Working Partnerships is a public policy institute that builds partnerships with community, labor, and faith to improve the lives of working families in Silicon Valley. 

A message from Working Partnerships
Executive Director Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins

Photo of Phaedra.

Today, I'm announcing my resignation as Executive Director of Working Partnerships USA, effective April 17.

I am very pleased to report that I leave the organization in excellent position to continue its good work, and with a renewed sense of what smart, organized activists can accomplish.

In my nearly six years leading the organization - thanks to the efforts of an exceptional staff, the support of visionary foundations and other funders, and a community willing to join us in difficult fights - we've developed crucial new policies and broadened public understanding of the challenges faced by working families and the middle class.

We implemented the first Community Benefits policy in the country; founded a national network of like-minded urban policy incubators, the Partnership for Working Families; introduced new policy and training methods to get workers better, greener jobs; expanded access to healthcare for children and families, including through the innovative Healthy Workers program; instantiated an annual report on the diminishment of the middle class; trained community leaders on how to address key challenges; and engaged people of faith directly in the fight for justice.

Each of those accomplishments required our eponymous partnerships. They required new thinking and a willingness to take bold action. It's a testament to all of us that these ventures were successful, when they very easily could not have been.

I am leaving to lead Green For All, an organization that will allow me to both build on work we've done here and explore new ways in which to bolster the middle class while protecting the environment. I'm enthusiastic, of course, but humbled by the new challenge and sad to leave behind so many talented, generous friends.

I look forward to working with all of you again, and wish you all luck in your endeavors as you have given support to ours.

For information on current projects, please read our new blog!

Working Partnerships is a public policy and research institute that builds partnerships with community groups, labor unions, and faith based organizations to improve the lives of working families in Silicon Valley. 

By combining the skills of research and policy development, advocacy, and organizing, we create innovative, practical solutions to problems facing working people and the middle class.  Our accomplishments include winning a living wage for workers in San Jose, pioneering universal health insurance for children in Santa Clara County, and ensuring that public subsidies for local economic development are accountable to the community.

We strive to create replicable and scalable models for action and to share these statewide and nationally.


Since the organization began, Working Partnerships USA has researched and released a series of ground-breaking reports which provide factual analysis of a variety of issues. The work ranges from assessments of the impact of the evolving Silicon Valley economy on the lowest-paid Valley residents, to a look at the investment of taxpayer money through public subsidies.