Alexandra Sossa, Executive Director with FLAP

AURORA, IL, USA, February 24, 2022 – The Aurora Women’s Empowerment Foundation (AWEF) has awarded the Farmworker and Landscaper Advocacy Project, also known as Proyecto de Ayuda para Trabajadores del Campo y Jardineros (FLAP), a grant to support its “Women’s Circles” community education, legal support, and emergency financial assistance program. The program benefits low-income Latinx female immigrants who live and work in the Aurora area. This is AWEF’s second year supporting the Women’s Circles Program; the foundation has plans to continue funding the program in 2023 as well.

The mission of FLAP is to improve working conditions and opportunities for low-income workers and their households in the cannery, farms, greenhouse, landscaping, meat, nursery, packhouse, poultry, restaurants, and snow plowing industries. The organization carries out its mission through advocacy, community outreach and education, litigation, community legal education, information and referrals, as well as partnering with other organizations to fight human labor trafficking, preventing family separations by helping immigrants secure dual citizenship for their children, and facilitating access to emergency cash transfers to very low-income populations.

Amy Baudouin

“Auroran’s rely heavily upon the work of our local female Latinx immigrants, yet many in our community may be surprised by the hardships and sacrifices they face,” said Amy Baudouin, Board Chair, Aurora Women’s Empowerment Foundation. “We feel it’s important to welcome all Latinx immigrants into our community and help them overcome inequity and exclusion so they can contribute to Aurora and create better futures for themselves and their families.”

The impact of the Women’s Circles program is four-fold.  One, to improve the participant’s understanding of her rights as an employee, as a spouse/partner, and as a human being, regardless of classification. Two, to increase access to justice for those who have been discriminated against, abused sexually, been the victim of violence at home or work, trafficked, or otherwise denied their rights as human beings. Three, to offer protection of families through emergency financial assistance to prevent homelessness and hunger, and through access to the dual citizenship process for their children. And, four, to strengthen the participant’s protection and security against wrongdoing on the part of employers, male family members, and other individuals in the community.

Alexandra Sossa

“Through the Women’s Circles we provide culturally-appropriate educational programs created and delivered by Latinas for Latinas in safe, confidential spaces,” said Alexandra Sossa, Bilingual Executive Director with the Farmworker and Landscaper Advocacy Project. “Latina immigrants in the Aurora area often feel that they have no voice when it comes to their own concerns. They cannot communicate in English well enough to understand what their rights are when faced with such injustices as workplace discrimination, sexual assault, domestic violence, and labor and/or sex trafficking. With this support from the Aurora Women’s Empowerment Foundation, we will be able to help ensure their voices are heard and that they receive the information, protection, and resources they need.”

FLAP provides these services free of charge and without regard to immigration status. It is the only organization in the Aurora area to provide Latinx female immigrant workers and their families with this distinct mix of direct services regardless of their immigration status.

To learn more about FLAP’s Women’s Circles program, please contact: Alexandra Sossa, Executive Director, Farmworker & Landscaper Advocacy Project—FLAP—Proyecto de Ayuda para Trabajadores del Campo y Jardineros, at (847) 668-2114 or asossa@flapillinois.org.

About…

The Aurora Women’s Empowerment Foundation mission is to elevate and empower Aurora-area women and future women by making grants to tax-exempt nonprofits engaged in meaningful, measurable work that helps women over the hurdles of inequity and exclusion, propelling them forward with life-changing programs and services.  For more information about grants made by AWEF, including our grant guidelines and online application, visit awe-foundation.org.

The Farmworker and Landscaper Advocacy Project (FLAP) – Proyecto de Ayuda para Trabajadores del Campo y Jardineros is a 501(c)(3) charitable nonprofit. It was incorporated February 8, 1999 in response to a 1996 Congressional ruling that prohibited federally funded legal services programs from filing class actions for, as well as representing, many low-income workers. This prohibition includes H-2A agricultural workers, H-2B forestry workers, and victims of battery, extreme cruelty, sexual assault, or human trafficking. Justice and legal representation, that for decades inspired millions of oppressed people to come to America, were denied to hundreds of thousands of low-income workers, most of them Latinas and Latinos. While FLAP serves all classifications of workers, it focuses on very low-income laborers and their households.

Today, FLAP continues its humanitarian mission to improve working conditions and opportunities for low-income Latinx workers and their households in the following industries: cannery, farms, greenhouse, landscaping, meat, nursery, packinghouse, poultry, restaurants and snow plowing.

The organization carries out its mission through advocacy, community outreach and education, litigation, community legal education, information and referrals, partnering with other organizations to fight human labor trafficking, preventing family separations by helping immigrants secure dual citizenship for their children, and facilitates the access to emergency cash transfers to very low-income populations. FLAP provides these services free of charge and without regard to immigration status.  For more information visit flapillinois.org.