Universidad Popular is firmly committed to ensuring that everyone in our community has access to a vaccine. Continuing to inform, educate and motivate our friends, family, and neighbors to follow safety guidelines and to get vaccinated are important steps in the effort to overcome this pandemic that has disproportionately impacted Latinx, immigrants, frontline essential workers, and many more vulnerable members in our communities.

We are continuously assessing, monitoring, and advocating for equity in COVID-19 relief and recovery strategies. Our team is present in meeting rooms with decision makers and on the ground providing vaccine education to community members in their language. We are growing partnerships and coalitions with county officials to vaccinate hard to reach and vulnerable members of our community including farmworkers to ensure that together we #GetToImmunity

Universidad Popular Helps Farmworkers Get Vaccinated

As part of our efforts to offer opportunities to become more civically involved in our communities, we joined San Diego County’s Operation Collaboration to reach, educate and help vaccinate farmworkers working in the county’s fifth largest industry. 

San Diego County announced COVID-19 vaccines would be available for the Food and Agricultural Sector beginning February 27, 2021. Since then, County Supervisor Nathan Fletcher’s Office, CalFire and the Department of Public Health have distributed vaccines to the farming community and coordinated with growers to host vaccination clinics at worksites. 

Experiencing first-hand the disproportionate devastation COVID-19 has wrecked on our community this past year we have taken direct action as emergency responders and community advocates. With previous experience in disaster and emergency mobilization, Universidad Popular is part of the solution bridging a major gap between county services and critical community needs.

Many farmworkers live and work in the most remote camps or colonias nestled in farms on or adjacent to tribal reservations. Farmworkers have the largest population of limited English-speaking Mexican indigenous migrants and immigrants. They come from southern Mexico, specifically Oaxaca, Puebla, Guerrero, and Chiapas. They are joined by the newest farmworker population comprised of Central American indigenous Mayan migrants primarily from Guatemala concentrated in Fallbrook and Valley Center. They are the largest uninsured group, lack medical care and distrust government bureaucracy.

Working alongside emergency responders, dozens of Universidad Popular-trained multilingual and multicultural maestras y maestros (community educators) are welcoming farmworkers in their native language at each clinic site. Farmworkers are carefully screened to ensure eligibility and are educated about the type of vaccine received, possible side effects, COVID-related resources, and safety measures at home and in the workplace. Community educators have helped to vaccinate over 2,000 farmworkers to date with thousands more still waiting. Universidad Popular is committed to ensuring that this vulnerable community is treated humanely and with utmost respect.

Inspired by the great educator Paulo Freire, Universidad Popular has trained a cadre of dedicated staff and volunteers who live and work within the community. We offer nontraditional education to cultivate leadership, freedom, health, wisdom, and dignity. Through our teaching and civic engagement, we bring to life key principles of democracy, empowering ordinary people to own their voices and use their power to shape our community.  

Community Forum with Supervisor Lawson-Remer

Universidad Popular partnered with San Diego County Board of Supervisor District 3 Terra Lawson-Remer, San Ysidro Health and Employee Rights Center to host a Community Forum in Spanish on March 30, 2021 to provide information regarding Covid-19 vaccines, answer most frequently asked questions and share resources for the community. Watch the presentation here.

COVID-19 Workplace Outreach Project (CWOP)

Universidad Popular joins the statewide education campaign, COVID-19 Workplace Outreach Project (CWOP) to reach frontline workers and employers who have been disproportionately hit by the pandemic. The project aims to provide information and resources on COVID-19 safety guidance, vaccination, and workers’ rights.

Join us for our next campaign partners meeting on Wednesday, April 21st, 2021 from 3-4:30 PM via zoom. Meeting ID: 929 2919 0298
Passcode: 374932

For more information or to request a presentation for organizations, businesses, workers, or community leaders, please contact [email protected].

Food Justice

We volunteer with Feeding San Diego to distribute food in Pauma Valley every first and third Tuesday of the month at 12 PM in the parking lot in front of the Pauma community clinic. 

We also volunteer at the food distribution with San Diego & Imperial Counties Labor Council and the Palomar Faculty Federation to be held on April 17, 2021 from 9-10:30 AM at Palomar College.