A.
Specific Aims (.75 page)Migrant and seasonal farmworkers and their families are exposed to numerous environmental andoccupational health hazards, and they experience high rates of injuries and illnesses. The hazards theyexperience include substandard and crowded housing, exposure to pesticides, metals and other toxicants,separation from family, poverty and discrimination. As a result of these hazards, farmworkers and their familymembers experience high rates of traumatic injury, infectious disease, neurological illnesses, delayedneurobehavioral development, and mental illness. At the same time, farmworkers have limited access tohealth services due to low incomes, no health insurance, and widely dispersed migrant clinics. Efforts todocument the health hazards and illnesses that farmworkers experience have expanded. However, theinvolvement of farmworkers in the conduct of research that addresses their health hazards and illnesses, andthe communication of research results to farmworkers in forms that they can understand and use remainlimited.The community-based participatory research (CBPR) partnership proposed in this application has two longtermgoals. The first goal is to promote collaboration between health scientists and members of the migrantand seasonal farmworker community so that farmworkers have a greater voice in selecting and conductingresearch that addresses their health. The second goal is to enhance farmworkers' understanding ofbiomedical and behavioral science so that they can better use this knowledge to improve their health andquality of life. We will build this partnership on an existing framework of the community-based organizationsand agencies that comprise the Farmworker Advocacy Network (FAN) and health scientists at Wake ForestUniversity School of Medicine (WFUSM).As a first step toward attaining these long-term goals, this project will achieve three specific aims. In thisproject we will1. Develop a framework for ongoing collaboration between FAN community-based organizations andagencies and WFUSM.2. Build the capabilities among FAN community-based organizations and agencies to participate inresearch on the health and quality of life of migrant and seasonal farmworkers.3. Identify, implement and evaluate effective approaches to communicate the results of health scienceto migrant and seasonal farmworkers.At the end of this project, the FAN/WFUSM partnership will be in a position to collaborate effectively in theconduct of research addressing farmworker health and to communicate the results of this research tofarmworkers in a form that they can use. The FAN/WFUSM will also be in a position to use their collaborationto translate their research results to inform policy that will improve regulations that affect the health and qualityof life of farmworkers.
