Coalitions: partnerships to promote agricultural health and safety

Throughout the 1990s, a variety of partnerships and community-based organizations have been formed with the primary mission to promote agricultural safety and health. These groups are altruistic, creative, energetic, and provide critical perspectives for improving the safety and health of the agricultural workforce at the local, regional, and national levels. These coalitions have been created as a result of philanthropic support, public funding, grassroots interest, and personal experiences with agricultural injuries andfatalities. They are playing important roles in collaborating with researchers and in reaching the individual agricultural communities. They have been instrumental in conducting needs assessments and are critical to the development and implementation of successful surveillance programs and interventions. Outreach and dissemination of research findings and other safety and health information to target audiences are strengths of these diverse coalitions. This article will focus on primarily community-based coalitions, providing an overview of the development, foci, membership activities, and contributions or impact of these groups during the 1990s and the challenges in maintaining and sustaining the coalitions. This information should be useful to those seeking to understand the activities of existing coalitions and identify potential partnerships for future activities.