIPOC women, immigrants, those with limited English proficient /non-English proficient, undocumented residents, and those employed by foreign diplomats/international families. This project will deliver: “Know Your Rights” workshops, hazard guidance, community outreach and education in various languages: English, Spanish, Amharic, Chinese, French, and Vietnamese. This proposed work will also integrate workers education and hazard guidance in its existing cohort program, which engages community members over periods of 5 - 18 weeks.
National Domestic Workers Alliance-DMV Chapter (NDWA-DMV Chapter): The NDWA Washington DC-Virginia-Maryland (DMV) Chapter organizes domestic workers for better wages and improved working conditions. The organization also plays a lead role in local coalitions to win rights, recognition, and safety for all low-wage workers. The organization played a key role in winning the DC Domestic Workers Bill of Rights and the Virginia Domestic Workers Bill of Rights — the first Domestic Worker Bill of Rights in the South! Its multilingual membership meetings and leadership development trainings are spaces for domestic workers to build community and deepen skills to lead in the organization, its community, and the domestic worker movement.
Through the “D.C. Domestic Worker Empowerment Initiative” NDWA-DMV Chapter seeks to provide domestic workers with a better understanding of their legal rights and how to put those rights into practice, as well as play a direct role in shaping health and safety guidance in partnership with Georgetown University’s Kalmanovitz Initiative. This program will focus on training domestic workers, conducting outreach to Washington, DC’s domestic workforce and educating workers about their new rights under the newly passed DC Domestic Workers Bill of Rights. The program proposes creating hazard and safety guidance in both English and Spanish, coupled with the creation of a training curriculum to share safety information, based on recommendations and key concerns from domestic workers