Mixteco/Indigena Community Organizing Project
The mission of the Mixteco/Indigena Community Organizing Project (MICOP) is to provide aid to and encourage the empowerment of the Oaxacan immigrant community in Ventura County.
Description:
MICOP serves Ventura County's indigenous Oaxacan immigrant community through a variety of programs designed to improve access to healthcare and educational services while fostering a sense of cultural pride and self-sufficiency. Our outreach consists of five basic elements:
- Monthly community meetings featuring health-education presentations, children's programs, culture-sustaining projects, and the distribution of food, clothing and healthcare items;
- Infant care (Bebe Sano) classes taught in the Mixteco language, with ongoing train-the-trainer programs to prepare Mixteco speakers to deliver classes in community settings;
- Basic literacy classes for Mixteco speakers;
- Healthcare interpreter training programs to prepare Mixteco speakers to serve as interpreters in medical facilities, social service agencies and the courts;
- Outreach to the English- and Spanish-speaking communities to heighten community awareness and sensitivity to cultural issues.
20,000 indigenous Mixtecs from the southern Mexico state of Oaxaca live and work in Ventura County. Facing extreme poverty and bleak employment prospects in their native region, many Mixtecs have come to California in search of agricultural work. These hardworking young families are linguistically and culturally isolated: many speak neither English nor Spanish, but only their indigenous language, Mixteco. As a result, they face exploitation and discrimination on the job, in housing, and in the marketplace, despite the fact that they are making a vital contribution to the region's economy.
Since its founding in 2001, MICOP has developed a relationship of trust and understanding with Ventura County's immigrant Oaxacan community. Our programs and services are designed to give Mixtecs in the County the tools, knowledge and confidence needed to become successful, self-sufficient members of the broader community.
History:
As a family nurse practitioner at Las Islas Family Medical Group, Sandra Young observed a significant increase in the number of indigenous Oaxacan immigrants visiting the clinic for health care services, beginning in the late 1990s. She saw firsthand the difficulties immigrants faced in obtaining linguistically accessible and culturally appropriate health care for themselves and their families, and recognized that existing County services were unprepared to address these emerging needs. This recognition led to the formation of the Mixteco/Indigena Community Organizing Project in January, 2001.
MICOP achieved 501(c)(3)nonprofit status in early 2002. Today it is a coalition of English-, Spanish- and indigenous-language-speaking farmworkers, health care professionals, educators, parents, business people and students who share the goal of building sustainable bridges between the Oaxacan community and other segments of Ventura County society.
Much of our work is done by volunteers. In 2005, a core-operating grant from the California Endowment allowed us to hire Susan Haverland as Executive Director. A 2005 Destino grant from the Ventura County Community Foundation funded the expansion of our Bebe Sano classes to underserved areas of the West county, including El Rio, La Colonia and Port Hueneme. The Ventura County Medical Resource Foundation granted us funds in 2004 and 2005 to train medical interpreters. We continue to actively seek volunteers and financial donors, both individual and corporate, to support our ongoing work.
Contact people:
Office fax number: (805) 647-2112
Address:
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PO Box 20543
Oxnard, CA 93034 |
Web Site: None specified
| Last updated on December 1, 2009 |
