Workplace Safety Training for Farmworkers Engaged in Maine Sustainable Agriculture

Project Overview

ONE24-441
Project Type: Partnership
Funds awarded in 2024: $30,000.00
Projected End Date: 11/30/2027
Grant Recipient: Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association
Region: Northeast
State: Maine
Project Leader:
Ryan Dennett
Email
Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association

Commodities

Not commodity specific

Practices

  • Education and Training: workshop
  • Farm Business Management: labor/employment

    Proposal abstract:

    Building on 2 years of affinity-based programming and 50 years of farmworker organizing, MOFGA and collaborators will host 3 retreats for BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) and LGBTQ+ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer) identified farm workers based on Maine farms. These retreats will provide safety training on chainsaws, tractors, body mechanics, and power tools to encourage more inclusive engagement in these workplaces. The retreats will also provide community building opportunities in identity based spaces to increase feelings of confidence and comfort in farm workers bringing their whole selves to their work in Maine agriculture. BIPOC and LGBTQ+ spaces will be provided as separate days with QTBIPOC farmworkers encouraged to engage in both spaces. Farmworkers who engage with these retreat and training spaces will be evaluated through survey and qualitative conversations on how connected they feel to agriculture spaces, how safe they feel bringing their whole self to work, and how familiar they feel with resources available to them as farm workers. This project is designed by and for LGBTQ+ and BIPOC farmers.

    Project objectives from proposal:

    Objective 1: This project seeks to improve BIPOC and LGBTQ+ farm workers feelings of safety around machinery and tools in their work on farms.  

    Objective 2: This project seeks to increase BIPOC and LGBTQ+ knowledge and skills related to safe operation of tools including safe body mechanics to apply to their farmwork. 

    Objective 3: Through this project, BIPOC and LGBTQ+ farmworkers will feel more connected with affinity based communities in their chosen field of sustainable agriculture. 

    Objective 4: Through this project, BIPOC and LGBTQ+ farmworkers will feel safer bringing their full self to the work they do on farms. 

    Objective 5: Through this project farm workers will become more familiar with the resources available to them as a farm workers.

    Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and should not be construed to represent any official USDA or U.S. Government determination or policy.