The Impact of Rural & Migrant Ministry
Legislation
- Facilitating a successful campaign to support farmworkers as they sought the same minimum wage as other New Yorkers.
- Leading the Justice For Farmworkers Campaign, a 20-year effort that saw a 400-year injustice addressed with the passage of the Farm Laborers Fair Labor Practices Act in 2019, giving farmworkers many basic rights, including: A day of rest, overtime pay, disability insurance and, most importantly, the right to bargain collectively.
- Facilitating successful legislative campaigns to require field sanitation and drinking water in the fields for farmworkers.
Litigation
- Served as the lead plaintiff in a case against the Trump administration and the EPA, protecting training protocols around the use of pesticides.
Awards
- The Youth Arts Group received awards from the Washington, D.C., Immigration Film Festival and the Hudson Valley Film Festival for best short Documentary: DREAMERS AMONG US.
- RMM and our colleague Librada Paz received the 2012 Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award.
- WOMAN’S DAY MAGAZINE honored former Executive Director, the Rev. Gail Keeney Mulligan, with their Outstanding Woman Award.
- Trinity Wall Street named the Rev. Richard Witt a Trinity Transformational Fellow.
Leadership Development
- We have seen more than 95 percent of the graduates of our Youth Empowerment Program, during a 30-year history, matriculate into college.
- We have welcomed and trained more than 500 university interns and fellows.
- We have witnessed more than 2,000 children participate in more than 35 years of Summer Overnight Leadership Camp and Summer Day Programs (which is quite amazing when one considers that they are coming from isolated rural towns and farms across upstate New York!).
- We have hosted the annual statewide Rural Women’s Assembly for nearly 20 years, welcoming more than 3,000 participants.
Establishing New Programs
- Built a childcare/Headstart program in New Paltz.
- “Incubated” 12 organizations across rural New York, including: CITA, The Independent Farmworker Center, and ADELANTE STUDENT VOICES, an organization that helps undocumented students explore their legal status and routes to college.
History
1980’s
RMM is founded in 1981.
1990’s
The Rev. Richard Witt is named Executive Director in 1991.
CITA and The Justice for Farmworker Campaign are launched.
Farmworkers successfully lobby to pass three laws in New York State.
These laws require that drinking water and field sanitation be supplied on the job, and give farmworkers the same minimum wage as other laborers.
The Youth Arts Group (YAG) arises out of the Summer Overnight Leadership Camp, creating the groundwork for a committed and innovative rural youth empowerment program. Created by high school students, YAG begins to tackle systemic issues impacting its members.
2000’s
The Youth Arts Group (YAG) travels to the Mexico border to learn about the North American Free Trade Agreement.
RMM expands its work with farmworker centers in Western New York and the Catskills.
The Justice for Farmworkers Campaign organizes multiple marches across the state.
RMM hosts the first Rural Women’s Assembly, which lays the groundwork for new women’s empowerment and leadership cooperatives around the state.
2010’s
The Youth Economic Group (YEG) is founded in Sullivan County. YEG is the only union-affiliated youth cooperative in the country.
Alternative Spring Breaks begin, with college students participating in educational and advocacy delegations with farmworkers.
After 20 years of campaigning, the Farm Labors Fair Labor Practices Act is passed in 2019, giving farmworkers basic rights including the right to unionize, overtime pay, workers compensation and a day of rest.
RMM expands its work with a new worker education center in Long Island.
The Justice Organization of Youth (JOY) is created by participants in the Summer Overnight Leadership Camp in the Finger Lakes, at the Liturgia Center. Through the study and performance of the Theatre of the Oppressed, they begin to work for change in their region.
2020’s
The Farm Laborers Fair Labor Practice Act goes into effect in 2020. RMM partners with unions around the state, and the first agricultural union in New York is former at Pindar Vineyards in Long Island.
Voices of Long Island Youth (VOLIY) is formed by campers from the Summer Overnight Leadership Camp on the eastern end of Long Island. Using podcasts as their vehicle, they begin to work for change.
The Clinton Global Initiative, founded by President Bill and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, invites RMM to partner through a Commitment to Action. RMM is specifically recognized by CGI for its work in bringing the New York Episcopal Federal Credit Union to rural New York to establish financial equity among migrants and rural, farmworking families, who face undue barriers to building economic stability and opportunity.