On Nov. 20 from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m., the Delano Guardians and Central Valley Empowerment Alliance (CVEA) will host a workshop in McFarland at the Church of the Living Savior, located at 149 Fifth Street. At this workshop, attorneys will be present to offer same-day legal services to community members who choose to attend.
The Delano Guardians, established in 2013, is an organization dedicated to helping the disenfranchised citizens of the Delano, McFarland, and Shafter area. They have been hosting legal clinics for community members who suspect that their workers’ rights have been violated, beginning in September 2025 at the Center on Race, Poverty, and the Environment (CRPE), in collaboration with CVEA.
CVEA is a foundation based in Popular, California, that operates within five counties, including Kings, Kern, Madera, Fresno, and Tulare Counties, to provide rural communities with needed services. They are recognized for their extensive work in youth programs, workshops, and food bank services. They are also the funding behind the workshops that the Delano Guardians are hosting.
“Without CVEA, we would not be able to host these events, which are all free. They have attorneys…They also provided care packages for the community who came out,” said Yolanda Vega, President of the Delano Guardians.
To receive services, it is mandatory to complete an intake form. CVEA or its attorneys will ask about current or past immigration status; however, everything is kept entirely confidential and protected by attorney-client privilege.
“If they attend our clinic, but they also want to be seen by an attorney and have a consultation that day, they can also do that,” said Vega. “If they wish to schedule a consultation with our attorneys, they must complete the intake form and provide the required documentation. If they don’t have that, it’s okay, they will still meet with them and ask for information that’s needed to proceed forward,” Vega also emphasized that the services are free.
CVEA’s sole mission is to bridge the gap in inequalities that plague rural communities, especially during this unprecedented time for community members of these rural communities. This specific workshop, showcasing workers and their rights, is part of CVEA’s mission to bring information and support to community members; they believe in the importance of uplifting community members.
“We also have health programs, we do a lot of events for health, to vaccinate people. We also have another program where we are working on building 100 apartments and homes in the Poplar community for low-income individuals. This program, which involves the legal clinic, we already have three lawyers in the organization, and we have been working very closely with the community,” said Nestor Ramos, financial coordinator for CVEA’s youth program.
Following McFarland’s legal clinic, the Delano Guardians plan to host their next clinic in Shafter sometime during January. Once all of the legal clinics have been hosted, CVEA hopes to bring an immigration clinic to Kern County.
“We are also trying to obtain resources to have attorneys specialized in immigration because of how the situation is right now. Apart from the worries about labor, the major worry is surrounding immigration. The same lawyers we have for workers’ rights are helping us find lawyers specialized in immigration,” mentioned Ramos.
Intake forms and consultations will also be available on the same day during McFarland’s legal clinic. For more information or to contact CVEA’s legal team, visit https://www.cvempowermentalliance.org/
