Surely, the above description is an extreme one, but nonetheless, it is shockingly true. Had these men, and the residents of Farmingville better understood the benefits of day worker centers, these day laborers may have never been attacked. As the number of day laborers in the nation grow -- there are almost 118,000 each day waiting for work-- there becomes an impressive need for information on how to handle this influx.

Purpose: to present a clear and accessible information source for members of small community dealing with an influx of immigrant day workers. The site will specifically focus on day-worker centers, one method used by many community to organize and protect workers, and respond to neighborhood concerns. Currently, community members face  problems with traffic, worry about their safety and the safety of their children, and wonder whether they are losing jobs and money to day workers, many whom are not citizens. With this website, I will attempt to address these issues and demonstrate how worker centers can alleviate these concerns. In the end, I hope that site goers will support day worker centers, and lobby for one in their town if the demand for a center is present.

Method: I plan to present the information on the history of centers, the services they provide, and how they address town-wide concerns. I have broken my website up into five different pages

1) Understanding Worker Centers which will explain what worker centers are, how they came to be, and the main services they most often provide

2) Understanding Immigrant Workers which will delve into who the workers are, what they want, and other statistics or information that may be helpful to community members

3) How Worker Centers Solve Problems which will begin with a very clear chart outlined the problems community members currently face, and how each issues is countered and solves by worker centers

4) The Future of Worker Centers which will describe what is in store for the future, and what community members should be thinking about

5) Putting a Face on the Issues which will spotlight a few day laborers and tell their stories of how they came to be a day laborer, and the troubles and triumphs they have since experienced. I also hope to interview some employees of the workers, and some employees of the worker center.

Milestones: In putting up my website, I will first research centers for background information. From there, I will investigate more current issues facing the centers, the workers, and community members. After I feel I have a significant grasp on the issues, I will go to Mountain View Day Worker Center to interview workers. Once compiling my information and creating this website, I will begin "advertising." This is more clearly described in the section labeled "Go To Market."

Time Frame: As the political and social tides change, I expect to have to alter the content of my site.  Political changes will probably include changes in laws or immigration policy, which may have dramatic effects on day worker centers. Social changes can include the increased or decreased prevalence or workers or worker centers.

Resources: Internet, Google, Mountain View Day Worker Center, Research by Janice Fine, Government data and papers.

Positioning:  I plan to target community members with a very limited knowledge base on day workers. These community members will likely live in small to medium sized towns and suburbs where national coverage and relief is not likely. It is also likely that the people seeking information are people willing to learn and understand more about workers and worker centers and who are eager to make change in their neighborhoods.  Unlike most other websites that tackle this issue, I will avoid technical language. More importantly, I will avoid attacks on undocumented immigrants, in hopes of presenting a tasteful, clear documentation of day workers and day worker centers. 

Below is a Magic Quadrant representation of the market for information on worker centers. In investigating the "web space" in which my website will fit, I found that competing and complementary sites differed in two ways: they were either very informative, and yet too technical, or they were very personable, but delivered little actionable information. I plan to create my website so that it is both informative and personable.

 

Go To Market: As well as making my website available via search engines, I also plan to tell local government officials, and worker centers about my website. This way, citizens who go to either of these sources to express concerns about day workers can receive supplemental, easy to access information from my site as well. 

last edit: 5/25/08
Samantha Penabad