October, 2009

MCN is very pleased to announce the receipt of four new funding opportunities that will enable us to expand our reach and better serve you.

1. National Children’s Center for Rural and Agricultural Health and Safety - Technologies of Engagement

Using computer based scenarios to educate clinicians about real life hazards for adolescent farmworkers MCN will develop and evaluate an evidence-based online training module introducing primary care clinicians to relevant agricultural safety and health concerns pertaining to immigrant and migrant adolescent farmworkers. To fully explore agricultural risks and learn how to better care for migrant and immigrant adolescent farmworkers, the clinician will be guided in ways to recognize, manage and/or prevent agricultural related injuries, exposures and illnesses. The clinician will engage with a computer program that integrates experiential learning and uses an avatar character to walk the learner through a farm setting and identify risks along the way. For each hazard the avatar character identifies, an explanation of these risks and how to prevent such risks will be displayed. The module will include an interface that can be used by both the clinician and the adolescent farmworker. Using the same interface for both groups of participants will ultimately allow for a common context for communication between providers and patients. The educational content surrounding how to deal with those risks, however, will differ significantly for the clinician and farmworker.

2. Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Environmental Education - Salud – Environmental Health Education to Protect Farmworker Children from Pesticide Exposure in Puerto Rico

The Migrant Clinicians Network will partner with PathStone (a not-for-profit community development and human services organization) to provide environmental health education to farmworker parents in Puerto Rico. The program will train the trainers who will then educate farmworker families and provide them with appropriate materials in Spanish. Family members will learn how to evaluate their children’s risk of pesticide exposure and take necessary actions to reduce or eliminate that risk. The target audience is 180 farmworker families in rural and isolated communities in Puerto Rico (e.g. Utuado, Maricao, Adjuntas, Orocivis, Humacao and Santa Isabel.)

3. University Research Co., Center for Human Services

This contract is to provide bridge case management services through MCN’s Health Network,  to migrant farmworker and other high-risk pregnant women living with HIV/AIDS originating in Cumberland County, NJ.

4. Lance Armstrong Foundation – Survivorship Training for Promotora and Outreach Workers

The training is to ensure that cancer survivors who are also migrant workers have access to culturally-relevant tools and resources. LAF is contracting with MCN to train a network of Promotores using the LIVESTRONG Cancer Survivorship Training Curriculum. Trainings will be conducted at the East Coast, Midwest, and Western Migrant Stream Forums. Additionally, project funding will allow promotores and outreach workers at three migrant health centers to undergo the LIVESTRONG training.