{"id":22257,"date":"2018-04-22T22:03:52","date_gmt":"2018-04-23T04:03:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lastbestnews.com\/site\/?p=22257"},"modified":"2018-04-23T16:01:23","modified_gmt":"2018-04-23T22:01:23","slug":"voices-from-the-valley-claudia-stephens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/2018\/04\/voices-from-the-valley-claudia-stephens\/","title":{"rendered":"Voices from the Valley: Claudia Stephens"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Stephens\"<\/a>

Ed Kemmick\/Last Best News<\/p>

Claudia Stephens is the strategic planning specialist for Ag Worker Health & Services in Billings.<\/p><\/div>\n

Voices from the Valley is\u00a0an occasional series of conversations between Sherri Cornett and Billings-area leaders who are committed to creating a vibrant community for all.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Sitting down with Claudia Stephens, the strategic planning specialist for Ag Worker\u00a0Health & Services, I feel, immediately, her earnest attention. Listening and being heard were some of the themes of our conversation, as were neighborhoods and the influence of mothers.<\/p>\n

Sherri Cornett<\/strong>: Claudia, your mother, Maria, began the migrant clinic in 1972 and retired from being its executive director in 2015. How did you become involved?<\/p>\n

Claudia Stephens<\/strong>: \u00a0It is because of her that these services are here \u2014 she was such a fireball. One of her gifts is her innate ability to understand the motivation of others. I\u00a0wanted to emulate her and you always want to help your mother. Since I was working on a degree in journalism, I offered to do some of the never-ending grant writing. It was 1987.\u00a0 I was also volunteering with Migrant Legal Services.\u00a0 It\u2019s like a string of things … all of sudden I looked back and they all formed a path towards where I am now.<\/p>\n

Sherri<\/strong>: \u00a0Which is, as some people continue to call it, the migrant council or clinic.<\/p>\n

Claudia<\/strong>:\u00a0Our\u00a0legal\u00a0name is Montana Migrant and Seasonal Farmworkers Council, Inc<\/a>.,\u00a0but\u00a0we changed the clinic name to Ag Workers Health & Services, as many\u00a0ag workers didn\u2019t see themselves as migrant or seasonal. Some of our patients come from other countries, but many have lived here for generations and have Russian and\/or German origin.<\/p>\n

Sherri<\/strong>: The term \u201cmigrant\u201d is certainly full of assumptions in our current social and political climate. How does this play out with your work?<\/p>\n

Claudia<\/strong>: A lot of my work\u00a0involves educating people and hoping they will leave behind misinformation. Sometimes there are people you can’t reason with, but sometimes\u00a0there are nice breakthroughs.<\/p>\n

I was with a\u00a0farmer\u00a0who believed ag workers make good money. We looked at how much he paid them and then added up their living expenses. He realized then that they do not make a\u00a0living\u00a0wage. I was thankful that I was able to do that exercise with him and he was open to it.<\/p>\n

\"CapreAir_Variable\"<\/a><\/div><\/div>Sherri<\/strong>: \u00a0What do you think gets in the way of reaching people?<\/p>\n

Claudia<\/strong>: People,\u00a0who are\u00a0afraid that what they have\u00a0will\u00a0be taken away, can become unreasonable and they need\u00a0someone to blame.\u00a0It is maybe too generalized, but I really believe we need to start discussions with what we have in common: love for\u00a0our families, basic human needs, feeling a sense of community. We need to start knowing our neighbors.<\/p>\n

Sherri<\/strong>: And being kind. My grandmother told me to be kind and give back.<\/p>\n

Claudia<\/strong>: Yes,\u00a0I remember my mother and I discussing the fact that many children acted as if they were entitled. My mother said that mothers teach children how to relate in healthy ways and most mothers these days are too busy working outside the home to be their children’s teachers and so these children don’t learn how to parent their own children.<\/p>\n

Sherri<\/strong>: With the suffering and alienation around us, how do you refuel so that you can continue the work you do?<\/p>\n

Claudia<\/strong>: Crisis can\u00a0be a\u00a0gift.\u00a0After my crisis,\u00a0I\u00a0began to practice my\u00a0Catholic faith, fervently. As a result, everything is more manageable.\u00a0Life is like a centrifuge.\u00a0If the hatches aren\u2019t secure, if I am not grounded, everything flies out.\u00a0 My faith reminds me to be more compassionate and\u00a0to be the friend I would want to have.<\/p>\n

Sherri<\/strong>: What brings you hope, especially in Billings?<\/p>\n

Claudia<\/strong>: I believe the\u00a0basic character of\u00a0Billings is the desire to be the best neighborhood everyone\u00a0could have.<\/p>\n

Sherri<\/strong>: And how could it be better?<\/p>\n

Claudia<\/strong>: We have had some good responses from elected officials to improve things,\u00a0but\u00a0many\u00a0decision-makers don\u2019t know what is needed.\u00a0We need more people\u00a0offering ideas to meet the needs they are concerned about.<\/p>\n

I envision\u00a0neighbors\u00a0interacting in ways that build community and a sense of belonging,\u00a0instead of\u00a0looking for\u00a0scapegoats to blame\u00a0for what is happening in our world.<\/p>\n

Sherri<\/strong>: I am reminded of the block parties in one of the neighborhoods of my youth \u2014 families bringing out their grills, sharing food, impromptu games.<\/p>\n

Claudia<\/strong>: Such opportunities make us feel so good, don\u2019t they?\u00a0We are made to connect and be social.\u00a0Our annual fundraiser, which will be on\u00a0Sept. 23,\u00a0is a way we hope to\u00a0build community among agricultural workers and the non-agricultural community.\u00a0We dance together and laugh.\u00a0Laughter\u00a0does so much\u00a0to bring us together.<\/p>\n

Sherri<\/strong>: I look forward to dancing and laughing with you in September. Thank you, Claudia!<\/p>\n

\"Sherri<\/a>

Sherri Cornett<\/p><\/div>\n

With degrees in political science and art and a long history of advocacy work, Sherri Cornett’s passion for dialogue and community has found outlets in the national and international social-justice-themed exhibitions she curates, her own art and the organizations and causes into which she contributes her energy and leadership. After 14 moves, Cornett finally found her home in Billings in 1993.\u00a0www.sherricornett.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Voices from the Valley is\u00a0an occasional series of conversations between Sherri Cornett and Billings-area leaders who are committed to creating a vibrant community for all.\u00a0 Sitting down with Claudia Stephens, the strategic planning specialist for Ag Worker\u00a0Health & Services, I feel, immediately, her earnest attention. Listening and being heard were some of the themes of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":219,"featured_media":22260,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[6924,6923,3899],"class_list":["post-22257","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-billings","tag-ag-workers-health-services","tag-claudia-stephens","tag-sherri-cornett","prominence-top-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22257","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/219"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22257"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22257\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22264,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22257\/revisions\/22264"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22260"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22257"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}