Variety: "Anita Hill’s Hollywood Commission is partnering with CIW, the presidential medal-winning human rights organization, to help 'create a blueprint to address and prevent misconduct in independent production companies.'” Hollywood Commission Chair Anita Hill: "Building on the existing work of the Hollywood Commission, this partnership will help us...forge a safer and more equitable workplace environment in Hollywood." News of the CIW's partnership with the Hollywood Commission has been hitting the headlines! Yesterday, Variety, Yahoo! News, and The Wrap spread the word about this freshly-launched collaboration, underscoring both the longstanding abuses affecting workers in the entertainment industry and the unique potential of the Fair Food Program model to help build a path to a more dignified, more equitable work environment in Hollywood. Here are some quick highlights from yesterday's news coverage, starting with Variety: Anita Hill’s Hollywood Commission has partnered with Coalition of Immokalee Workers, the presidential medal-winning human rights organization that works to prevent sexual violence in agriculture and other industries. Together, the organizations will develop a third-party pilot to protect workers at independent production companies and support those companies’ efforts to prevent workplace misconduct. “There are myriad lessons for Hollywood to glean from the approach, execution and success of CIW and the Fair Food Program in eradicating sexual harassment from an industry devoid of accountability and rife with abuse,” said Hill in a statement. “Building on the existing work of the Hollywood Commission, this partnership will help us create a blueprint to address and prevent misconduct in independent production companies, and ultimately, we hope, forge a safer and more equitable workplace environment in Hollywood.” Yahoo! News provided a more in-depth look (originally printed in the Hollywood industry news outlet Deadline) at the new partnership, underscoring the particular vulnerability of the independent production companies for which the blueprint generated by the collaboration by the CIW and the Commission will be built: The Anita Hill-led Hollywood Commission has partnered with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers to develop a pilot program to protect workers at independent production companies from workplace misconduct. Founded in 1993 to protect the rights of farmworkers, the CIW received the 2014 Presidential Medal for its efforts at combatting human trafficking, and was featured prominently in Rape in the Fields, a PBS Frontline exposé of sexual abuse of migrant farmworkers. “Independent production companies face a number of unique challenges,” the commission said in a statement. “They are often small in size and lack adequate resources and internal expertise to put systems in place that prevent workplace misconduct. In addition, victim reporting options at these companies are limited and at times require victims to bring complaints to their abuser.” And The Wrap – one of the entertainment industry's main news hubs – provided some additional background on the Commission itself and its intensive efforts to identify and address the systemic issues of workplace misconduct that, even after the wave of public accountability prompted by the #MeToo movement, continues to plague the industry: Anita Hill’s Hollywood Commission has been working tirelessly to protect workers from issues of misconduct at major studios and companies across the entertainment industry, but their latest effort turns attention to the independent production companies where resources are slim and oversight is harder to control. The Hollywood Commission, which is chaired by Hill and founded by Kathleen Kennedy and Nina Shaw, notes that many of the industry’s independent production houses are often small in size and lack adequate resources or internal expertise to put systems in place that prevent workplace misconduct. What’s more, victim reporting options at these companies are very limited, and the only place victims have to report their complaints could be to their abuser. But based on data from the commission’s survey of entertainment workers, many who work on smaller productions were less likely to report egregious forms of sexual harassment or abuse than those on larger productions. They were also less likely to know about existing resources to address workplace conduct or didn’t see accountability if they did report it. Make sure to stay tuned in over the months ahead for more on this exciting, and truly unprecedented, cross-sector partnership. We are glad for the opportunity to apply some of the hard-won lessons from Immokalee in collaboration with the Hollywood Commission to one of the entertainment industry's most vulnerable sectors, and forge a path toward a more respectful, safer work environment for Hollywood's workforce. ‌ Coalition of Immokalee Workers (239) 657 8311 | [email protected] | www.ciw-online.org Connect with us ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ Coalition of Immokalee Workers | 110 S 2nd St, Immokalee, FL 34142 Unsubscribe [email protected] Constant Contact Data Notice Sent by [email protected] powered by Try email marketing for free today!