The Migrant Health Promotion records document the efforts of one organization to provide health care assistance to the migrant workers of the Midwest. Beyond the history of the organization itself, the records detail something of the life and condition of workers in the migrant camps during the 1980s and 1990s with special emphasis on their health care needs.
The records of the Migrant Health Promotion have been arranged into eight series: Administrative Records; Outreach; Camp Aide Program (CHAP); Other Programs and Related Materials; Topical Files; Photographs; Videotapes; and Sound Recordings.
The Migrant Health Promotion (formerly known as the Midwest Migrant Health Information Office, or MMHIO) was established in 1983 as an initiative of the National Migrant Worker Council, Inc. Its aim was to improve the health and living conditions of migrant farmworkers in a six state area encompassing the upper Midwest. All of the programs of the Migrant Health Promotion are directed toward reducing the cultural, language, and transportation barriers preventing migrant farmworkers from having access to health care services, and beyond that, to increasing the participation of migrant families in their own health care.
The Migrant Health Promotion works in collaboration with Catholic health providers in the Midwest collectively known as the Catholic Consortium for Migrant Health. On its own, the Migrant Health Promotion has designed two projects intended to lower the barriers to good health care. These are the Camp Health Aide Program and the Migrant Health Services Directory. Begun in 1985, the Camp Health Aide Program trains aides among the migrants in the basics of health care. These aides are then a link between the migrants and the health care professionals in the various camp areas. Funding for the camp aide program comes from the Catholic Consortium and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Since its inception, the Camp Health Aide Program has become the main focus of the Migrant Health Promotion, expanding to cover migrants' home states as well as the Midwest. The Migrant Health Services Directory describes migrant health services in federally funded clinics throughout the upper Midwest. The directory is then distributed to migrants and migrant service agencies, schools, churches, and health clinics throughout the Midwest and the migrant home bases in Texas and Florida. Through these programs, the Migrant Health Promotion has become a leader in migrant health care, providing assistance to other agencies trying to implement lay health programs. In the 1990s the Migrant Health Promotion developed a number of adaptations of the original Camp Health Aide Program model to build on community strengths and meet complex health needs. The Infórmate Teen Health Program began in Manchester, Michigan in 1995 and offered peer health education and group activities led by Teen Health Aides. Since its inception, Infórmate has expanded to various sites throughout Michigan and South Texas, and added a traveling Teen Theater Troupe. In 1998 the organization changed its name from the Midwest Migrant Health Information Office to the Migrant Health Promotion in order to reflect the organization's growing activities outside the Midwest.
