Hermanowski Family Foundation Initial Request Form

---

Organization Name: Social Justice Collaborative
Legal Name (if Different): N/A
Also Known As: SJC
Mailing Address: 1832 Second Street
City: Berkeley
State: CA
Postal Code: 94710
Main Phone: 5109923964
Main Fax: 5102555200
Organization Website: https://www.socialjusticecollaborative.org/
Employer ID Number: 45-5556421
Organization Tax Status: 501(c)(3)

Proposal Information

---

Today’s Date: 3/29/2023
Requested Amount: $10,000

Project Title: SIJS Taskforce
Project Description:

Social Justice Collaborative is dedicated to providing affordable and high-quality legal services to low-income immigrants, focusing on holistic, culturally informed, and empowering services. We provide legal services for eligible minors completely free of charge. As of 2022, 16% of our clients are minors, and a large majority of them are aged 11-18. To support these minors, we launched our SIJS task force this year, which aims to provide 100 eligible minors (ages 0-21) with holistic free representation.

In 2024, we plan to establish full-time social workers to connect every minor in this program with necessary services and ensure all children under 18 are enrolled in school. SJC has ten years of experience providing compassionate and effective legal services and is now looking to expand the ways we connect our clients to necessary resources. Obtaining legal status for a child would allow them to access increased resources and place them on a track that would open up opportunities they may otherwise not have had.

Legal services have proven to be one of the most effective ways of making a direct impact on an individual’s life. If we are able to couple our experience winning cases, with social services, we would be able to more fully support immigrant children’s needs. SJC is unique in that we have individuals on staff who speak Spanish, English, and the indigenous language Mayan Mam. With the support of our translators, social workers would be able to reach children who are oftentimes underserved due to language barriers.

We are largely funded by state grants, philanthropic organizations, and private individual donations. However, we require increased funding and support to add social workers to our full-time staff. Therefore, we are requesting a grant of $10,000 from the Charles and Joan Hermanowski Family Foundation to jumpstart this vital work.

Total Project Budget: $94,400

Other Funding
Sources For The Project (Committed & Potential): Committed: Individual donations, California Department of Social Services, Gerbode Potential: City of Berkeley, Sky Ranch Foundation

Project Duration: Indefinite, although we understand this funding is for one year.
Geographical Area Served: Northern California and the California Central Valley
Age Group To Be Served: 0-21

Contact Information

---

Contact Prefix (Mr,Mrs etc.): Ms.
Contact First Name: Abigail
Contact Last Name: Esquivias
Contact Title: Director of Community Partnerships and Advocacy
Contact Phone: 5103304135
Contact Email: abigail@socialjusticecollaborative.org