Farm Worker Unit Legal Aid of North Carolina - 030112
Abstract Number: 030112
June 2003
The Farm Worker Unit of Legal Aid of North Carolina (LANC) implemented the Witness for Justice Project to educate volunteers about the living and working conditions of migrant farm workers while also supporting farm workers' rights to receive visitors in employer owned labor camps. Witness for Justice was modeled from the human rights Witness for Peace program and uses volunteer observers to raise public consciousness of the poverty and hardship faced by migrant farm workers. In addition, observers alleviate some of the isolation faced by the workers living in secluded labor camps.
A Jesuit Volunteer Corps (JVC) member working with LANC originally organized this project and recruited volunteers, many of whom were affiliated with churches. LANC requires volunteers to attend a training session prior to visiting a labor camp where safety policies are explained and volunteers are given an overview of what to expect on a visit. One volunteer typically accompanies LANC outreach staff members on an evening visit. Volunteers are encouraged to interact with workers and distribute brochures on LANC's services and workers' legal rights. Volunteers are also encouraged to take notes on what they see and to share their experiences with their community. Volunteers sometimes bring blankets and food to give to workers if they have met the workers before and the workers have need of these items . Volunteers are asked to commit to accompany staff on outreach at least once every other week for a period of several months.
Supporting workers' rights to receive visitors is an important goal due to attempts by land owners to control their workers and intimidate visitors by threatening to have the police arrest visitors for trespassing. In North Carolina, the right of legal services staff to access workers in labor camps has legally been supported primarily by the argument that tenants have the legal right to choose their visitors, not property owners. Witness for Justice supports these rights by bringing a more public light to outreach visits. To learn more about this project, visit Legal Aid of North Carolina's Farm Worker Unit's website at: www.legalaidnc.org/Programs/FWU/default.htm.
Contact Information:
Mary Lee Hall Managing Attorney Farm Worker Unit Legal Aid of North Carolina 224 S. Dawson Street P.O. Box 26626 Raleigh, NC 27611 Phone: (919) 856-2180 Fax: (919) 856-2187 Email
LSC:
America's Partner for Equal Justice 