US Department of Labor awards $2M in grants to support awareness, use of employment rights, benefits by low-income, marginalized women

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Labor has awarded $2 million in grant funding to organizations to develop partnerships with community-based organizations and other non-profits to conduct outreach to low-income and marginalized women workers to help them understand and exercise their rights and benefits in the workplace.

Administered jointly by the department’s Women’s Bureau and Employment and Training Administration, the Fostering Access Rights and Equity grants support education; guidance on obtaining and calculating benefits; referrals to additional services, benefits and/or legal assistance. Grants also help recipients enable women to become focal points for rights, benefits and assistance in their own communities.

“As our nation continues its recovery, we must include targeted programming for women workers who are affected by the coronavirus pandemic disproportionately,” said U.S. Deputy Secretary of Labor Julie A. Su. “Fostering Access, Rights and Equity grants fund vital partnerships to help inform women about their rights and benefits and ensure that women workers share in the prosperity of the nation’s economic recovery.”

“The Women’s Bureau is determined to overcome the systemic discrimination, racism and gender inequality that women have historically faced,” said Women’s Bureau Director Wendy Chun-Hoon. “The grants we’ve awarded today support organizations working on behalf of women who are paid low wages at work, and otherwise marginalized or underserved to ensure their rights to employment are protected and that they have access to all of the benefits available to them.”

2021 FARE grant recipients are as follows:

Learn more about Fostering Access Rights and Equity grants, and this year’s recipients.