Elisa Beltrán (she/her/ella)

Hi, my name is Elisa Beltrán and I’m a second year MSW student from Queens, NYC. My background is in political science, with concentrations in LGBTQ+ studies and community organizing. My goals as a social worker and community organizer are rooted in liberation through education and co-creating safe, affirming spaces for folks to thrive. In my first year of my social work education, I worked closely with undocumented domestic workers organizing within the cooperative movement. This was also at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, where many of the people I worked with lost their jobs, contracted COVID-19 due to lack of resources/ability to social distance as essential workers and were struggling to make income. I saw firsthand how much confusion and hope the Excluded Workers Fund stirred for undocumented domestic workers in NYC when it was passed. I come to this work with the goal of it being an educational resource and political tool that is an extension of the work already being done at the grassroots level around economic and labor justice.

Hola, me llamo Elisa Beltrán y soy una estudiante de maestría en trabajo social en mi segundo año. Nací y me crié en Queens, Nueva York de padres puertorriqueños. Mis experiencias están basadas en los estudios de ciencia política, estudios de la comunidad LGBTQ+ y organización comunitaria. Tengo mucho interés en la libertad a través de la educación y me encantaría trabajar con gente para crear una comunidad donde juntos podamos prosperar. En mi carrera escolar, he tenido experiencia en actividades y organización en defensa del movimiento cooperativista. Esta practica fue durante la altura de la pandemia COVID-19, donde las personas en el movimiento perdieron su trabajo, contrajeron COVID-19 como trabajadores esenciales sin acceso a equipo de protección, y lucharon para generar ingresos. Vi de primera mano que tanto confusión y fe generó el Fondo de Trabajadores Excluidos entre trabajadores domesticas indocumentadas en Nueva York cuando lo aprobaron. Vengo a este proyecto con la meta de que pueda ser un recurso educacional y una técnica política que es un extension del los organizaciones comunitarias que han desarrollado este trabajo en defensa de la justicia económica.

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Anthony Ritosa (he/him/his)

Anthony is a 2nd year student intern at True Colors United and a MSW candidate at the Silberman School of Social Work. He earned a BFA in drama from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts with a minor in applied theatre, and completed artEquity’s artist/activist facilitator training as part of the 2017 cohort. Anthony has used his arts background, facilitator training, and passion for community to organize LGBTQ+related, co-educational, community-building events in and around NYC. In 2018, Anthony worked on Restore Your Vote, a voting rights restoration campaign for folks with past felony convictions in Reno, Nevada. He spent 3 months in Paris of 2019 volunteering for Rainbold Society, a French organization building housing for older LGBTQ+ adults in France. From 2020 to 2021, Anthony worked as a community organizing intern at the Silberman Center for Sexuality & Gender. A grandchild of displaced persons from the former Yugoslavia, Anthony is interested in international social work that supports migration as a human right. He enjoys learning new languages as new ways of connecting and understanding the great diversity of human experience.

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Andrew Shvaiko (he/him/his)

Andrew is a 2nd year student intern at the Retail, Wholesale, and Department Store Union. He is an MSW candidate at the Silberman School of Social Work. He earned a BA in Creative Writing from CUNY Hunter College with a minor in History. Throughout the course of his undergraduate study, Andrew worked as a barista and interned for the Mayor’s Office for People with Disabilities NYC: ATWORK initiative, which supports people with disabilities with finding meaningful employment. During Andrew’s first year of graduate school, he interned at Kurt Hahn High School. As a second generation immigrant of parents from the Soviet Union, Andrew is invested in advocating for the rights of immigrants and refugees. Some of his passions include cooking, playing retro video games, hiking, and writing. 

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Maya Street-Sachs (she/her/hers)

My name is Maya Street-Sachs and I am a second year MSW graduate student at the Silberman School of Social Work at Hunter College.  My social work and general job experience has had me working with and for excluded and undocumented workers. From working as a case manager at a family therapy program at Children’s Aid to working with unaccompanied minors at the border trying to be reunited with their family in the United States, to my current internship with Make the Road NY at a high school in Bushwick, Brooklyn that caters to a largely undocumented community, I personally have been able to see how excluded workers and their families are what keep NYC going, especially during the pandemic. However, we as a society often do not see the labor that these workers do as worthy of economic and social support.  They are food delivery workers and domestic workers: those who have brought us food during this pandemic, kept our offices clean, and cared for our loved ones. I am honored to be able to dive more deeply with my fellow social workers and researchers in order to educate the public on the Excluded Workers Fund and the importance of adding to this fund so that it can continue to help this important community that sustains our city.

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