Annual Reports
Annual Reports
2024 Annual Report
Major accomplishments:
- Expanding the Center’s External Advisory Board, budget, and online presence
- Building stronger collaborations between the Center’s core teams
- Connecting with over 450 farmworkers across 13 towns
- Strengthening partnerships with farmworker-serving organizations
- Presenting and publishing research findings
Key lessons from outreach work:
- The need for more visual rather than text-based training materials for farmworkers
- The importance of creating confidential spaces where farmworkers can share their experiences
- The insights that can be gained from field observations to better understand farmworkers’ lived realities
Next steps for the coming year:
- Deploying a tested survey tool measuring farmworker health and wellbeing
- Developing processes to detect, count, and prevent occupational pesticide illnesses in Illinois
- Deepening our understanding of farmworkers and labor supervisors’ perspectives on workplace heat safety clothing
- Producing more accurate recommendations regarding the kinds of drinks to use for fluid replacement to prevent heat-related illnesses
- Exploring the structure and importance of social networks within the farmworker community.
2023 Annual Report
Farmworkers are skilled workers, and they are essential to the US food supply chain. However, agricultural work is particularly risky, and farmworkers are arguably among the most vulnerable of all workers. Farmworkers are often migrants and in addition to their work-related risks, they may also experience stressors related to immigration, social isolation, and more.
The goal of the Great Lakes Center for Farmworker Health and Wellbeing (GLCFHW) is to ensure safe working conditions, fair and equitable employment, social protections, and access to healthcare for migrant and seasonal farmworkers. To achieve this goal, the center conducts original research to understand and improve the factors that affect farmworker health and wellbeing; collects, reports, and displays data on the location of farmworkers in Illinois (IL) and on the occupational injuries they experience; and partners with organizations that provide health, social, and legal supports to protect the health and wellbeing of farmworkers.
In November of 2023, the GLCFHW released its first ever annual report highlighting the progress of its inaugural year and the valuable lessons learned.