Migrant & Farmworker Health
The Significance of the Winchester Heights Community Center
Unsurprisingly, the infrastructure deficits Winchester Heights residents face are not uncommon in the Southwest. Nearly half a million people in Arizona and New Mexico alone, live in unincorporated neighborhoods designated as colonias: rural communities within 150 miles of the US/Mexico border whose main characteristic is lack of infrastructure needed to support public health. SEAHEC’s Healthy Farms Program provides a replicable model for addressing root causes of the persistent public health problems colonia residents’ face: lack of community capacity to address infrastructure deficits. At the same time, Healthy Farms’ training opportunities for health professions students and community health workers helps to build our rural health care workforce.
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Since 2008, SEAHEC has been working in collaboration with Chiricahua Community Health Center and the Arizona-Mexico Commission to promote farmworker health in Cochise County by addressing both access to health services and workplace health, safety, and sanitation conditions. Healthy Farms Campos Saludables works with both farmers and farmworkers to provide health education and preventive services, and linking them to clinical care and technical assistance for workplace safety and sanitation. The Arizona-Mexico Commission’s Health Committee offers an annual Healthy Farms Recognition to farms meeting high standards in health, safety, and sanitation, which can be used to attract consumers concerned about farmworker health.
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Watch a Documentary about the Winchester Heights Community Center
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Immigration 360º - SEAHEC MPH Intern, Victoria Lanza, developed this summer while conducting her field practicum from Columbia University School of Public Health, with SEAHEC here in Nogales.
Immigration 360° is an 8-part podcast series that discusses immigration occurring at the Arizona/Mexico border from various perspectives. The purpose of this series is to simultaneously serve as a tool for advocacy and to increase awareness of immigration at the US Southern border. Episode will be released weekly on Tuesdays.
MILAGRO – Migration Leading to Action & Growth: In the Fall of 2018, we witnessed an increase in people seeking asylum at the United States- México border, with an increase in need for humanitarian response and relief to assist asylum seekers. Our southern Arizona border was not exempt from this. From this needed response a collaboration between faculty and staff from the University of Arizona Health Sciences (Public Health, Pharmacy, Nursing and Medicine), Arizona State University School of Social Work, Casa Alitas Migrant Shelter and SEAHEC formed with the goal of providing students an opportunity to participate in action oriented interdisciplinary service-learning. The MILAGRO course gives students first hand experiences of what this humanitarian crisis looked like as well as exposes them to root causes of migration, im/migration policies, the specific health needs of this population and the opportunity to participate in collaborative response to address migrant humanitarian needs in Southern Arizona and Northern Mexico.
For more on migrant health project descriptions, see Community Initiatives page.
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