|
TITLE:
|
DEVELOPMENT OF TRAINING PROGRAMS AND PUBLISHED MATERIALS FOR THE GEORGIA GREEN INDUSTRY HISPANIC WORKFORCE
|
|
AUTHOR:
|
Alfredo Martinez
|
|
CATEGORY:
|
Competitive Agriculture
|
|
IMPACT YEAR:
|
2002
|
|
DEPARTMENT:
|
Plant Pathology
|
|
LOCATION:
|
Griffin, CAES Campus
|
|
SITUATION:
|
The “Green Industry” in Georgia, which includes, the turfgrass, ornamental and landscape industries, is one of the fastest growing industries in the State. The turf industry accounts for up to 1.6 million acres of turf in Georgia with a maintenance value of $1.56 billion while the production and management of ornamental species has an estimated value of $350 million with an anticipated value added impact of $1 billion. Nationwide, the Green Industry uses Hispanics as the backbone workforce. The Green Industry in Oregon is calculated to be 90% Hispanic workforce, while Illinois Green Industry accounts 57% of Hispanics in its workforce. The Georgia Green Industry is made of approximately 50,000 professionals. Eighty percent of the landscape companies, greenhouses and nurseries employ Hispanics as part of their work force; therefore the Hispanic work force is calculated at an overwhelming 65% (33,000) of the total Green Industry. Language and cultural barriers hamper productivity, efficiency and production in the industry. The routine use of pesticides in their daily activities makes this group particularly prone to mismanagement of these products and work-related accidents. Hispanic employees use Spanish as the primary language and many have only a rudimentary knowledge of English. These facts concurrently bring economic, health, and legal concerns. Therefore there is a widely recognized need to develop training programs and published information in Spanish while the English skills of the workers improve.
|
|
RESPONSE:
|
A series of statewide pilot trainings, programs and materials in Spanish on turf and ornamental production and management as well as proper handling of pesticides and overall safety have been implemented. Additionally, for the first time in Georgia Green Industry, published materials in Spanish specifically targeted for this audience have been developed.
|
|
RESULTS/IMPACT:
|
A total of 289 individuals have been directly contacted, educated and impacted with these series of trainings and programs. These include pilot educational programs conducted in Spanish within the Turfgrass Field Day, Southern Nursery Association Annual meeting and Mow and Grow Expo (sponsored by the Georgia Turfgrass Association and the Georgia Green Industry Association) as well as a series of landscape personnel trainings. Indirectly, a calculated number of 10,000 Hispanic Green Industry personnel have benefited from these published materials in Spanish available in several journals and magazines with state wide circulation. Results include the obvious improvement of productivity and efficiency in their daily tasks. Intangible but important results derive from circumstances that did not happen such as accidents, mismanagement of pesticides and potential law suites. One particular successful event was the “turfgrass field day” where more than 60 people from 18 different counties were directly trained in Spanish. This result represents an outstanding first step breaking language and cultural barriers and opening up venues of cooperation and networking and the availability of high quality and diverse educational materials. These results place the University of Georgia to the forefront of such efforts. The need to attend this group has been perceived in other states. Coordinators of this particular training were contacted to serve as consultants to develop this type of programs in neighboring North Carolina (North Carolina State University) and South Carolina (Clemson University). High ranked officials within the Georgia Green Industry have praised publicly these efforts.
|
|
PROGRAM AREA:
|
Extension/Outreach
|
|
KEYWORDS:
|
Chemicals
Crop Diseases (other)
Flowers / Ornamentals
Gardening (home)
Green Industry (greenhouse)
Green Industry (nursery)
Landscaping
Turfgrasses
Urban Issues
Water Management
|
|
FUNDING:
|
Standard Extension Funding
|
|
COLLABORATORS:
|
CAES:
Marco T. Fonseca
(Extension Horticulturist, Horticulture)
Karl A. Pearson
(County Extension Agent, Northwest District)
Willie O. Chance
(County Extension Agent, Urban Ag Outreach Coord, Southwest District)
Gil W. Landry
(Extension Agronomist - Turf, CAES Turf Team)
|
|
|
Non-CAES:
Sherry Laudermilk, Georgia Green Industry Association
Jenny Tankersley, Georgia Turfgrass Association
|
|
BRIEF:
|
TRAINING FOR HISPANIC WORKFORCE
|
Click Here to return to the previous page.
|
|
