Mel Gonzalez
Host: Make the Road New York
Sponsor: Shearman & Sterling LLP, Thomson Reuters
Through the Worker Protection Program at the Legal Aid Society of Northeastern New York, Symone (she/her/hers) provides free legal services to low-income workers for employment-related matters including discrimination claims, wage theft claims, and worker safety issues.
The Capital Region of New York, the BIPOC population earns half the median household income of white families and disproportionately works low wage jobs. Many low-income workers cannot afford to lose their earnings, and so they endure workplace abuse, employment discrimination, and unsafe working conditions. The Worker Protection Program is the first legal services program in the area that focuses exclusively on employment-related matters for low-income and low-wage earners.
In the first year of the Fellowship, Symone has:
In the next year, Symone plans to:
Growing up in a working-class family taught me that your wages do not determine whether you get to work with a sense of pride and dignity.
Symone Wango /
2021 Equal Justice Works Fellow
Host: Make the Road New York
Sponsor: Shearman & Sterling LLP, Thomson Reuters
Host: Equal Rights Advocates
Sponsor: Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP, Viacom
Host: Equal Justice Center
Sponsor: Texas Access to Justice Foundation
Host: New Orleans Workers' Center for Racial Justice
Sponsor: Norflet Progress Fund