How's certification coming along for domestic violence interpreters? Here's an update on what we're doing in Kentucky:
Showing posts with label certification. Show all posts
Showing posts with label certification. Show all posts
Monday, January 17, 2011
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Is Our Industry Disconnected from Clients?
There is a disconnect--a divide. The difference between what we know and what our clients know is vast and the gulf that lies between us is insurmountable alone.
This is how I felt walking away from the Harvard Social Enterprise Conference. Held February 28th, its global health track featured leaders from international pharmaceutical companies, the Pentagon, the Obama administration--even George W’s daughter sat a panel under her Global Health Corps role. These, supposedly, were the world’s greatest minds on global health and social enterprise, with Harvard‘s reputation fully stacked behind them. But when it came to language services, they didn‘t know jack.
Here’s what made me realize this:
I was sitting in the back row listening to a panel made up of Barbara Bush, the director of the International Health Specialist Program for the Pentagon (Lt Col Mylene Huynh), Merck’s director of global affairs (Kris Natarajan), Management Services for Health‘s CEO (Jono Quick), and two professors from the Harvard School of Public Health (Drs Jessica Cohen and Till Barnighausen). The topic was “Breaking the Silos: Collaborations That Impact Complex Global Health Issues.” According to the program summary, the session’s goal was to bring together people and information from different fields, all with the goal of improving global health.
When it came time for Q&A, I raised my hand. “People don’t heal if they don’t understand,” I said. “The rest of the world does not speak English.” I then asked what we could do as a language industry to help connect with the global health one.
There was a long pause. Too long. Then Lt Col Huynh from the Pentagon spoke. Bilinguals and heritage speakers need to learn medical terminology. Sure, I thought, that’s a given. The military, she claimed, does not have systems in place to teach medical linguists medical language terms. Okay. Fair enough. She’s acknowledged their need and is speaking out. That, we can address; lessons, we can do.
But then Harvard’s Dr Barnighausen spoke up. And his response made me wonder what I’ve been doing with the last four years of my life, what our industry has been doing the last ten. He told a story about the one time he had worked with a “translator.” He asked the “translator” to ask the patient if his stomach hurt. The “translator” and the patient had a long back and forth conversation before the “translator” said, “No.” Dr Barnighausen’s reaction was to stop working with translators (which is good, as he needs interpreters instead) because “they’re all like that.”
I wanted to weep. I sincerely and utterly wanted to weep. The moderator went on to the next question while I sat there in shock. The camera Harvard was using to record it all (Harvard, conveniently enough, was unable to locate the video upon request) panned away from me and back toward the panel as they continued, but I didn‘t hear a word. I was too in shock. This “expert,” this Dr Barnighausen, wasn’t an expert on language‘s crucial role in health care at all.
This was Harvard. These people were supposed to know what they were doing.
After the session, I ran to the front to try and catch Dr Barnighausen. If, for some reason, our entire industry, the multiple associations that we have, the whole of both certification movements, had not been able to reach him, I would. But I didn‘t. The moderator carted him away before we had the chance to talk. I did get to speak with Lt Col Huynh, though. I told her how glad I was she articulated her answer so clearly, how much I appreciated the information. I told her how much Dr Barnighausen’s remarks had pained me, then what she said pained me even more. “But he’s right. They’re all like that.”
I immediately started gushing about the National Council on Interpreting in Health Care, its code of ethics, the certification for medical interpreters expected this fall. “You mean there are ethics?” she said, “This is a profession?”
This woman works for the Pentagon. She is in charge of our entire military’s medical efforts.
Clearly, there is a disconnect. It is wide and vast and sprawling.
As a language industry we are working hard--harder than ever before--to develop interpreting as a profession. We have more trade associations than ever before, more conferences than in years past, more training opportunities than before. But do they help? And, if so, whom?
There is a disconnect. When representatives of our own government, professors at the country’s purported top school--when our nation’s leaders have never heard of us--when they stand aghast at the sheer principle of our having ethics--when they think we’re all bilingual quacks who summarize--what are we doing wrong? Who are our efforts for?
Conference after conference, session after session, we talk, but to each other. We must talk to the client. We must talk to those who need to listen. Instead of teaching Bridging the Gap, we should be bridging the gap between us and our clients.
But how? In the past, this has fallen on the freelancer, on the LSP, on the person selling the services. That’s why we call it client education. But the LSP can not tackle this great gap by itself. The language industry is being squeezed. Rates are falling, client demands are going up. If the LSP refocuses its effort to focus on client education, the burning of resources will mean there is no LSP left. We need our associations to help us. Clients do not always believe freelancers or LSP’s because they assume we have something to sell. But if the associations would work together to sell clients on our industry, there’s no telling who or how many people we could help.
We must close the disconnect. We must stop thinking intrinsically and think externally. Educational PSA’s on YouTube, an NCIHC booth at global health conferences. Our associations must market this industry just as we LSP’s market our services. There should be no excuse for our nation’s leaders to know so little. Again, there should be no excuse for our nation’s leaders to know so little!
Where are we going wrong? How can we take this talking together and make it working together to educate the client? How do we bridge the disconnect?
This is how I felt walking away from the Harvard Social Enterprise Conference. Held February 28th, its global health track featured leaders from international pharmaceutical companies, the Pentagon, the Obama administration--even George W’s daughter sat a panel under her Global Health Corps role. These, supposedly, were the world’s greatest minds on global health and social enterprise, with Harvard‘s reputation fully stacked behind them. But when it came to language services, they didn‘t know jack.
Here’s what made me realize this:
I was sitting in the back row listening to a panel made up of Barbara Bush, the director of the International Health Specialist Program for the Pentagon (Lt Col Mylene Huynh), Merck’s director of global affairs (Kris Natarajan), Management Services for Health‘s CEO (Jono Quick), and two professors from the Harvard School of Public Health (Drs Jessica Cohen and Till Barnighausen). The topic was “Breaking the Silos: Collaborations That Impact Complex Global Health Issues.” According to the program summary, the session’s goal was to bring together people and information from different fields, all with the goal of improving global health.
When it came time for Q&A, I raised my hand. “People don’t heal if they don’t understand,” I said. “The rest of the world does not speak English.” I then asked what we could do as a language industry to help connect with the global health one.
There was a long pause. Too long. Then Lt Col Huynh from the Pentagon spoke. Bilinguals and heritage speakers need to learn medical terminology. Sure, I thought, that’s a given. The military, she claimed, does not have systems in place to teach medical linguists medical language terms. Okay. Fair enough. She’s acknowledged their need and is speaking out. That, we can address; lessons, we can do.
But then Harvard’s Dr Barnighausen spoke up. And his response made me wonder what I’ve been doing with the last four years of my life, what our industry has been doing the last ten. He told a story about the one time he had worked with a “translator.” He asked the “translator” to ask the patient if his stomach hurt. The “translator” and the patient had a long back and forth conversation before the “translator” said, “No.” Dr Barnighausen’s reaction was to stop working with translators (which is good, as he needs interpreters instead) because “they’re all like that.”
I wanted to weep. I sincerely and utterly wanted to weep. The moderator went on to the next question while I sat there in shock. The camera Harvard was using to record it all (Harvard, conveniently enough, was unable to locate the video upon request) panned away from me and back toward the panel as they continued, but I didn‘t hear a word. I was too in shock. This “expert,” this Dr Barnighausen, wasn’t an expert on language‘s crucial role in health care at all.
This was Harvard. These people were supposed to know what they were doing.
After the session, I ran to the front to try and catch Dr Barnighausen. If, for some reason, our entire industry, the multiple associations that we have, the whole of both certification movements, had not been able to reach him, I would. But I didn‘t. The moderator carted him away before we had the chance to talk. I did get to speak with Lt Col Huynh, though. I told her how glad I was she articulated her answer so clearly, how much I appreciated the information. I told her how much Dr Barnighausen’s remarks had pained me, then what she said pained me even more. “But he’s right. They’re all like that.”
I immediately started gushing about the National Council on Interpreting in Health Care, its code of ethics, the certification for medical interpreters expected this fall. “You mean there are ethics?” she said, “This is a profession?”
This woman works for the Pentagon. She is in charge of our entire military’s medical efforts.
Clearly, there is a disconnect. It is wide and vast and sprawling.
As a language industry we are working hard--harder than ever before--to develop interpreting as a profession. We have more trade associations than ever before, more conferences than in years past, more training opportunities than before. But do they help? And, if so, whom?
There is a disconnect. When representatives of our own government, professors at the country’s purported top school--when our nation’s leaders have never heard of us--when they stand aghast at the sheer principle of our having ethics--when they think we’re all bilingual quacks who summarize--what are we doing wrong? Who are our efforts for?
Conference after conference, session after session, we talk, but to each other. We must talk to the client. We must talk to those who need to listen. Instead of teaching Bridging the Gap, we should be bridging the gap between us and our clients.
But how? In the past, this has fallen on the freelancer, on the LSP, on the person selling the services. That’s why we call it client education. But the LSP can not tackle this great gap by itself. The language industry is being squeezed. Rates are falling, client demands are going up. If the LSP refocuses its effort to focus on client education, the burning of resources will mean there is no LSP left. We need our associations to help us. Clients do not always believe freelancers or LSP’s because they assume we have something to sell. But if the associations would work together to sell clients on our industry, there’s no telling who or how many people we could help.
We must close the disconnect. We must stop thinking intrinsically and think externally. Educational PSA’s on YouTube, an NCIHC booth at global health conferences. Our associations must market this industry just as we LSP’s market our services. There should be no excuse for our nation’s leaders to know so little. Again, there should be no excuse for our nation’s leaders to know so little!
Where are we going wrong? How can we take this talking together and make it working together to educate the client? How do we bridge the disconnect?
Sunday, January 3, 2010
Becoming a B Corp
So what's a B Corp? Officially, B Corporations are a new type of corporation which uses the power of business to solve social and environmental problems. Unofficially, it's a for-profit company that puts people before profits.
And Kentucky now has its first.
Located in Louisville's NuLu District, In Every Language is the latest business to receive B Corp certification and the first in the Commonwealth. The company is also the first translating and interpreting provider to be added to the B Corp list, joining well-known brands such as Dansko, Seventh Generation, King Arthur Flour, and Numi Organic Tea.
"At our core, we help people." This is how the In Every Language mission statement begins. This mission of putting community first is part of why In Every Language was the perfect certification candidate. In addition, the medical interpreting services In Every Language offers provide limited-English speakers with intrinsic, medical benefits by helping them to better understand their care. The company also contracts with low-income refugees and immigrants in the area, providing many under-employed individuals with opportunities for economic self-sustainability. And by contracting with female translators and interpreters originally from more oppressive cultures, the company also gives many of these women their first opportunity to work outside the home.
In order to qualify for certification, businesses must score a total of 80 in the following areas: community leadership, community involvement, employment policies, consumer involvement, & environmental policy. In Every Language's score was 127.4, one of the higher scores that Hardik Savalia with B Lab, the B Corporation certifying body, says an applicant company has ever had.
For more information on B Corps, please visit bcorporation.net/about.
For more information about In Every Language, please visit ineverylanguage.com.
Friday, August 28, 2009
Tippecanoe and Jorge, Too
Please find below a blurb from "Court Translation Services Spotty, But Less So Locally," an article written by Sophia Voravong that ran in the August 13th issue of Lafayette Journal & Courier:
Courts in Tippecanoe County, Indiana, offer translation and interpreting services for people who find it difficult to understand or speak English. However, a recent study found that some state-level courts do not provide such services. The study by the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University's School of Law examined 35 states that have higher proportions of people with limited English language skills. The study found that many state-level courts breach federal civil rights laws by failing to provide interpreters for people who require one. The study also looked at state mandates and competency requirements for individual interpreters. Indiana has a statewide registry of certified interpreters, even though certified interpreters are not mandatory. Certification is only required for the county's head interpreter as part of a $16,500 foreign language interpreter grant received annually from the Indiana Supreme Court, says Tippecanoe Superior Court 6 Judge Michael Morrissey. The grant also requires the county to track and report how interpreters have been used. For instance, interpreters helped in 1,493 cases from May 31, 2008, to June 30, 2009.
Courts in Tippecanoe County, Indiana, offer translation and interpreting services for people who find it difficult to understand or speak English. However, a recent study found that some state-level courts do not provide such services. The study by the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University's School of Law examined 35 states that have higher proportions of people with limited English language skills. The study found that many state-level courts breach federal civil rights laws by failing to provide interpreters for people who require one. The study also looked at state mandates and competency requirements for individual interpreters. Indiana has a statewide registry of certified interpreters, even though certified interpreters are not mandatory. Certification is only required for the county's head interpreter as part of a $16,500 foreign language interpreter grant received annually from the Indiana Supreme Court, says Tippecanoe Superior Court 6 Judge Michael Morrissey. The grant also requires the county to track and report how interpreters have been used. For instance, interpreters helped in 1,493 cases from May 31, 2008, to June 30, 2009.
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
DV Certification Process Gets National Attention
August 4th, I posted a copy of a press release on this blog about our recent efforts toward developing the nation's first-ever interpreter certification for domestic violence situations. Today, I found out on Twitter--of all places--that Ode Magazine has featured the story on their website. While their coverage doesn't include any information not already available on this blog, we think being on their home page is a pretty cool deal and would just like to thank them publically.
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
In Every Language and Ky Domestic Violence Association Work Toward Certification
Check out the following press release we issued this morning:
In Every Language, a Louisville-based interpreting and translating provider, has joined the Kentucky Domestic Violence Association’s council for the development of domestic violence interpreting certification. As there is currently no domestic violence interpreting certification available in the United States, the certification will be the first of its kind. Lead by Isela Arras with the KDVA, the Interpreter Certification Project hopes that its certification model, once complete, can be used to qualify or certify domestic violence interpreters in other states. This project therefore only not impacts victims of domestic violence in Kentucky, but has the capability to help people throughout the nation.
A separate certification for interpreting in domestic violence situations is needed due to domestic violence interpreting’s highly-specialized nature. The field is quite different from interpreting for other situations due to the job knowledge, personal sensitivity, and bilingual vocabulary it requires. While resembling medical interpreting in its confidential nature, domestic violence interpreting also requires legal and community interpreting expertise, as well as skill-sets not involved in other interpreting specializations. The council is also writing a training manual and continuing education modules that will serve as aids in certification preparation and maintenance. Once completed, a database of those interpreters in Kentucky both trained and certified for domestic violence situations will be available to KDVA’s shelter programs in the Commonwealth.
The Interpreter Certification Project has grown out of KDVA’s existing Immigrant and Refugee Women Project, a statewide task force working to ensure immigrants and refugees receive equal access to domestic and sexual violence services in Kentucky. In Every Language was selected for the council because of the company’s commitment to community outreach and service.
In Every Language is located in Louisville, Ky, where it works to provide quality translating and interpreting services for social-service and social-entrepreneurial situations throughout the Southeastern United States. The company’s website is http://www.ineverylanguage.com.
Based in Frankfort, Ky, the Kentucky Domestic Violence Association works to ensure that the right to live free of any form of domestic abuse is valued, protected, and defended in the Commonwealth of Kentucky. The KDVA can be found online at http://www.kdva.org.
In Every Language, a Louisville-based interpreting and translating provider, has joined the Kentucky Domestic Violence Association’s council for the development of domestic violence interpreting certification. As there is currently no domestic violence interpreting certification available in the United States, the certification will be the first of its kind. Lead by Isela Arras with the KDVA, the Interpreter Certification Project hopes that its certification model, once complete, can be used to qualify or certify domestic violence interpreters in other states. This project therefore only not impacts victims of domestic violence in Kentucky, but has the capability to help people throughout the nation.
A separate certification for interpreting in domestic violence situations is needed due to domestic violence interpreting’s highly-specialized nature. The field is quite different from interpreting for other situations due to the job knowledge, personal sensitivity, and bilingual vocabulary it requires. While resembling medical interpreting in its confidential nature, domestic violence interpreting also requires legal and community interpreting expertise, as well as skill-sets not involved in other interpreting specializations. The council is also writing a training manual and continuing education modules that will serve as aids in certification preparation and maintenance. Once completed, a database of those interpreters in Kentucky both trained and certified for domestic violence situations will be available to KDVA’s shelter programs in the Commonwealth.
The Interpreter Certification Project has grown out of KDVA’s existing Immigrant and Refugee Women Project, a statewide task force working to ensure immigrants and refugees receive equal access to domestic and sexual violence services in Kentucky. In Every Language was selected for the council because of the company’s commitment to community outreach and service.
In Every Language is located in Louisville, Ky, where it works to provide quality translating and interpreting services for social-service and social-entrepreneurial situations throughout the Southeastern United States. The company’s website is http://www.ineverylanguage.com.
Based in Frankfort, Ky, the Kentucky Domestic Violence Association works to ensure that the right to live free of any form of domestic abuse is valued, protected, and defended in the Commonwealth of Kentucky. The KDVA can be found online at http://www.kdva.org.
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