The James Irvine Foundation

10/15/2026

While policymakers continue to debate how AI could impact jobs and workers in the future, California employers are already increasingly using digital technologies to monitor workers, measure their performance, assign tasks and schedules, set the pace of work, and inform decisions about pay, discipline, and termination.

A new report from Irvine grantee partners The Center on Policy Initiatives, East Bay Alliance for a Sustainable Economy, Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy, Working Partnerships USA, PowerSwitch Action, UC Berkeley Labor Center, and UCLA Labor Center explores how “bossware” is reshaping working conditions, undercutting established labor protections, and shifting power toward employers, often without workers’ knowledge or consent.

Read on: https://irvine.ly/4zudU1s

10/13/2026

Irvine grantee North Bay Jobs With Justice (NBJWJ) is bringing in farmworkers’ traditional ecological knowledge into climate resilience careers that heal the land while providing better pay, safer working conditions, and opportunities for worker leadership.

In the video below, NBJWJ Executive Director Max Bell Alper shares what makes the training they provide different and highlights the importance of centering workers’ voices and experiences.

Watch the full video to hear more from North Bay Jobs with Justice and the farmworkers leading a worker-led transition to tend to the needs of our communities and of the Land: https://youtu.be/VmttPqho0wc?si=waq7yZRNLEY-LOsO

10/07/2026

What does it take for coalitions to move from policy wins to meaningful implementation?

It takes sustained collaboration, resources, and support, all of which can help provide. Want to learn more?

Join us on October 20 for the “Funding Strong Coalitions: Turning Policy Into Impact” webinar, hosted by Evelyn and Walter Haas, Jr. Fund, Mandala Strategies, Michelson 20MM Foundation, and Philanthropy California: https://irvine.ly/4hL7FPF Learn how funders can help coalitions turn policy into practice and scale their impact, as well as how to build understanding among foundation leaders and trustees about the importance of supporting coalition efforts.

Speakers include:
- Irvine’s Shruti Garg
- Ria Bhatt, Mandala Strategies
- Christa Brown, San Francisco Foundation
- Ruben Canedo, UC Essential Needs Consortium
- Queena Hoang, Michelson 20MM Foundation
- Kyle Lierman, Civic Nation
- Monica Martinez, Evelyn & Walter Haas, Jr. Fund
- Karla Mercado, SoCal Grantmakers | Philanthropy CA

10/05/2026

Charitable foundations and nonprofit organizations across California work hand in hand to improve the places we call home, helping communities respond to today's challenges and build toward what's next.

Nonprofits and community leaders do the on-the-ground, day-to-day work, bringing deep knowledge and strong community relationships, while foundations like Irvine provide resources to help turn their visions into reality or deepen their impact on our communities.

As our CEO, Don Howard, puts it: “Our job is to provide resources to community groups and organizations that are working for everyone in California to make sure they have a chance to achieve the American dream.”

09/30/2026

As California workers and communities increasingly face wildfires, smoke, floods, and extreme heat, farmworkers are leading the way in strengthening the state’s preparedness for and response to climate-related events, with support from Irvine grantee North Bay Jobs With Justice.

In a new video, Sonoma County farmworkers share about the challenges they face, what they’ve learned through organizing with North Bay Jobs with Justice, how they draw on ancestral knowledge to care for the Land, and the working conditions they hope for: https://youtu.be/VmttPqho0wc?si=waq7yZRNLEY-LOsO

Learn more at: https://irvine.ly/4AClg4C

09/29/2026

What would a workforce system look like if it were designed around people rather than programs, contracts, funding streams, and federal requirements?

With support from Irvine’s initiative, the City of Los Angeles Workforce Development Board had an opportunity to ask that question and rethink how its workforce system serves both job seekers and employers.

Through the Workforce Transformation Corps (WTC), implemented in partnership with CivicMakers, Jobs for the Future (JFF), Make Fast Studio, and Turning Basin Labs, Fellow Teil Samuels was embedded with the City to examine Los Angeles’ network of 14 WorkSource Centers/America’s Job Centers of California (AJCC) from the perspectives of the people who use and deliver the services. His work looked beyond individual programs to understand the geographic, organizational, and practical barriers that can make it hard for residents to access services and achieve meaningful economic outcomes.

That work helped inform a new model for Los Angeles’ workforce system.

Rather than focusing primarily on how many people move through the system, the new model places greater emphasis on the quality of the experience, the effectiveness of services, and whether those services lead to quality jobs. The City even set an ambitious goal of substantially increasing the number of participants placed into jobs paying more than $55,000 annually, while strengthening employer partnerships. It is also addressing practical barriers by making sure that free parking is available at WorkSource/AJCC locations.

The redesign also led to a significant investment in frontline staff, including through making sure that case managers and business services representatives earn a living wage and have manageable caseloads so they can provide more meaningful support. LA's workforce system cannot advance economic mobility for Angelenos without ensuring that the people doing the work can also thrive and get ahead.

The Workforce Transformation Corps and Irvine’s support gave LA WDB the opportunity to step outside the demands of day-to-day service delivery, examine longstanding assumptions, listen to those closest to the work, and test what a different system could look like. The City further built on that work by partnering with a local university to evaluate the WorkSource system, helping to build the case for a broader redesign of the public workforce system and a stronger focus on community needs.

LA WDB's experience shows what can happen when organizations have the space to evaluate, experiment, and redesign systems around the people they serve, something philanthropic funding helps make possible.

Thank you to the City of Los Angeles Workforce Development Board, CivicMakers, Jobs for the Future, Make Fast Studio, Turning Basin Labs, Irvine’s Kriztina Palone and Haden Springer, Judi Brown, Josh Copus, Virginia Hamilton, Hannah Lee, Tammy Ortuno, and Teil Samuels for their contributions to this work!

09/22/2026

Salud Garcia has been working full time at the same Los Angeles International Airport food service company for 33 years. But as an hourly employee, she has never been able to out-earn her expenses, despite living modestly.

Salud recently received a raise from $21.46 to $25 an hour under Los Angeles’ “Olympic wage” ordinance, which requires minimum wage increases for tourism-industry workers ahead of the 2028 Olympic Games. Even so, her pay still falls short of what it takes to make ends meet. According to the MIT Living Wage Calculator, Salud would need $28.92 an hour to cover her basic needs. For a typical household living in the lowest-cost area within an hour's commute of Los Angeles, Living Wage For US estimates that figure rises to $38.61 an hour.

Salud’s story is sadly not unique. Nationally, nearly half of adults over 60 don’t have the household income needed to cover basic costs. At 83, quitting is still out of the question for Salud.

Despite her struggles, Salud says, “I do want to continue to fight alongside my co-workers. We want a fair contract and to get a better working place for all of us.”

Read more in Mark Kreidler’s latest piece in Capital & Main: https://irvine.ly/3VaBdhY

The piece is the first in Capital & Main’s new reporting project exploring how California’s low-wage workers are navigating the cost-of-living crisis and examining the policy solutions that could ease the burden. Funding for the project was provided by Irvine.

Salud Garcia’s struggles echo those of millions of low-wage workers across the nation, where mounting costs erode their already precarious footing.

09/18/2026

We’re thrilled to share that we provided $33.9 million in grants this quarter to advance our goal of a California where all low-income workers have the power to advance economically!

This includes a two-year, $1.5 million grant to the Leadership Counsel for Justice and Accountability to build the ability of low-income Fresnans to influence the decisions that affect their lives, build regional partnerships across sectors, and ensure public investments and policies reflect the priorities of residents.

UCLA Labor Center also received a three-year, $2.6 million grant to support worker rights organizations with research and policy analysis that strengthens protections for workers and supports organizing efforts. The grant will also support leadership development programs for the next generation of worker rights leaders.

Together, they show what it takes to build power for workers and how important nonprofit organizations are. Their efforts to partner with low-income communities, build coalitions, and equip workers and advocates with data and training are all essential to creating a California that works for everyone.

Want to learn more about their work? Check out Leadership Counsel for Justice and Accountability at https://irvine.ly/3UONUPl and UCLA Labor Center at https://irvine.ly/3TkhpIt

09/17/2026

For a time, blue-collar jobs were a route to the American dream of homeownership. But with the continuously rising cost of living in and wages that fail to keep pace, steady jobs in manual labor no longer provide the same life they did just a generation ago.

Father and son Salomon Olea and Angel Olea, who spend 12 hours a day driving commercial trash trucks in San Diego for a private waste company, are experiencing this divide firsthand.

For Salomon, now 55, the job allowed him to provide for his family and buy a three-bedroom house in Escondido in 1998, just four years after he started working in sanitation. For Angel, 33, the same job does not even make it easy to save for a down payment on a house in the same city. Currently, he and his wife, Estephania, pay $2,800 a month for a two-bedroom apartment for their family of five.

Angel shared with Los Angeles Times’ Audrey McGlinchy: “We all came here almost expecting what our fathers accomplished. We’re doing the same amount of hours, taking overtime that’s available. What are we doing wrong?”

Read more about their story at: https://irvine.ly/4hw78C5


This piece is part of The Times’ equity reporting initiative, funded by Irvine, exploring the challenges facing low-income workers and the efforts being made to address California’s economic divide.

Salomon and Angel Olea spend 12 hours a day emptying commercial trash bins around San Diego County. But while Salomon has been able to buy a house, his son, Angel, struggles to even pay rent.

09/15/2026

If we want to create a where everyone can thrive, we must listen to and partner with the workers and families most directly affected by the challenges in the state to ensure that solutions are informed by and rooted in their lived experiences. Yet the reality is that workers’ perspectives are too often absent from philanthropic and policy decisions.

Irvine grantee partner End Poverty in California (EPIC) is working to change that through the campaign. In partnership with SEIU California, BlackECE, Caring Across Generations, Southern Economic Advancement Project, and State Innovation Exchange (SiX), EPIC is connecting elected officials with workers so they can hear firsthand about workers’ lives, struggles, hopes, and ideas for change: https://irvine.ly/3UYaiG4

Jameel Hunt, a security officer and SEIU member, wrote in The Sacramento Bee, “If your platform is supposed to be about the people, you have to actually talk to the people and hear what they’re saying. I don’t think my dreams are complicated. I want stability and safety. Just the basic dignity of knowing I have a roof over my head and I get to go home and rest under it. What I want from Sacramento and Washington isn’t a better sentence, it’s a better habit: showing up, listening and then doing something about what they heard.”

Read more at: https://irvine.ly/4yHYHcU

What I want from politicians isn’t a better sentence, it’s a better habit: showing up, listening and doing something about what they heard.