The Multicultural Institute
Supporting the Immigrant Workforce
Early mornings, men in work wear gather in small groups or stand solo along Fifth Avenue in front of Chavez Supermarket just off busy El Camino Real in Redwood City. It’s a strategic location for these day laborers, immigrants from Mexico and Central America, looking for temporary employment on work crews originating from a nearby construction equipment rental outlet. Josué Revolorio, programs director, and Juan Carlos Ortiz, life skills/day laborer program assistant with the Multicultural Institute, have built a rapport with these men, greeting them as they wait to be picked up for jobs.
During daily street outreach sessions, Josué or Juan arrive bearing nourishment in the form of water, milk, energy bars, and carrot sticks, along with a dose of practical survival tips. The Community Foundation of San Carlos grants to the Multicultural Institute in 2021 and 2023, totaling $15,000, support the life skills/day laborer program by providing funds to purchase these healthy snacks for workers.
Founded in 1991, the Multicultural Institute (MI) serves immigrant families in Alameda, San Mateo, and Contra Costa counties to achieve economic stability. MI’s Redwood City location focuses on street-side day laborer and domestic worker outreach assisting with employment and permanent housing solutions. From its headquarters in Berkeley, MI offers vocational and skills development courses for adults and tutoring for children. The organization received recognition by the state as a 2023 California Nonprofit of the Year for its work raising immigrants as valued members of their communities.
Josué chats with the guys about different issues they encounter as immigrants, from employment, housing, and legal questions to worker safety. Josué helps them access personal protective equipment and connects them with community resources. If one of the men has a sensitive question, Josué invites them to the MI office for a private meeting where they can discuss pressing issues in detail.
The Multicultural Institute’s Redwood City office is in the converted garage of a residential home in the North Fair Oaks neighborhood. Called Casa de Paz y Bien, the home is used as day laborer housing and meeting space. The house provides a permanent home for six men who maintain it and pay a small monthly rent. MI was fortunate to connect with a property owner who allowed them use of two properties, eventually selling the nonprofit one of the homes under market value. Because of MI’s commitment to providing housing services for immigrants, San Mateo County covers the mortgage payments.
Over the years, MI has discovered temporary housing doesn’t solve housing issues for immigrants. “Two years of saving here, then having to pay a lot of rent on their own, they are soon back sleeping on the street or in their cars,” says Josué. This cycle prompted MI to change its model to permanent housing leading to long-term success.
“We have been seeing real impacts because several guys have stayed here and have gone back to their home country and were able to save enough to buy a house there.” Others have started their own businesses or took up farming when they returned home. “So then they don’t need to come back to the US,” says Josué. These successes are prompting MI to convert the garage into living quarters so two more men can make a fresh start.
Domestic workers, women who provide cleaning services, also use the house for mutual support meetings. MI’s Domestic Workers Program Coordinator, Gloria Villaseñor, leads the women through conversations about environmentally friendly cleaning products and chemical safety to protect their health at work and exchange best practices. One of MI’s future goals is to obtain another house for single-mother domestic workers to help them support their families.
A unique service MI provides is pairing domestic workers and day laborers with employers. When workers take an MI-arranged job, they are guaranteed $25 an hour for a three-hour minimum. Because MI staff know the skill set of each worker and tracks their contact information, and because MI requires employers to complete a job form and confirm the details with them, there is a level of accountability for worker and employer.
Vetting protects workers from potential wage theft and employers from picking up someone untrustworthy. After a job is completed, Josué asks the workers about their experience with an employer and follows up with the employer to find out how the workers performed. Most of the time, everything goes smoothly. On the rare occasion of a complaint, MI works with the parties to rectify the situation.
MI’s community partnerships with other organizations are a huge part of MI’s success. Twice a month, MI picks up food from the Second Harvest Food Bank and distributes it to local immigrant families. The CARON Program with the San Mateo County Sheriff’s Department donates bikes and helmets so immigrant workers can get to their jobs. MI also has connections to legal support and other resources workers might need.
Community support of donations and grants is essential to MI’s operation. The Community Foundation of San Carlos grant funds go toward keeping the office running, covering the expense of matching workers with jobs, and promoting day laborer and domestic worker services. Other day laborer assistance programs require workers to pay a fee to be registered for job placement; MI is fee-free, lowering the barrier to finding work.
If you are looking to hire temporary workers for a manual labor project or need help cleaning an interior, complete the form on MI’s website to be matched with a vetted day laborer or domestic worker.
$10,000 granted for providing assistance for the immigrant community, including basic needs, employment, health, and legal assistance. (Fall 2023)
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$5,000 granted on 11/26/2021 to provide support for the Multicultural Institute’s Life Skills and Day Laborer Program.
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Economic and social inequity is most apparent in the ways that immigrant workers, unaccompanied youth, and sometimes entire immigrant families, encounter challenges and barriers related to underemployment, unfair treatment at work, lack of access to critical services in the communities where they live and work. Immigrant families are not always aware of their worker rights, services they can tap into, nor the vocational and educational opportunities that can assist them in qualifying for better paying jobs. Day laborers (men who seek work on street corners) and domestic workers (women who seek work locally in the community) are among these immigrant workers that commonly face wage theft, unpredictable employment, and discrimination based on their presumed immigration status.
MI’s Life Skills/Day Laborer Program assists day laborers, domestic workers, and other low-income immigrant families in a way that transcends them and reaches many others through their family and community networks. Program participants can benefit from an array of activities and services that address economic inequities and larger systemic and language barriers that result from unfair treatment at work, low wages, discriminating employment procedures, lack of access to resources and opportunities, and the technological gap.The support from the Community Fund of San Carlos will enhance the work accomplished through MI’s Life Skills/Day Laborer Program and continue to enhance its work addressing the economic, educational, language, and resource barriers that often lead to a lack of access to available resources. Through this program and support, this program will offer economic development, housing, and vocational skill opportunities to immigrant workers and other low-income individuals in the Redwood City/North Fair Oaks area reaching San Carlos residents, domestic workers, and day laborers that seek for work during the week at the San Carlos Home Depot.