Material Solidarity
Caravans
deliver
FSSW’s trained volunteers answer requests from organizations of seasonal and service workers for hands-on assistance.
Learn while doinG
How you can make the biggest impact
Sign up for an organizer training program and learn practical organizing skills along with the history of labor organizing to advance FSSW’s work through joining trained organizers on caravans to Medford and Alaska, as well as day trips to Hillsboro. During caravans organizers participate on medical and legal sessions with volunteer professionals, learn benefit advocacy, community outreach as well as run distributions of food, clothing and seasonal supplies.
Unite neighbors
Lead Neighborhood Food Drives that fill urgent requests from workers’ organizations.
Collectivize support
Run logistics for the tens of thousands of pounds of food, clothing and other supplies FSSW delivers.
Build campaigns
Back the demands of low-income workers’ associations.
Train others
Turn what you learn into shared organizational capacity.
How material support works
A request starts the caravan
Organizations of workers decide what they need because those workers are the ones suffering from the problem and therefore know best what they need in order to solve it.
It begins with a request
Organizations of low-paid workers who are fighting to change their own poverty conditions make a request for assistance to FSSW.
Workers decide
FSSW inspires a campaign
FSSW organizers put out the call and start collecting the requested resources, working with individuals, businesses and others.
uniting allies
FSSW launches the caravan
FSSW trained organizers caravan to low-income worker organizations with donated resources to assist in the organizing work any way needed.
finish the route
Trained volunteers make the difference
Caravan & day trips
Note: Map not to scale, OR and WA combined fit inside Alaska 3.5 times!
Northwest
Caravan locations
Select one of the three locations below to learn more about the regular caravans of volunteers, food and supplies that reach organizations of low-income workers in those areas.
Washington County
Hillsboro, Oregon
Day trips to Western Farm Workers Association position trained FSSW volunteers to assist on Operation Camp Crew to visit the farm workers at their housing on the farms, canvasses in low-income neighborhoods, advocating to stop utility disconnections, assisting with large preventive medical sessions and more.
- Farm workers
- Nursery workers
- Landscapers
- Construction workers
Jackson County
Medford, Oregon
Caravans of trained volunteer organizers spend a weekend or more organizing with Northwest Seasonal Workers Association (NSWA). Caravaners assist with distributions of food and clothing, organizing events and anything else needed by NSWA’s members.
- Reforestation
- Wildland firefighters
- Farm workers
- Tourism workers
The Last Frontier
Anchorage, Alaska
Trained volunteer organizers assist Alaska Workers Association for longer stints, building worker-led campaigns, expanding its benefit program and reaching distant, rural workers across the state.
- Fish processors
- Tourism workers
- Part-time workers
- Oil & gas workers
Facts about Oregon
$6.7B
Agricultural products
the total sale of agriculture products each year
70K+
Farm jobs
farm workers hired by farms and ranches statewide
Oregon crops rank in the U.S.
#1
Blackberries
#2
Blueberries
#2
Pears
#4
Strawberries
Facts about Alaska
+22.8%
Anchorage living costs
above the U.S. urban average.
21,000
Seafood processing jobs
accounts for 70% of Alaska’s manufacturing employment.
48%
Alaska native villages
are off the road system.
44%
Alaska Native housing
is severely overcrowded.