Welcome To Michigan
Our work in Michigan is focused primarily on meeting the needs of migrant and seasonal farmworkers who work in the state's agricultural industry and experience many housing, employment and family health difficulties. Among Michigan's low-income farmworkers, half are limited in the English language, nearly all endure multiple barriers to stable employment, a majority have serious or critical nutritional needs and nearly half need childcare services to be able to work. To get more information on the programs described below, contact our offices.
With Telamon's help, farmworkers in Michigan who qualify for either the National Farmworker Jobs Program (NFJP) or the Farmworker Youth Program (see Eligibility Criteria) can learn and work toward more self-sufficient employment. A variety of counseling and supportive services supplement educational opportunities as well as occupational training. A partner in Michigan's efforts to provide employment related services to all who seek them, Telamon works with other community resource agencies to meet the needs of both job seekers and employers.
Our Head Start program provides comprehensive child development services to migrant and seasonal farmworkers with children who are two weeks through five years of age. (see Eligibility Criteria) The program is individualized, multi-cultural, and utilizes developmentally appropriate practices.
In Michigan, we have coordinated the major components of the program to meet many goals, primary among which are
- to provide a range of hands-on activities to help the children grow mentally, socially, emotion- ally and physically, and
- to develop partnerships with parents and involve them as the primary educators of their children. Several centers are located throughout the Lower Peninsula.
Telamon in Michigan sponsors a Reading Is Fundamental (RIF) program, a statewide effort to encourage literacy among migrant and seasonal farmworker children and to stress the enjoyment of reading. Farmworker families' children who are enrolled in the Head Start program, as well as the children of migrant and seasonal farmworker parents, who are participating in the NFJP, are eligible to receive and keep free books. The Michigan program receives two grants from RIF, Inc., to serve these two groups. Local donations are also received in order to purchase and distribute infant and toddler books that are not covered by RIF funds. More than 2,700 books are distributed to children during each year.
In Berrien County, the United Way supports food services to children through a Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA) grant.
The Michigan Department of Community Health provides additional funding to assist health evaluations and provide immunizations for children.
With the help of Michigan's Family Independence Agency, daycare funds are utilized to extend the hours or weeks of Migrant Head Start service where they are needed. USDA funds are used to provide up to two-thirds of the recommended daily allowances for children's nutrition. Breakfast, lunch, snack and, in some cases, evening meals are served daily to Head Start children.
A grant is received from Early On/Easter Seals to offset the cost of therapy for children with disabilities. This has been used primarily in coordination with Easter Seals for speech therapy services in the Kent County Area.
Telamon's HIV/AIDS/TB educational program, in conjunction with the Midwest Regional Migrant Farmworkers HIV/STD/TB Prevention Education Consortium, was developed in order to empower minority communities. We provide a centralized forum for integration, coordination, and networking in order to reduce the influence of HIV/AIDS and Tuberculosis among Migrant and Seasonal Farmworkers. These services are offered at no cost to community based organizations, clinics, and human service organizations in Michigan. It is our goal to enhance these existing programs with consultations in a culturally specific manner as it pertains to education, capacity building, and technical assistance.