New Jersey: Cultivating Access, Rights, & Equity Grant Program 2026

The Cultivating Access, Rights, & Equity (CARE) Grant Program provides community-centered, culturally relevant, and language specific programming.

Donor Name: New Jersey Department of Labor & Workforce Development

State: New Jersey

County: All Counties

Type of Grant: Grant

Deadline: 11/20/2025

Size of the Grant: More than $1 million

Grant Duration: 1 Year

Details:

These benefits and protections can increase equity and economic stability. Still, many workers are unaware of these programs and face barriers to access due to various factors. Outreach, education, technical assistance, and NJDOL partnership with community based organizations can help overcome these barriers and improve access to these laws and programs:

Work Rights: NJDOL enforces state labor laws, including Earned Sick Leave, minimum wage, overtime, wage theft and wage payment, employee misclassification, and parts of the Temporary Workers’ Bill of Rights. NJDOL is mandated to develop and implement an Earned Sick Leave multi-lingual outreach programing.
Paid Family and Medical Leave: NJDOL is mandated to allocate funds to organizations for outreach and education on Paid Family and Medical Leave benefits (also known as Temporary Disability and Family Leave Insurance). Many workers, especially those earning less than $100,000 a year are unaware of these benefits or get incorrect information from employers.
Domestic Workers Bill of Rights: The FY26 Grant Program includes funding for outreach and education on the Domestic Workers’ Bill of Rights. NJDOL is mandated to fund community organizations with 5+ years of experience working with domestic workers and their service providers for outreach and education on the Domestic Worker Bill of Rights.
Unemployment Benefits: Due to technology barriers, accessing unemployment benefits can be difficult, especially for Black and Latino/x workers and workers with disabilities.

Grant Program Objectives

Help New Jersey workers understand and equitably access work rights, including the Domestic Workers’ Bill of Rights; Paid Family and Medical Leave benefits; and Unemployment benefits.
Help New Jersey employers understand and equitably comply with Wage and Hour Law and meet their obligations for Paid Family and Medical Leave and Unemployment benefits.
Build capacity among community-based organizations to educate and support a diverse range of workers and employers.
Promote language access by creating and sharing multi-lingual educational materials.
Enhance collaboration with NJDOL; have grantees and focus communities advise on policies and programming to better meet community needs, eliminate access barriers, and improve NJDOL’s outreach, education, administration, and communications. Support organizations that partner with and represent communities that are least likely to be aware of and most likely to have access challenges to benefits and protection; support strategies that address economic, social, racial, and gender inequities that contribute to lack of awareness and access; and establish community feedback loops to incorporate experiences of marginalized groups in outreach and education efforts.

Funding Information

The total amount of funding available for the Grant Program is $3 million for the current fiscal year, contingent upon the availability of funds. Grantees can apply for any of these topics, which each have their own funding streams:

$1,200,000 for Work Rights funded by the Workforce Development Partnership Fund (WDPF)
$800,000 for Temporary Disability Insurance and Family Leave Insurance funded by the State Disability Benefits Fund (SDBF)
$600,000 for Domestic Workers’ Bill of Rights funded by the Domestic Workers’ Bill of Rights budget appropriation
$400,000 for Unemployment Benefits funded by the WDPF.

Grant Period

The grant contract period lasts 12 months, from June 1, 2026 to May 31, 2027.

Focus Populations

Focus populations include low-wage workers, workers of color, immigrants, women, refugees, survivors of domestic/sexual violence, young workers, temporary workers, domestic workers, small and immigrant-owned businesses, and other employers that need helpful resources and assistance.

Eligibility Criteria

This grant is open to the following: