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FALCON present awards to Amelia Nava (Advocate for
Community Service), Jeff Stewart (Advocate for Workers
Rights), farmworker Oswaldo Salinas, farmworker and farm
labor contractor Enedelia Cisneros, grower Dan Liskai,
and the Ohio Commission of Hispanic Latino Affairs.
The Teaching & Mentoring Communities (TMC) recognized the
work of FALCON with a resolution presented to Francisco
Espinoza.
Migrant Head Start, adult education, ESL, health clinics,
employment and consumer education, emergency and support
services all are provided for workers. FALCON agencies also
network with growers and employers to develop in-camp programs
and provide information, outreach, and referral regarding
programs and services.
For example, Advocates for Basic Legal Equality (ABLE)
performed a skit as part of a presentation on the president’s
administrative order not to deport DREAM Act-eligible young
people and what it may mean for families. ABLE
presenters/participants included Arturo Ortiz, Eugenio Mollo,
and Mark Heller.
A PathStone advocate, Heather Cruz, gave a similar
presentation on heat stress during what has been one of Ohio’s
hottest summers to date. Benito
Lucio Jr. is the
Ohio Migrant Agricultural Ombudsman (which is a division of
the ODJFS) was present and acted as a DJ.
But that advocacy work may have been strengthened by the
impression the event and FALCON’s work left on a top state
official. The director of Ohio
Dept. of Job and Family Services (JFS) attended the event
and saw a migrant farmworker camp for the first time in his
career.
“It really changed me,” admitted Ohio JFS Director Michael
Colbert. “It was really good to interact with their
children. Most of the time we couldn’t talk, because they didn’t
speak English—but the good part about it is you could see the
value system. They want the same thing for their children that
we want for our children. That’s the biggest thing.”
“I would believe that and I would hope that,” said Espinoza. “That
is one of the goals—the connections between the parties that
should be involved and sometimes that’s just for lack of
contact. It was a great honor and an opportunity to have the
director there so he could see firsthand what was going on.
That’s what you have to do. You have to have the contact. You
have to have the conversation.”
The FALCON chairman even appeared amazed that he ran across the
same ODJFS staffer in the fields for the second time this
summer, two days after the celebration “on the ground holding
tomato in hand.”
“To have that connection, that exchange of knowledge—the more
contact, the more knowledge that you have, hopefully, the better
and wiser the decisions that are made,” Espinoza said. “At least
they’re looking in this direction and that’s a positive sign.”
“There’s a journey for our migrant farm workers going from the
South to here—and that journey sometimes has hazards in the
road. If we can think about all this, I think we can make life
better for them,” said Colbert
Ohio JFS manages the state’s migrant farmworker program and may
have the biggest stake in those outcomes. About 13,700 migrant
farm workers travel to Ohio each year to help pick crops. Many
of them stay at the estimated 100 farmworker camps set up. Among
other duties, ODJFS caseworkers ensure the migrant worker
program is run properly in conjunction with the federal Dept. of
Labor. 70 percent of the farmworkers are estimated to be
undocumented, so the ODJFS director stated the need to get them
proper visas.
“It is critical that we have the workers we need to harvest these
crops. This is work that you’re not going to be able to find
Americans to do,” Colbert said. “They need good living
conditions. They bring their families, their children—and it’s
important that while they’re here in Ohio they’re comfortable so
they can do their work and go back home.”
ODJFS just released its 2012 migrant farmworker report. The results
remain basically the same: migrant workers and their families
still have basic unmet needs such as education, better housing,
and basic healthcare. The agency’s director has vowed to
strengthen the Columbus connection and try to improve those
conditions.
“How much they mean to our economy—without them, we don’t have an
agricultural economy. We as a state are going to have to start
looking at how they’re treated,” said Colbert. “We have to start
looking at their conditions, stop some of the local profiling.
We’re going to have to treat them humanely and make them feel
like we need them as much as they need us. Other states are
competing with us in agriculture and we don’t want them to take
the people we need to do this work.”
The ODJFS director traveled to the Fremont event to present a
proclamation on behalf of Ohio’s governor. Fremont Mayor Jim
Ellis also attended the appreciation picnic to present a
proclamation on behalf of that city. Growers came to lend
support.
In one afternoon, FALCON and its outreach workers showed the
migrant farmworkers how important and appreciated they are. But
conversations between the advocates and officials themselves may
have made the biggest one-day difference for their future trips
to Ohio to help harvest the state’s crops.
“This population in Ohio serves a great need and we have to treat
them as humanely as possible. We have to put away some of our
differences and look at the value, not only that they bring, but
that we can bring to them,” said Colbert. “We’ve got to come
together on this one.”
The ODJFS director admitted when all is said and done, there is no
difference between a migrant farmworker family and the rest of
Ohio.
“I think we all as a people need to understand that. What do we
want for our children? We want work. We want the ability for
them to get a good education. We want safety. We want to know
our families are safe,” said Colbert.
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