California's COVID-19 Workplace Outreach Project (CWOP): Evaluating strategies to improve knowledge and behavioral outcomes among low-income workers

Behavior Change and Communication

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Research Updates

Updated January 2025
We explore the role that government-community partnerships can play in informing and empowering low-wage workers in California on their workplace rights and protections. Using two surveys and a set of qualitative interviews, we provide insights about one prominent example of this type of partnership: the California COVID-19 Workplace Outreach Project (CWOP). We find that many vulnerable workers in the state are unaware of their workplace protections, hesitant to file formal complaints and distrustful of government. Our interviews, as well as a survey experiment, further indicate that partnering with community organizations can help government deliver critical information to hard-to-reach populations. Findings from this project can be used to inform decisions around the future of the CWOP program, as well as similar projects that rely on “trusted messengers” to connect with vulnerable communities.

Proposed Research and Background

To mitigate the spread of COVID-19, California’s Labor and Workforce Development Agency (LWDA) created the California CWOP. CWOP aims to educate low-wage workers in industries that were disproportionately affected by the pandemic, to increase their knowledge about how to prevent the spread and mitigate the harm of COVID-19, as well as to build awareness and understanding of workplace safety laws, paid sick leave rights, and other COVID-19 related labor laws. CWOP also provides referrals and information about how to get vaccinated, seek assistance with enforcement of COVID-19 worker protections, and get access to public benefits.

Our project leverages behavioral science insights and rigorous research methods to identify what outreach strategies are most effective at improving knowledge and behavioral practices of low-wage workers who are most vulnerable due to COVID-19 and other public health threats. It will test various outreach strategies within a subset of CBOs, varying the content delivered and who delivers those messages. This project will enhance our understanding of how outreach strategies can be tailored for groups that are often hard-to-reach, or most vulnerable to being overlooked by the status quo. Implementation of this project will be carried out in close partnership with certain CBOs, thereby allowing for real-world measurement of outcomes before the scaling up of targeted strategies across a wider set of contexts and populations.

Findings from this project will be used to inform program evaluation across a more diverse set of populations and geographies. In addition, the evaluation has the potential to inform decisions around similar projects that rely on “trusted messengers” to deliver critical information to hard-to-reach populations across California.