5 apps to help change the world

Home caregiving is one of the fastest growing jobs in the United States. Yet home health aides and other domestic workers, like nannies and cleaners, have very little protection under federal labor laws.

When New York became the first state to pass a domestic worker bill of rights, the National Domestic Workers Alliance collaborated with the women and minority-led non-profit art studio, Studio REV, to create an app to educate these workers about their rights.

Marisa Jahn, executive director of Studio REV, said the studio consciously decided to design something that would be accessible to those who aren't that tech savvy and may not have pricey smartphones.

A call-in service connects workers to fictional, educational audio episodes about domestic workers rights and common employee-employer scenarios.

Interactive questions educate workers while simultaneously collecting data to gather more information for research. A text can state the percentage of domestic workers that have written contracts with their employers and ask users to dial 1 if they have a contract or 2 if they don't.

More states have signed domestic worker protections into law. And with home caregivers soon to become eligible for minimum wage and overtime pay for the first time under federal law, Jahn says the app, available in English and Spanish and in national and state-specific versions, is more important than ever.

Available on any cell phone.

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