2024 Farmworker Justice Conference

In this session, participants will learn about a Farmworker MLP started two years ago by Central West Justice Center’s Seasonal and Migrant Farmworker Unit in collaboration with “La Cliniquita” a farmworker clinic at the Baystate Brightwood Health Center in Springfield Massachusetts. This MLP is based on guidance from patients, community health workers, the workers center, and other community organizations. The partnership embeds a lawyer into the healthcare team to help patients with health harming legal needs, lead trainings for patients and providers, and advocate for policy change to eliminate systemic inequities at the state level. Participants will also learn about Legal Services of New Jersey's Workers Rights and Farmworker Project, another example of community collaboration to improve health and wellness outcomes for farmworkers. In this session we will share the models we have developed and explore the challenges, successes, and takeaways from our experiences. Participants will engage in conversations about how embedding legal services within community-based farmworker medical clinics can help eliminate barriers for farmworkers and will leave with models and key takeaways to help them think about how an MLP or similar partnership could be implemented in their own states and communities.