Voz Workers’ Rights Education Project is the only organization in the state of Oregon working with the day laborer community. Day laborers are temporary workers, many of them immigrants, many of them homeless, many of them facing multiple barriers to long-term employment. We build leadership and economic power in this community through economic empowerment, leadership development, and grassroots organizing. Voz has almost 20 years of experience organizing day laborers in Portland, and we are a founding member of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, which includes over 70 Worker Centers around the country.

Voz believes that sustainable and transformative social justice work must be led by the communities most affected. At Voz, we model this philosophy by striving to be a fully worker-led organization, and by empowering Portland day laborers not just through economic opportunities, but through opportunities to become leaders in their community. The day laborer community is a diverse group of leaders and organizers from around the world, who bring their skills, knowledge and life experiences to our struggle for a better future for immigrant workers in Portland.

Our Guiding Principles

• Sustainable and transformative social justice work must be led by the communities most affected. We strive to be a worker-led organization.
• We seek to empower Portland day laborers (including domestic workers) through economic opportunities and opportunities to learn, develop, and become leaders in their community.
• The day laborer community is a diverse group of leaders and organizers from around the world, who bring their skills, knowledge, and life experiences to our struggle for a better future for immigrant workers in the Portland Metro area.
• We believe in a worker center and organization that welcomes everyone who walks through our doors -- a place where folks feel safe, included, reflected, empowered, and supported; where they feel that they belong and that this space validates and respects their identities and experiences and builds the opportunity to fight towards liberation.

Voz is committed to:

• Gender Justice
• Racial Equity
• Jornalero liberation and economic freedom
• LGBTQ liberation
• Promoting healing and wellness
• Practicing transformative and restorative strategies to responses to harm
• Building worker and immigrant power through economic empowerment, leadership development, and grassroots organizing
• Fostering an inclusive and safe environment that does not discriminate based on disabilities, age, religion, spirituality, mental health, ethnicity, immigration status, indigenous identity, criminalized background, medical conditions, addictions, HIV status, etc.