2012 National Farmworker Health Conference

Migrant Health Centers are the early pioneers of the Health Center Movement. The Migrant Health Program that was written into the Public Health Service Act of 1962 set forth new thinking in this country that health care is a basic human right. It was the precursor of major social change in a decade of the 60’s when the nation awakened to the poverty and hardship of a population for outside the mainstream. Migrant Health Centers became the model for community health centers nationwide with their core components of outreach, patient education, bilingual services, culturally-sensitive care, and community action and empowerment.