Located in:
- Program-Specific Requirements for Wagner-Peyser Program (Employment Services)
All Program-Specific Requirements provided for the WIOA core programs in this section must be addressed for either a Unified or Combined State Plan.
- e. Agricultural Outreach Plan (AOP). Each State agency must develop an AOP every four years as part of the Unified or Combined State Plan required under sections 102 or 103 of WIOA. The AOP must include an assessment of need. An assessment need describes the unique needs of farmworkers in the area based on past and projected agricultural and farmworker activity in the State. Such needs may include but are not limited to: employment, training, and housing.
- 4. Outreach Activities
The local offices outreach activities must be designed to meet the needs of MSFWs in the State and to locate and contact MSFWs who are not being reached through normal intake activities. Describe the State agency's proposed strategies for:
- 4. Outreach Activities
- e. Agricultural Outreach Plan (AOP). Each State agency must develop an AOP every four years as part of the Unified or Combined State Plan required under sections 102 or 103 of WIOA. The AOP must include an assessment of need. An assessment need describes the unique needs of farmworkers in the area based on past and projected agricultural and farmworker activity in the State. Such needs may include but are not limited to: employment, training, and housing.
e. 4. E. Coordinating outreach efforts with NFJP grantees as well as with public and private community service agencies and MSFW groups
Current Narrative:
Unlike other states, West Virginia doesn't have a large migrant population, migrant camps or agencies that provide childcare to MSFWs. We are continuing to explore ways to coordinate MSFW outreach with our NFJP grantee and building relationships with other agriculture entities such as WV Department of Agriculture, Farm Bureau and WVU Extension.
Funding provided by the NFJP program enables the provision of workforce and career services to the easternmost counties in West Virginia, with virtual services accessible statewide. The NFJP grantee focuses on the Potomac Highlands area, encompassing Grant, Hardy, Hampshire, Mineral and Pendleton Counties. WorkForce West Virginia coordinates with the NFJP grantee for outreach activities in these designated counties, fostering joint outreach and effective planning. Additionally ,collaborative outreach extends to Berkeley, Jefferson and Morgan Counties. Regular quarterly meetings are held with the NFJP grantee and other organizations serving farmworkers, fostering discussion and strategy development to enhance services for MFSWs.
WVU Extension focuses on providing educational programs and information to help individuals and businesses prosper in the state. Within WVU Extension, there is a division solely focused on agriculture and offers assistance with farm management, agribusiness, agritourism, horticulture and other aspects of agriculture. Additionally there is a WVU Extension office in each county with agents that are focused on delivering relevant information to individuals within the county. By working with WVU Extension, we hope to be able to disseminate information about services available from WorkForce West Virginia through the Extension Agents in each county. We hope this partnership provides us valuable information on the needs of farmers, data on agriculture within each county and access to MSFWs.
The WV Farm Bureau is another partnership that we are working on building. The Bureau has approximately 3,000 members and prides itself on being the “voice of agriculture in the Mountain State”. The Farm Bureau offers educational services and they promote and educate individuals about agriculture and leadership opportunities to both women and young farmers/ranchers. This partnership will possibly assist in locating farmers who may be in need of services and help disseminate information on services available to both farmers and farmworkers.
The West Virginia Department of Agriculture provides various services to agriculture and agribusiness within the state. Specifically, they help individuals grow their current business and they provide assistance to farmers to get their product to a farmers’ market or into local schools. Additionally, they have health and safety coordinators who provide various training such as pesticide, heat exhaustion, farm safety and heavy equipment to individuals across the state. Once again this partnership will potentially allow us to connect with farmers and farm workers who utilize services offered through the department.