By DataKind San Francisco
The abundance of produce grown in the US is made possible due to the hard work of farm workers. Many workers are paid poverty wages to do this laborious work. Those workers that are immigrants are further vulnerable to exploitation. Organizations like the UFW Foundation are fighting for legal protections and improved labor standards to protect and empower US farm workers. Serving over 90,000 low-income immigrants annually, the UFW Foundation’s achievements include improved labor standards to combat heat death and enforcement of overtime pay. Additionally, the UFW Foundation provides vital education and services, including immigration legal representation.
The collaboration between the UFW Foundation and DataKind San Francisco was undertaken with the goal of providing the UFW Foundation an understanding of their constitutes’ risks and needs through the lens of data. DataKind San Francisco was tasked with finding trends and insights into ten years of immigration and public benefit data collected on immigrants and farm workers in rural California.
Due to the sensitive nature of the data, the content of the analysis will not be shared. In lieu of sharing the analysis, we’d like to share the outcomes achieved in the analysis and in what way the analysis serves the needs of the UFW Foundation.
We set out to gain insights into constituents of the UFW Foundation in order to understand the challenges they’re facing. This analysis has highlighted the key areas constituents are seeking assistance. It provided insight into where UFW Foundation are having success as well as identified subpopulations that would most benefit from further support and outreach. This data analysis has given UFW Foundation the ability to quantify its impact. This can be used to create reports for current and potential donors who wish to know how their donations impact farm workers’ lives.
Thank You
Data Ambassadors Diana Hall and Stacey Ronaghan and the wider DataKind San Francisco team would like to thank the team at the UFW Foundation for their patient guidance and involvement through the hurdles of this project. We hope our efforts have made your work a little easier!
UFW Foundation representatives above with volunteers at DataKind San Francisco’s Project Accelerator Night in December 2018
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Header image courtesy of the UFW Foundation.
