Advocacy for Unemployed Wisconsin Workers

Wisconsin's unemployed workers are in crisis, and they need your help. The COVID-19 pandemic has led to unprecedented job losses in Wisconsin. When workers lose their jobs, unemployment insurance is supposed to help them stay afloat while they find new work. But when workers' unemployment benefits are wrongfully denied, they can face hunger, foreclosure, or eviction.

That's where we come in. The Unemployment Compensation Appeals Clinic (UCAC) is a nonprofit group of volunteers--law students and supervising attorneys--who provide free advice and representation to workers who have lost their jobs but whose unemployment benefits have been denied. Over more than 30 years, our efforts have led to hundreds of thousands of dollars in benefits being paid to deserving clients--who then put that money right back into their local economies.

We've relied solely on small grants for funding up to this point, but the skyrocketing number of unemployed workers and increased competition for grants has stretched us to the breaking point. We operate on a shoestring budget, with only a single part-time employee. Even so, our current resources are simply inadequate to serve the numbers of unemployed Wisconsinites seeking our help. In fact, we are faced with the very real possibility that we may have to reduce the services we offer just when Wisconsinites need those services the most.

So for the first time in our history, we are asking for contributions directly from community members. Your donation of any amount will help ensure that UCAC's law students and attorneys can keep providing the help that Wisconsin's unemployed workers desperately need.

For more information on the challenges facing unemployed workers in Wisconsin, see this interview with two UCAC supervising attorneys, Marilyn Townsend and Victor Forberger; and this profile of a claimant receiving help from the UCAC and attorney Forberger.