Migrant Clinicians Network Receives Aetna Grant for Health Education for Farmworker Parents

Tue, 10/31/2017 | by Claire Hutkins Seda

child reading a book with her dad

[Editor’s Note: Congratulations to our Environmental and Occupational Health team in Salisbury, Maryland! This new grant will go far in serving migratory agricultural worker families along the East Coast. Here’s the press release; learn more about Aetna at www.aetnafoundation.org]

Migrant Clinicians Network has been selected as a grantee in the Aetna Foundation’s Cultivating Healthy Communities program and was awarded a $100,000 community grant to implement a new program entitled, It Takes a Community: Protecting Farmworker Children from Environmental Contaminants.

Each year, thousands of farmworkers move between Florida and Maryland for seasonal work. Many of them migrate with their families. Migrant farmworker children are disproportionately exposed to environmental hazards including pesticides, lead, and contaminated water. It Takes Community will bring innovative, culturally appropriate health education to farmworker parents who utilize East Coast Migrant Head Start Project (ECMHSP) while migrating for work along the East Coast. By utilizing a “train the trainer” model, It Takes a Community will give hundreds of farmworker parents education and tools to better protect their children from the many environmental hazards that they face.

The Cultivating Healthy Communities program awarded over $2 million in grants to 25 nonprofit organizations in 14 states to advance the Aetna Foundation’s mission to improve health at the local level. Grantees are working on projects that will address social determinants of health such as improving access to healthy foods, promoting biking and physical activity and reducing exposure to air and water contaminants. The grantees were chosen based on the strength of their strategies to improve the health of their communities in at least one of five domains: healthy behaviors, community safety, built environment, social/economic factors and environmental exposures.

Migrant Clinicians Network’s Amy Liebman, Director of Environmental and Occupational Health and project lead, is honored to be chosen by the Aetna Foundation, and notes that It Takes a Community is in step with MCN’s decades of work to improve health for farmworker families.

“The families of those who put food on our tables are often the most exposed to harmful chemicals,” Liebman emphasized. “MCN is excited to work hand-in-hand with our local Migrant Head Start centers to carry out this important program.” On the heels of national crises regarding lead in tap water, and amid frequent reports of pesticide poisonings, drifts, and misuse, It Takes a Community comes at a critical time to address serious threats to farmworker children’s health through a program that empowers farmworker families through community-based education.

“The Aetna Foundation is committed to addressing the social determinants of health in order to reduce health disparities,” said Dr. Garth Graham, president of the Aetna Foundation. “By identifying community-specific challenges, and unique ways to combat them, this year’s grantees are a shining example of organizations who strive to make a measurable and positive local health impact. We are honored to contribute towards the great work they are doing in pursuit of health equity.”

This funding addresses the need to improve opportunities for all Americans—regardless of income, education or ethnic background—to take an active role in living healthier lives. For more information on the Cultivating Healthy Communities program visit, visit www.aetnafoundation.org.