Celebrate Pro Bono: Student Public Interest Work Pt. 1
Leading up to National Pro Bono Week (October 23 – 29), UW School of Law celebrates our students’ public interest and service work. In this series, students share a firsthand account of their meaningful summer work experiences.
Anarose Reardon-Helferd
This summer I was fortunate to receive a Peggy Browning fellowship to work with the National Domestic Workers Alliance (NDWA) in Oakland, California. NDWA organizes affiliates through leadership development, strategic campaigns and alliance building to help build the movement to improve working and living conditions for domestic workers. NDWA also works to end the exclusion of domestic workers from labor protections and to increase the recognition of the value of care, as well as supporting other communities and workers in struggle.
I spent my summer with NDWA working on various projects which included working on an extensive memo on the On-Demand Economy and how it affects domestic work, supporting legislative visits in Sacramento, and working on "Know Your Rights" facts sheets for various states.
Though domestic workers do have many important legal rights, the state and federal laws are often convoluted, leaving workers unclear on what rights they are entitled to, or what law or agency covers these rights. I chose to pursue a career in law because I knew the vital role law plays in ensuring social justice but realized that my work must come from a place of solidarity.
In addition to becoming familiar with state and federal labor protections, I was able to learn how a national alliance successfully builds a powerful human rights and dignity movement while integrating grassroots organizations and developing women of color leaders. I have often seen how larger organizations lose sight of smaller and/or underrepresented voices, but my time with NDWA taught me that large organizations can elevate and integrate these voices into movement-building efforts. This was an invaluable lesson I will carry with me throughout my legal career as well as my last year at ºìÌÒÊÓƵ.