The students of the Digital Mural class collaborated with the health workers of the Center for Community Advocacy in a comprehensive project to promote health among farm workers. The Center for Community Advocacy (CCA) Promotores de Salud Project is a farm worker based, peer-to-peer health outreach program that operates through a network of housing site-based, CCA-trained farm worker tenant committees, each with its own indigenous farm worker leadership.

Led by Professor Gilbert Neri, visitng artist John Jota Leaños, and graphic designer Arthur Simons, the Digital Lab students developed this yearlong project involving visits to farm worker housing, meetings with the Promotores to design materials to assist in the farm worker health education program. The Hands of Health collaboration transformed the student’s view of farm worker life and resulted in a billboard, postcards and a fotonovela, or soap opera book highlighting the health issues for the farm worker.

The images in the post cards and in the billboard reflect the negotiation between visual imagination and community knowledge and produce a powerful public project that will reach out into the Salinas Valley and is the part of a creative process about service learning in its many forms. Through the arts students were able to realize compassion and an understanding of social justice in action. Through the support of the Nathan Cummings Foundation the promotores materials designed by VPA students were provided free of cost to the health workers for distribution.