Read about our Aliados and Poder Sano HIV/AIDS Prevention Initiatives aimed at addressing with farmworker and rural communities needs.
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Migrant and seasonal farmworkers are at increased risk for HIV/AIDS in comparison to other Latino groups and the U.S. population as a whole, due to a variety of factors, including limited access to health care, poverty, and constant migration. Few farmworkers have employer-provided or government-subsidized health insurance. Also, language barriers, low literacy rates, and the difficulties of an often isolated and highly-mobile lifestyle conspire to impede migrants' access to HIV prevention information and services. Farmworkers have traditionally been left out of many HIV/AIDS prevention efforts and are considered an under-served population; Farmworker Justice is working hard to change this.
Since 1988, Farmworker Justice has provided HIV/AIDS prevention efforts aimed at migrant workers and their families. We offer a variety of culturally and linguistically appropriate programs that range from promotores de salud projects to capacity building assistance.
The goal of our HIV/AIDS programs is to improve the access to and quality of HIV prevention services available to the farmworker community.
Currently, our HIV work focuses on prevention with farmworkers and other rural Latino communities through two initiatives:
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Poder Sano: Our Poder Sano project helps community organizations and health care providers implement, sustain, and improve their HIV prevention programs. This project focuses on providing promotores de salud (lay health educators) projects around the country with the resources, expertise, and tools needed to successfully mobilize their communities in the fight against HIV/AIDS.
- Aliados: Our Aliados project is a part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Act Against AIDS Leadership Initiative. The goal of the project is to increase the HIV knowledge, awareness, and action of non-HIV focused organizations through webinars, newsletters, social media, and other activities.
Photo Credit: David Bacon
Notice Required by U.S. Government
This site contains HIV prevention messages that may not be appropriate for all audiences. Since HIV infection is spread primarily through sexual practices or by sharing needles, prevention messages and programs may address these topics. If you are not seeking such information or may be offended by such materials, please exit this portion of the website.
Past HIV Prevention Programs
Farmworker Justice has trained community organizations in a variety of HIV prevention programs such as POL (Popular Opinion Leader), PROMISE, RAPP, and Mpowerment,
POL (Popular Opinion Leader)
• Evidence-based and proven effective by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) • Highly adaptable • Utilizes existing influential members of a target community to endorse safer behaviors to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS • Farmworker Justice staff are national master trainers • Farmworker Justice offers a one-day adaptation training specific to Latino populations
Young Latino Promotores (a Farmworker Justice adaptation of POL) In 2002, Farmworker Justice adapted Popular Opinion Leader (POL) for use with migrant, Latino young men who have sex with men (YMSM). Latino migrant YMSM are often isolated from most national and local HIV prevention efforts. Organizations that reach this population often use interventions designed for use with other risk populations. FJ and its partners, the Vista Community Clinic (VCC) of Vista CA, and the Valley AIDS Council (VAC) of McAllen TX (later replaced by Meyers & Associates of the same locale), implemented the Young Latino Promotores (YLP) project in two US-Mexico border communities: McAllen, TX and Vista, CA. The intervention was adapted and tailored to meet the needs of the targeted migrant Latino YMSM, while maintaining fidelity to the core elements of POL. Farmworker Justice co-authored an article documenting their efforts in this project in the peer-reviewed journal AIDS Education and Prevention.
The Mpowerment intervention is a CDC proven effective science-based community level HIV prevention intervention that targets young men that have sex with men (YMSM). Farmworker Justice was funded in 2004 to adapt Mpowerment for use with migrant Latino YMSM. Building on its experience creating and editing curriculums, Farmworker Justice collaborated with the Vista Community Clinic (VCC) in Vista, CA to adapt the Mpowerment intervention (titled Mpoderoso) to meet the needs of young migrant men who have sex with men, many of whom do not self-identify as gay. FJ incorporated additional materials including basic HIV information, prevention strategies, and stigma reduction messaging. The activities were tailored to be culturally and linguistically appropriate to the needs of the rural young Latino community.