Association of Farmworker Opportunity Programs

Washington Newsline: All your news for AFOP & NFJP 📰 -

🇺🇸 Happy 4th from the Washington Newsline! For those who may not be aware, Congress each year recesses for roughly a month in August to let members get out of Washington, D.C., maybe take a congressional delegation trip abroad, or, more likely, head home to meet with constituents and take a needed breather. Taking advantage of that strong de...

🚨Deadline extended to July 15! 🚨 Are you interested in presenting to a motivated group of awesome farmworker service providers? Then this opportunity is for you!

➡️Click here to submit your proposal: https://bit.ly/AFOP2024.
➡️Click here for more information about our conference: https://afop.org/2024-national-conference/

📢Are you interested in presenting to a motivated group of awesome farmworker service providers? Then this opportunity is for you! Click here to submit your proposal: https://bit.ly/AFOP2024. https://afop.org/2024-national-conference/

Click here for more information about our conference: https://afop.org/2024-national-conference/

Happy NFAW! 👩‍🌾 Read our latest Washington Newsline: all the news you need for AFOP & NFJP! This edition touches on all the different ways you can celebrate farmworkers for this National Farmworker Awareness Week!

March WNL: Celebrating Farmworkers 👩‍🌾 Monday March 25th, 2024, marked the beginning of AFOP’s favorite time of year: National Farmworker Awareness Week (NFAW)! NFAW is a chance for us all to stop and reflect on the importance of farmworkers, something that can never be overstated.

👋 We've been a little quiet over here, but just wanted to say hi! Also, check out these "Stories of change from America's farms", an insightful series of short podcasts from NPR. We especially love the first one about José, a farmworker-turned-activist.

Stories of Change From America's Farms From an exponential increase in visitor work visas, to new overtime laws, farm work is undergoing big changes

The Washington Newsline - Happy Holidays! 🦃 -

The Washington Newsline - Happy Holidays! 🦃

¡Págame! Latinas across industries and sectors were paid 52 cents to the dollar paid to white men in 2022. This results in lost pay amounting to over 1 MILLION dollars throughout a 40-year career.

via Justice for Migrant Women

Latinas across industries and sectors were paid 52 cents to the dollar paid to white men in 2022. This results in lost pay amounting to over 1 MILLION dollars throughout a 40-year career.

Join the day of action on October 5, 2023 to make our voices heard!

Visit www.latinaequalpay.org for information, resources & to find an event near you.

Together, let’s say ¡PÁGAME! this Day. Labor Council for Latin American Advancement (LCLAA) Weallgrow Latina

The Washington Newsline - Fall Edition 🍁 - https://mailchi.mp/42547912b95d/washington-newsline-july2023-8929576
See what we're up to!

The Washington Newsline - Fall Edition! 🍁

The results are in! Take a few moments to read the amazing essays that farmworker children wrote in response to this year's theme, "The children behind the food we eat."

The results are in! Take a few moments to appreciate the beautiful artwork that farmworker children created in response to this year's theme, "The children behind the food we eat"!

A message for this Labor Day weekend: "The Association of Farmworker Opportunity Programs, the federation of non-profit organizations committed to helping farmworkers secure stable and rewarding employment, salutes on Labor Day the underappreciated, yet massively vital, American agricultural labor force. Despite stifling heat and humidity, freezing temperatures, pesticide exposure, and remoteness from everyday things like grocery stores, schools, and community, these workers are up before dawn to work into the night, providing all of us with the produce we eat every day. It is only fitting that these laborers, the essential farmworkers, be recognized for the invaluable contribution they make to society. Through the immensely successful National Farmworker Jobs Program (NFJP), AFOP members provide crucial job training and other support services to citizen- and work-authorized-farmworkers. NFJP is the bedrock of the nation’s almost 60-year commitment to helping agricultural workers upgrade their skills in and outside agriculture, providing employers with what they increasingly say they need: hardworking, committed, well-trained, skilled workers." - Daniel Sheehan, AFOP's Executive Director

The WNL Summertime Scoop - all you need to know about the National Farmworker Jobs Program -

The WNL Summertime Scoop ☀️

Did you know the C.A.R.E. Act (Children's Act for Responsible Employment and Farm Safety) was reintroduced in Congress today?

deserve to be safe from work hazards and to have the same protections as minors working in any other industry.

Children as young as 12 work legally on farms, despite years of efforts to change law As some states look to roll back child labor laws, Democrats in Congress introduce a bill to increase protections for children working in agriculture that would raise the minimum age to 14.

Washington Newsline - May 2023 -

What is around the next bend ? ❓

Thank you to all of our members and partners who participated in this campaign!!! 🙌 If you didn't get the chance - mark your calendars to join next year!

💜Thank you to our more than 38 Partner Organizations who joined our campaign!💜
Last day of joining on their 2023 Nat’l Farmworker Women’s Health Week. During the last week we have been aiming to raise awareness about the amazing contributions farmworker women have given to society while facing daily challenges due to inequity in access to health, wages, and education.

The goal has been to create a lasting conversation about the health issues facing farmworker women as well as support for programs and efforts that work to educate and mitigate those health problems, thus improving overall farmworker women’s health education with more than 30 partner organizations nation-wide.

To learn more about this movement and ways you can donate or get involved please visit:
https://afop.org/nfwhw/

What action can you take to support Nat’l Farmworker Women’s Health Week? 👉Follow AFOP Health & Safety for more messages about 's health!

THIS WEEK!! Let's show up for Farmworker women's health!

It starts TODAY💜 2023 National Farmworker Women’s Health Week. is a public awareness campaign aimed at increasing public consciousness and understanding of the health risks farmworker women face and as an extension, their families from working in the fields. NFWHW will be celebrated from May 14-20, 2023.

Stay tuned to our content this week to learn about topics like:
👉Pesticide exposure can harm the health of farmworker women and their unborn children
👉Farmworker women play a vital role in the household and socio-economically
👉Farmworker women deserve equality (Pay gap, healthcare-mental health and workplace harassment)

We created this illustration as a reminder of the fact that feed us🍉🥭🍇🍍🍑🍌

AFOP is proud to have signed on to this letter urging reform in our child labor laws. The time to act was yesterday, but the next best option is NOW!

Children must be protected from harm. Recent reporting from the U.S. Department of Labor shows an increase in child labor and the exploitation of migrant children. We have joined other concerned organizations to call on the U.S. Government to take urgent action. Read our letter: https://humanityunited.org/urgent-action-needed-to-protect-children-from-labor-exploitation/

In hard-hitting reporting by Hannah Dreier, The New York Times exposed the exploitation of child migrants in the United States. Corporations must be held accountable for violating child labor laws, whether or not the companies employed the children directly. No one should hide behind labor brokers.
Read: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/25/us/unaccompanied-migrant-child-workers-exploitation.html

In February, the U.S. Department of Labor reported a nearly 70% increase in child labor violations over the last 5 years. In the most recent fiscal year, more than 800 companies were found to have broken child labor laws.
From Reuters: https://www.reuters.com/business/us-crack-down-child-labor-amid-massive-uptick-2023-02-27/

Fines for these violations are far too low. Accountability is nearly non-existent. And instead of cracking down on this exploitation, some states are working to eliminate labor laws that have protected children for more than a century. These states are turning the clock backwards, placing children in danger. Unionized, adult workers should clean slaughterhouses at night, not children.
From Washington Post: https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2023/05/01/child-labor-laws-lewis-hine/

Labor recruiters and corporations that have trafficked children should be federally prosecuted for forced labor. The United States Attorneys'​ Offices of the Eastern District of Virginia recently prosecuted a case with precisely these facts: a child made to work night shifts while attending school during the day.
Read: https://www.justice.gov/usao-edva/pr/williamsburg-business-owner-pleads-guilty-money-laundering-and-conspiracy-involving

Full list of organizations that signed the letter urging the U.S. Government to take action to protect migrant children:
Association of Farmworker Opportunity Programs
Beyond Borders Haiti
Child Labor Coalition (consisting of 39 organizational members)
Economic Policy Institute
First Focus on Children
Global March Against Child Labour
The Human Trafficking Legal Center
Humanity United
Iowa Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO
International Rights Advocates
Kailash Satyarthi Children's Foundation - U.S.
Media Voices for Children
National Consumers League
Phoenix Zones Initiative
Prime International Social Enterprise
Verité

17,157 shirts collected for farmworkers!👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽

We did it 17,157 Long-Sleeve shirts collected during our 2023 National Long-Sleeve Shirt Drive🎉
We can't thank enough to our 76 nationwide partners and every single one of the people who came to our donation centers to bring each one of the shirts.

The long-sleeve shirts collected during this week of action will be distributed by our network of trainers with key materials during their pesticide safety and heat stress prevention training throughout the year.

The distribution of the shirts will help reinforce the importance of wearing adequate work clothing to help protect farmworkers from pesticide exposure and heat-related illnesses.

📰Since early January, 11 storms fueled by atmospheric rivers have pounded , resulting in devastating flooding that has wiped out farmworker communities in the central part of the state. On March 11, the Pajaro River busted through a levee and forced thousands in the community of Pajaro to evacuate. Many remain in shelters. Then, less than a week later, a levee broke near Allensworth, the first African American farming community in the state, causing more flooding in the basin of the former Tulare Lake.
📌Read more: http://ow.ly/xPHo50Nv8XM

The Art & Essay contest has been announced! 👏👏
🔴For contest Rules and Application, visit our CIFC website: http://ow.ly/5ihI50Nwsf0

📣Subscriptions are NOW OPEN!
We are excited to announce our 2023 Art & Essay Contest one more year. This year’s theme:
👉THE CHILDREN BEHIND THE FOOD WE EAT!

Open to migrant and seasonal farmworker children in the USA between ages 10 to 18. You have until 📌July 15 to send your entry.
🏆Prizes per category: (4 categories)
1st Place: $300* 2nd Place: $200 3rd Place: $100
*First-place winners will automatically be entered in a raffle to win a Tablet.
For contest Rules and Application, visit CIFC website: http://ow.ly/5ihI50Nwsf0

We are halfway into our 💙Give back to those who harvest your food👩‍🌾
Remember, we have more than 140 drop-off locations all over the US and Puerto Rico
👉Check here https://afop.org/nfaw/

👉During this week-long celebration, our goal is to collect as many long-sleeve shirts as possible nationwide. As well as, to educate the public and the communities where farmworkers live, and work about the occupational hazards farmworkers encounter and rouse them into donating long-sleeve shirts.