Well-being and health of migrant agricultural workers and their families

Proyecto Bienestar (PB), a community-academic partnership addressing environmental and occupational health issues among Hispanic farm workers in Washington's Yakima valley has existed for 7 years. The partnership involves the Northwest Community Education Center, the Yakima Valley Farmworkers Clinic and Heritage University in the Yakima valley and the University of Washington. First funded by an NIEHS grant, which supported data gathering and prioritization of community environmental and occupational health issues, it has since been successful in obtaining funding from other sources to address several important issues in the valley. One such source is the Partners in Research program (PIR). With support from the PIR, PB has created a virtual radio family whose different members and acquaintances confront environmental and occupational health issues commonly faced by Hispanic farm working families in the Yakima valley. The issues are based on the original PB prioritization. KDNA is the only nonprofit Spanish speaking radio station in the valley and is run by NCEC, one of the PB partners. The signal range reaches the 4th largest migrant population in the US. Each of the 4 “radionovelas” developed under the PIR funding airs for one month in 5-15 minute segments and is preceded and followed by a live call in with an expert on the novella topic. The novellas are written by KDNA's production staff and vetted by the project. The actors are local talent. The Chavida family's impact on the community knowledge will be assessed using before and after community surveys on the novella topics.