Professional Language Services Supports Access and Equity
Season’s greetings to you and yours. The past year has seen tremendous uncertainty and change throughout the world and here at home. We remain profoundly grateful for our steadfast, dedicated team of service coordinators, project managers, multi-cultural specialists and interpreters, who all continue to meet the language access needs of our community.
The need for local language services will continue into the new year. Over the past 12 months our interpreting work supported a variety of categories including local climate equity, K-12 education, food supply and county and state government.
Hennepin County’s 2021 Climate Action Plan outlined short and long-term strategies and goals to address the adverse impacts of climate change on its vulnerable and limited English proficient (LEP) communities. This year our team provided both in-person interpreting and document translation in a variety of languages at many of the action plan’s community listening sessions.
Our work continued with school districts throughout Minnesota as they meet their federal and state language access requirements. Each academic year our team provides interpreting in multiple K-12 areas such as LEP general communications, distance learning, conferences, special education and due process, physical and occupational therapy, and early childhood programs. We look forward to our continued partnership with Minnesota’s K-12 schools.
Minnesota’s farm to table supply chain transforms crops and livestock into food products for consumers. LEP workers are found at many points along this chain, and require language support before, during and after their employment. In 2024 we worked with three clients that represent different food supply segments: The Practical Farmers of Iowa, BIX Produce and Bimbo Bakeries.
Over the past three decades, Ramsey County has welcomed tens of thousands of new Americans from Southeast Asia, Africa, the former Soviet Union, and the Spanish- speaking countries of Central and South America and the Caribbean. The county’s commitment to language diversity and access for its LEP populations was demonstrated at December’s Truth in Taxation meeting. Our team provided 12 professional interpreters for six languages: American Sign Language, Spanish, Somali, Hmong, Karen, and Oromo. We applaud the county’s support of language access and appreciate our continued partnership.
The State of Minnesota’s Legislative Coordinating Commission (LCC) oversees legislative commissions, joint agencies, boards and coordinates diversity, inclusion, and accessibility efforts across the Minnesota Legislature. The commission administers spoken interpreting and written translation services for official legislative business and coordinates the legislature’s accessibility compliance efforts. This year we partnered with the LCC and offered language support for all stages of the legislative process. Our professional interpreters may be used for committee meetings, hearings, and testimony, and are also available as needed for house and senate floor sessions. The state’s rapidly changing demographics and growing LEP populations make it even more critical that language accessibility plans evolve quickly to meet the needs of a multilingual community. Our future work with the LCC will also address the effective and responsible use of AI translation technology to improve language modalities at the legislature.
We look forward to our continued work with our valued partners, clients and vendors in 2025. We wish the very best to all of you for the New Year.