Our 2021 Impact

Justice for Migrant Women’s humanitarian relief efforts have resulted in over $9.7 million in funds, PPE donations, and other in-kind product donations being distributed to over 200 farmworker-serving organizations across 38 states in the U.S. and Puerto Rico. 

• Farmworkers’ Pandemic Relief Fund
• Masks for Farmworkers
• Masks for Migrants
• Other Humanitarian Aid and Organizing

Healing Voices: Healing Voices piloted the use of technology to engage farmworkers and bring them together in virtual support groups that use the power of storytelling to support healing, teach workers their rights, build community connections, and inspire change. We developed unique curricula focused on healing and power-building and recruited trained, bilingual mental health professionals to facilitate support groups. 

Bandana Project:  The annual Bandana Project campaign uplifted issues related to anti-sexual violence through social media for the entire month of April in observance of Sexual Assault Awareness Month and throughout the year.

Essential Worker Campaign: As both a founding partner of the Always Essential national campaign and the leader of the state-based Essential Ohio campaign, Justice for Migrant Women plays a crucial role in fighting for the rights of low-paid and other essential workers. We are using the window of opportunity created by the “essential worker” narrative that has been elevated during the pandemic to raise the standards for workers’ health, safety, and income.

Essential Ohio: 

• Published its Policy Agenda
• Researched & Published a Report on Essential Work in Ohio. 
• Surveyed Essential Workers and Collected Worker Testimonies. 
• Honored Essential Workers who Died During COVID-19 on Día de Los Muertos.

Labor & Employment Rights: The entire team at Justice for Migrant Women continued to engage with elected officials at all levels of government regarding the need for changes in labor and employment that will benefit migrant women. On April 28, 2021,  Mónica Ramírez gave testimony before the EEOC on the civil rights implications of COVID-19.

Women’s Equal Pay Day: Justice for Migrant Women attended a virtual meeting with Vice President Harris on all Women’s Equal Pay Day in March 2021. Vice President Harris addressed the ongoing need to close the wage gap for all women and there was discussion regarding COVID-19’s exacerbation of the wage gap, particularly for women of color. In 2021, Latina Equal Pay Day was observed on October 21. Justice for Migrant Women led the National Latina Equal Pay Day of Action, which included hosting several events and a social media storm.

Phenomenal Farmworker: We collected over 20 #PhenomenalFarmworker stories throughout the year, including by the outreach team during the summer. We met with farmworkers to learn their stories and gave them a Phenomenal  Farmworker shirt to wear. The photo was then a part of the social media campaign during National Farmworker Awareness week where we highlighted the wonderful work they do to put food on our tables.

Indian Farmers Letter: We organized a letter co-signed by 78 civil rights, legal, and community organizations published in the  New York Times in February expressing solidarity with the protest in India against the Indian government's anti-democratic response to the farmers' struggle for their lives and livelihoods. 

The Humans Who Feed Us: Thousands of individuals work across the food supply chain in the United States – including many immigrant community members. Yet, many of these immigrant workers are often invisible to people and the communities where they work and live, even though they touch our lives every day through their life-sustaining labor. As a Fellow with Race Forward’s Butterfly Lab Immigrant Narrative Project, Mónica  Ramírez, Founder & President of J4MW, created a narrative and portrait project called “The Humans  Who Feed Us.” It features photographs and first-person stories of workers throughout the food supply chain, including their experiences, challenges, and thoughts about how their communities can make them feel more included. A prototype of the project was launched locally in August 2021 at the  Sandusky County Fair. In the lead-up to what is observed as Thanksgiving in the U.S., “The Humans  Who Feed Us” was launched nationally.   

 Ohio Rural Civic Engagement: Justice for Migrant Women focused on increasing community civic engagement in rural communities by providing opportunities for voter education and dissemination of voting information at community events throughout Sandusky County (OH). 

Parent Ambassadors Program: We formed a collaborative partnership with the National Migrant and Seasonal Head Start Association to develop and implement the Farmworker Parent Ambassadors program, a nationwide leadership training program for farmworkers with children enrolled in a Migrant and Seasonal Head Start program. Its purpose is to provide farmworkers with the necessary knowledge to advance the social, political, and economic needs and interests of their communities as they relate to the following topics: civic engagement, COVID-19, violence, policy, and advocacy. 

Rural Women’s Collective Fellowship: In October 2020, we initiated the Rural Women’s Collective fellowship program with a nationwide cohort of five exceptional women from rural communities. As a part of this effort, we created a  customized educational program in partnership with justice for Migrant Women’s Board Chair Anne Ream and PRISM, an independent and nonprofit news outlet led by journalists of color committed to delivering in-depth and thought-provoking news and analysis. The fellows represented the rural communities of the northwest,  southwest, midwest, and south regions of the United States. They are organizers, teachers, union leaders, and bankers, lending their voices to make a change in their rural communities.

Through The Latinx House (TLH), which is a project that Justice for Migrant Women is incubating, the  TLH team helped to organize conversations highlighting Latinx representation and Latinx contributions in entertainment and the arts during the virtual 2021 Sundance Film Festival. TLH has been developing its first short film. TLH hosted important conversations on Latinx representation with Starz The Lead  Project, and it held film screenings throughout the year, including Fruits of Labor, among others. TLH also geared up to once again create a home for Latinx actors, filmmakers, and creatives at Sundance 2022.