The migrant clinicians network (MCN) proposed project aims to safeguard the health of families and communities by reducing pesticide-related illnesses (pris), with a particular focus on those most…

The Environmental Protection Agency Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention awarded a $440,000 cooperative agreement to Migrant Clinicians Network, Inc. on October 1, 2025, under the PRIA 5: Farm Worker and Health Care Provider Training and Education Grants program (CFDA 66.720).

MCN will develop an evidence-driven, publicly accessible curriculum of curated learning materials on pesticide-related illness prevention and recognition. The recipient will foster clinical system changes in eight community health centers through on-site accredited training and technical assistance targeted at health care providers. MCN will establish a national bilingual training and partnership program with organizations across the country to improve provider ability to prevent, recognize, treat, manage, and report pesticide-related illnesses, with particular focus on farmworkers and communities disproportionately impacted by pesticide exposure. The initiative will distribute pesticide resources to 14,000 constituents nationwide via communications from MCN and partner organizations.

Two federally qualified health centers will receive subawards of $25,000 each in project years 2 through 5, with work including on-site accredited training, implementation of clinical system changes to screen for environmental and occupational illnesses and injuries, improved reporting of pesticides, and culturally contextual outreach. The AG Health and Safety Alliance will provide training and technical assistance on respiratory fit testing. The University of Illinois at Chicago will review and revise practice guidelines for clinicians and develop new resources.

Performance is located in Austin, Texas. The period of performance runs from October 1, 2025, through September 30, 2030.

The migrant clinicians network (MCN) proposed project aims to safeguard the health of families and communities by reducing pesticide-related illnesses (pris), with a particular focus on those most at risk, such as farmworkers and communities disproportionately impacted by pesticide exposure. This initiative will establish a national bilingual training and technical assistance (t/TA) and partnership program to improve the ability of health care providers (hcps) to prevent, recognize, treat, manage and report pris. Activities:the activities to be carried out over five years include: 1. Develop an evidence-driven, publicly accessible curriculum of curated learning materials. 2. Foster clinical system changes in 8 community health centers (chcs) through on-site accredited training and technical assistance. 3. Create and sustain a robust bidirectional programmatic partnership program with organizations across the country that ensures consistency while meeting the unique needs of different regions. 4. Foster HCP engagement of best practices through distribution of pesticide resources to 14,000 constituents nationwide via communications from MCN and partners.subrecipient:subawards to two federally qualified health centers / community health centers at $25,000/center in project years 2-5. Selected chcs will receive a subaward and develop a mutually agreed upon workplan. The program involves onsite accredited training for health care providers, implementation of clinical system changes to screen for environmental and occupational illnesses and injuries, improve reporting of pesticides and foster culturally contextual outreach to populations disproportionately impacted by pesticides. AG health and safety alliance's subaward will support training and technical assistance regarding respiratory fit testing. Subaward with university of illinois at chicago will be used to review and revise the practice guidelines for clinicians and develop new resources to improve health care providers ability to treat pesticide related illnesses.outcomes:the anticipated deliverables include: 1. Facilitating at least 48 bilingual continuing education offerings for at least 3,300 hcps. 2. Providing at least 1,480 hours of technical assistance to 8 partner chcs and other organizations to foster improved clinical practices for preventing, screening for, managing and reporting PRI. 3. Administering a partnership program with at least 30 local, regional and national partners including clinical and farmworker advisory committees and 8 partner chcs to inform and foster local and national t/TA. 4. Creating and maintaining a bilingual pesticide resource hub on MCN's website that hosts at least 20 newly created or updated pesticide resources for hcps and communities impacted by pesticides. 5. Disseminating best practices and resources to over 14,000 MCN constituents via MCN's communication channels and partner communication channels. The primary long-term outcomes are 1) increased reporting of PRI; and 2) improved health of populations at high risk of PRI. PRI reporting and improved health are intricately linked. EPA efforts to improve hcps' ability to recognize, treat and manage pris emphasize the importance of reporting PRI. Reporting helps foster stronger surveillance systems, helping EPA understand real-world scenarios regarding the health impacts of pesticide use. The short and intermediate outcomes emphasize: 1) increased HCP knowledge, awareness and confidence; 2) improved clinical systems to screen for environmental and occupational illnesses and reporting of PRI; 3) improved reach to populations disproportionately impacted by pesticides through culturally contextual practices; 4) increased linkages between occupational medicine specialists and frontline hcps; and 5) increased stakeholder engagement in the prevention, recognition, management and reporting of PRI. The intended beneficiaries communities dispr