Face masks hit the American retail market last year with unprecedented demand.
When the pandemic came, small businesses turned to masks to make up for lost sales.
For some, masks became a last hope to keep their companies afloat and provide for their families.
Darwin Manahan sat at the head of his dining table, surrounded by a team of friends helping out with his events business. To Manahan s right, his business partner, Pascale, was confirming the final sponsor for the Barbie festival they would be working that weekend.
It was March 3, 2020, in Los Angeles, four days before Manahan s birthday. His pregnant wife, Nikki, was walking around the apartment working on aprons for another business that the couple founded together, Manahan & Co. It would provide custom aprons for the staff at the festival, enough orders for the month.
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The new initiative will seek ways to help build a more equitable economy after the COVID-19 pandemic. Ariel Okamoto |
February 18, 2021
The UCLA Labor Center has received a $1.3 million grant from the James Irvine Foundation to establish the California Workforce Development Worker Equity Initiative with the National Skills Coalition.
Leading the effort for UCLA are Betty Hung, project director at the UCLA Institute for Research on Labor and Employment, and Ana Luz Gonzalez-Vasquez, a project manager at the Labor Center. The National Skills Coalition is a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit that advocates for policies and skills training to benefit workers and businesses.
The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health’s Community Health Worker (CHW) Outreach Initiative has been extended after the federal government extended the CARES Act funding into 2021. Originally slated to end December 30, 2020, this extension will provide an estimated $3 million in unspent funds for partner agencies to conduct outreach by deploying CHWs through end of January and possibly into February.
The extension comes at a time when the county is experiencing a dangerous surge in COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths. Having trusted community members as ambassadors will ensure that hardest hit communities are getting accurate information to help slow the spread.