Tallman, Community Health Services

“I didn’t know what diversity was until I worked in public health,” says Judy Tallman, Director of Grants & Outreach at Community Health Services, Inc. in Hartford, Connecticut. Community Health Services, a federally qualified health center started in the 1970s, provides clinical care across all disciplines and turns away no patient. Farmers call in to the center to request health aid for their workers, and because of this the center is very connected to the agricultural community of Connecticut. Located in a food desert, where literacy issues and poverty are abundant, Community Health Services has developed a reputation in the area, allowing those who may be undocumented to feel safe going in for care.

In fact, the center does not even ask a patient about their citizenship status. While some parts of the state are stereotyped as a white suburbia of country clubs and prep schools, Connecticut is home to many more farms than one might expect, and with these farms come migrant farm workers. These farms are not giant agribusiness corporate farms, rather they are smaller produce farms—employing as little as ten or as many as two-hundred migrant workers each growing season.

“They aren’t coming because they are terrorists, they are coming for a better life for their family,” Tallman says of migrant workers, infuriated by the stereotypes of “rapist”, “murderer” and “drug-dealer” cast on undocumented immigrants by our society and government. Tallman points out that none of them would even be here if there were not employers willing to employ them.

“Over the last couple of years we have seen a lot of nervous people,” Tallman says, addressing the impact of President Trump’s rhetoric around illegal immigration and enforcement of ICE and deportation. Community Health Services has become known to all as a place of safety and refuge in the neighborhood, but with the looming fear of a possible visit from ICE, anyone in the center who speaks spanish is subject to trouble. Because of this, it is essential that everyone working in the center has training on documentation laws, and what ICE can and cannot ask. “We need to know what our rights are,” Tallman says.

What Tallman has come to learn throughout her many years at the CHS center is that if their clinical staff aren’t empathetic, they don’t last. CHS provides medical, dental, and behavioral health services, often communicating with their patients through the translation of the patient’s child, as 80 percent of migrant workers in Connecticut speak only Spanish. “If someone’s coming over from Somalia and might have seen a doctor once in their life, we have to still be aware of cultural differences in order to provide effective treatment,” Tallman adds. Especially with the increased fear around deportation due to our current political climate, it is crucial for all staff to be non-confrontational and welcoming to their patients.

Organizations like the Community Health Services Center in Hartford are incredibly important, as no matter one’s immigration or financial status, we all need healthcare. The relationships that the Community Health Center have built with farm-owners are critical to the state of our agricultural businesses and food sources. This is because of what they do to ensure the health of the hardworking people along with their families who harvest the food we eat. Farming is not just about growing food; there is so much more to it and many groups of people and institutions behind it. What the Community Health Services Center in Hartford, Connecticut does for the farming community is valuable, and should not be without recognition.

-Eliza Mann