Community-sourced indicators for immigrant and worker health

In summer 2024, the UC Berkeley Possibility Lab released a report in English and Spanish highlighting the urgent health challenges confronting farm, warehouse, and service workers in California’s Inland Empire communities. Produced in partnership with TODEC Legal Center—a nonprofit organization dedicated to empowering immigrants in this region—the report uses the “Firsthand Framework for Policy Innovation” and provides a comprehensive look at how economic stability, healthcare access, and overall well-being are intertwined for these essential workers.

The insights that emerged from the Firsthand Framework’s participatory process shine a spotlight on the rich and nuanced ways that these communities experience and talk about their health. In addition to physical and mental health, participants spoke about how their health was connected to economic stability, access to health services, education, and discrimination.