Call for applicants: Office of Worker Protections’ Community Outreach and Education Fund

Starting today, September 15, 2025, the Philadelphia Office of Worker Protections is accepting applications to join the third cohort of Community Outreach and Education Fund partners.

Over the past two years, the Community Outreach and Education Fund (COEF) has trained dozens of staff from 14 trusted community organizations and engaged more than 40 partner institutions in the distribution of worker protection resources in over 25 languages. Following this success, the Office of Worker Protections (OWP) has opened applications for organizations to join the third cohort of COEF partners.

The third round of COEF will continue to further collaboration between the Office of Worker Protections and members of trusted community-based organizations to develop awareness, understanding, and empowerment for workers' rights. Additionally, OWP aims to cultivate cross-organization collaboration, education, and inspiration among our partner organizations.

Programming partners

This year, four community programming partners will receive grants up to $20,000 each.

These partners will develop and integrate worker protection programming for their members or communities, which could include:

• A series of community trainings or a certificate program,
• Integration into existing educational programming,
• Or the development of an online training program.

Furthermore, all participants will present at cohort meetings to educate partner organizations and promote inter-organizational learning and collaboration.

OWP will provide:

• Training PowerPoint templates.
• Certificate templates.
• Training videos.
• Resources in multiple languages.

Applications for the COEF open on September 15 and close on September 30. The four COEF partners will be selected by an impartial panel of stakeholders.

Application Details

A multi-stakeholder group comprised of various labor and city partners will select grantees through a formal review process based on specific criteria including:

• Organization mission (which does not need to be specifically about labor or employment).
• Community served, such as demographics, zip code, and household income.
• Size and make-up of the organization.
• Experience or history with the Office of Worker Protections.
• Relationship to communities most impacted by Office of Worker Protection labor laws.

Details on how to apply can be found on the Philadelphia City Fund's website.

Timeline

Applications open September 15, 2025 and close at 11:59 PM on September 30, 2025.

The Office of Worker Protections will host virtual office hours to answer questions on Friday, September 19th, 2025 from 10 a.m. - noon. If you are interested in participating, register to join us.

Awardees will be selected by mid-October 2025 and go through orientation in early December 2025.

The Philadelphia City Fund will host the Community Outreach and Education Fund and will issue grant awards on behalf of the Office of Worker Protections.