Emerging and Established Efforts by States to Expand Language Access

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[00:00:01.07] - Jacob Hofstetter

Hi everyone, welcome. Thanks so much for joining us today. We're going to go ahead and get started. So my name is Jake Hofstetter and I'm a policy analyst with the Migration Policy Institute's National Center on Immigrant Integration Policy. And it is my pleasure to welcome everyone to this webinar entitled Emerging and Established Efforts by States to Expand Language Access. We're really excited for all of you, all of you to join us today. And we look forward to our panel discussion, which will feature 3 fantastic leaders in the state governments of New York, Michigan, and Colorado who are currently working on language access in their respective states. So today we are releasing a new report entitled Language Access in Colorado State Agencies: Existing Efforts and Opportunities for Expansion that is currently available on MPI's website. So this report, which we're also very excited for all of you to have a chance to read it's a really unique project that allowed us to examine language access in the state government of Colorado, working with the Colorado Office of New Americans to take a closer look at the current status of language access in Colorado state agencies and discuss opportunities for expansion moving forward.

I also want to note for today's webinar that we will have a Q&A session at the end of the call with myself and the panelists. During the webinar, please type any questions that you have for us into the Q&A box. For those of you who aren't familiar with your— with our center, so I'm a member of the Migration Policy Institute's National Center on Immigrant Integration Policy. So for those of you who may not be as familiar with our work, so NCIIP is a research center within MPI that focuses on issues related to immigrant integration in the United States. The center is a well-established resource for key stakeholder groups such as policymakers, educators, community organizations, and others that are working to understand the tension points and opportunities in communities impacted by immigration. So our primary areas of work include early childhood education and care, education and training, language access, which we'll be diving into today, refugee and humanitarian migrants, and also the governance of integration policy. So through our work and through our research, we help to bring to the forefront frequently underattended issues in the immigrant integration space. And drive forward recommendations at the state, local, and federal levels as well.

So just to give you all a roadmap of where we'll be going in today's event. So I'll be providing some introductory remarks to provide context for our panel. Then we're going to move into our panel discussion, which again will feature this trio of great speakers from the state governments of New York, Michigan, and Colorado, who will be sharing some of the work their respective state governments and offices are doing related to language access. So this panel will take the bulk of the webinar and then we'll move on to the Q&A section of our webinar for the final portion of today. So to get started, I wanna just provide some context for today's discussion just so we can all move forward with a shared understanding of the issue that we're talking about and some of the different items that we'll be discussing as part of the panel. So first off, I wanna provide an overview of the issue of language access and its importance. So I do recognize a lot of folks on here are fairly experienced practitioners or advocates in the language access space, so I'm going to move through these remarks fairly quickly. There are over 25 million individuals in the United States who are what's referred to as limited English proficient, or LEP, meaning that they speak a language other than English and report speaking English less than very well.

The large majority of this population is immigrants, and for this population, which is present in all 50 states and all across the country. Language barriers can prevent their ability to access important government services that they are otherwise eligible for, whether education, healthcare, public benefits, emergency services, etc. And providing language access refers to measures or actions that seek to eliminate or at least reduce those linguistic barriers faced by LEP individuals, generally by providing multilingual content or service delivery to the public. So why is language access important? So on a practical level, providing language access helps make government programs more effective and supports public health as well as public safety. Language access enables government programs and communications to reach linguistically diverse communities and ensures that populations that are eligible to be served by government programs aren't excluded solely due to their level of English proficiency. In this way, language access helps government programs accomplish their goals that they're seeking to do in serving the public. Language access is also important for ensuring public health and public safety. Language access helps ensure that multilingual communities and individuals are informed of pressing health and safety issues and can respond or comply to government directives, whether related to natural disasters in some examples, or say the many public health information campaigns that were present during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Importantly, providing meaningful access to LEP individuals is also a civil rights requirement for federally funded programs that stems from Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 as well. This means that all entities, whether state and local agencies, nonprofit organizations, businesses, that receive federal funding either directly or indirectly must provide language access in their programs. Though this requirement does exist and extends to many government programs and other programs across the country, There are, of course, gaps in awareness, implementation, and enforcement of this requirement, as previous MPI research has shown. Now, while language access is a federal civil rights requirement, recent years have also seen an expansion in state and local efforts to address the issue of language access. So, this includes both efforts more broadly by state and local governments, as well as by their component agencies, which I'll talk a little bit more in a second. So, these efforts on the state and local level often aim to codify federal guidance on language access, lay out clearer requirements and standards for state and local government programs, respond to community needs and demands for language access, and also just on a broader level, provide greater coordination, oversight, technical assistance, planning, and accountability across agencies or programs.

[00:06:10.05] - Jacob Hofstetter

So today we're focusing on efforts within states. And if we could move to the next slide. State governments really have a unique and important role in advancing language access for several reasons. First, states receive and administer funds for many federal programs, enabling them to influence efforts by local agencies and organizations to reduce language barriers and increase compliance with those federal civil rights requirements I was talking about before. For example, funding for large federal programs such as SNAP, Medicaid, TANF, and many early childhood dollars are generally passed from the federal government to states, who then provide these services themselves, or grant them out to nonprofit organizations or local governments that serve the public directly. So this means that states have a significant amount of influence in overseeing these dollars, and they also have these direct connections to public-serving components of these critical federal programs. These types of arrangements allow for many opportunities for state governments to be monitoring, supporting, and promoting language access in these programs. Second, State governments also manage and oversee many important programs related to education, healthcare, public benefits, as well as other sectors. And the governments also directly provide services related to critical functions like public health, criminal justice, and elections, amongst many others.

And this is true across all states, whereas a lot of times with local language access efforts, we see those efforts are somewhat limited by the specific sectors or programs that a locality oversees, which is not as broad as state governments in a lot of cases. So, and this is really important context for the panel as well, which is state governments' efforts on language access can take different forms. So on one, in one spectrum, they can have different levels of formality. So some states have formal laws or policies that seek to promote language access in their programs and agencies. In other cases, there are less formal actions that state governments are taking to build up and ensure language access across programs. And we'll have examples of both of those from our panelists today. And these efforts that states are taking on language access can be cross-agency intended to build greater coordination and language access across all state programs. But they can also target specific sectors or specific agencies such as related to, say, emergency response, public health, education, whatever that might be. But in today's panel, we'll be focusing on both some formalized efforts around language access as well as some less formal efforts or growing efforts around language access.

But all of the efforts we talk about today on the panel will be cross-agency, reaching across entire state governments to address language access. So without further ado, I'd like to introduce our three wonderful panelists that we have for today. So as I mentioned before, we have leaders from New York, Michigan, and Colorado working on this. So from Michigan, we have Guadalupe Ayala, who is the Statewide Language Access Coordinator at the Office of, Office of Global Michigan. So Guadalupe has extensive experience working on issues related to equity inclusion. Previously, she served as the Diversity, Equity, Inclusion Officer for the City of Lansing in Michigan. From Colorado, we have Dee Daniels Scriven, who is the Director of Colorado's Office of New Americans. So Dee brings a wealth of experience working on issues related to New Americans and immigrant integration. Prior to her time at ONA, she spent 12 years working in the Federal Office of Refugee Resettlement as well. And from New York, we have Margarita Larios, who is the Executive Director of New York State Office of Language Access, which is housed in the New York Office of General Services. Margarita, as with our other two panelists, brings a wealth of experience outside of her time at— both within her time at the Office of Language Access as well as previously.

Before she was at the Office of Language Access, she served as Director of Operations and Language Services for New York City's Health & Hospitals, the largest public healthcare system in the country, and also worked as a language professional herself. So first of all, I just want to thank all three of you for being here today. We're really excited to have you and to dig into this. So my first set of questions is going to go to Margarita from New York. So Margarita, New York enacted a language access law in 2022, which built on two previous executive orders related to language access at the state have, the first of which was issued in 2011. So over a decade of working on this issue in the state. And these laws and the previous executive orders required state agencies to take certain steps to provide language access, such as appointing language access coordinators to oversee language access within state agencies, as well as translating certain materials into a set of common non-English languages in New York. New York also has created an Office of Language Access, which is one of only two such offices in the United States. At the state level, the other one being in Hawai'i.

And one thing that's really notable, at least to me, about the Office of Language Access in New York is that it's placed in the state's Office of General Services, which might not be the first place that folks think of when they think about language access. So to get us started off on this panel, can you tell us more about the work of the Office of Language Access? And can you also talk more about the significance of its placement in the state's Office of General Services?

[00:11:16.17] - Margarita Larios

Thank you so much, Jake, for the kind introduction and to the MPI for organizing this webinar. It's really a pleasure to be in this webinar with my colleagues as well. I'm delighted to be joining you from New York City, which sits on the ancestral land of the Lenape people. And as you alluded to, Jake, Governor Hochul expanded and codified the language access policy for New York State in 2022 and established our office, the Statewide Office of Language Access to oversee the effective and efficient implementation of the Language Access Law. We are housed within the New York State Office of General Services, which, as you said, may not be the typical place that we hear other language access efforts coming out of. But I have to tell you that I think it makes absolute sense that we live within OGS, and I'll share why. But first, let me tell you a little bit about the New York State Office of General Services. It's comprised of 9 divisions, and and nearly 1,900 employees that manage and lease real estate property, design and build facilities, deliver a variety of integrated services and innovative solutions, and even steward world-class cultural assets.

So all of this to say that the, the New York State Office of General Services is really a backbone agency that supports foundational operations, provides analysis to inform strategic decisions, and even responds to global crises. So in other words, the Office of General Services focuses on core operations so that state agencies, municipalities, and nonprofits that are our clients, clients of the Office of General Services, can focus on their missions. As our Commissioner, Jeanette Moy of the Office of General Services puts it, when we do our jobs well, New Yorkers are able to access the services that they need. So having the Office of Language Access live within an agency that has this reach and understanding of other state agencies makes perfect sense. Furthermore, the Office of General Services also houses the centralized procurement office, which manages around 1,500 contracts, and that includes the language services contract, which is available to the state agencies that are covered by the language access law, but also is something that local governments, public schools, and eligible nonprofit organizations can benefit from, benefit from, excuse me. And that's really a fact that we want to get out there because these contracts, you know, are high-quality services for, provided by vetted contractors at negotiated rates.

So it is a big deal that this is something that even nonprofits who are eligible can become authorized to buy from. So that's from the perspective of, you know, why we live within the Office of General Services and why it's been really such a great placement for us. And then to talk more about your question relating to what we do and, you know, why it's important that we're working on transparency around data related for language access in New York State, I think it's important to think about the fact that a person's preferred language, as you kind of alluded to as well, and the level of proficiency in a dominant language, be it English usually and sometimes Spanish, really affects our ability to access government services and programs. That rings especially true in New York State, where 5.6 million of us speak a language other than English at home. That's around 30% of the population, and it's much higher than the national average of around 20%. Furthermore, if we look into the number of languages that are represented in New York State, we see between 700 and 800 languages and regional variants, which it is really the, the, if you look at Queens specifically, we have the zip code with the largest number of languages spoken by square foot in the world.

So drilling even further, we see that New Yorkers there's 2.5 million of us that, like you said, may have limited English proficiency as defined by the American Community Survey. So putting language justice at the center of the plan to getting to equity, inclusion, and belonging for all New Yorkers is absolutely fundamental. And I would say also that, you know, we see that has been at the front and center for the now 48 agencies that we work with. The Language Access Law applies to agencies that work directly with the public, but we've also seen agencies raising their hand and saying, hey, you know, I may not be required to, but I really want to have a language access coordinator and develop a language access plan. So I'm happy to say that we went from 45 to 48, and we continue to work with agencies that want to comply with the Language Access Law. Our role at the Office of Language Access is to oversee the implementation of the Language Access Law, and that means that we support, we guide, we assist, we coordinate across the different agencies. We have really created a community of practice. We meet quarterly, but we really have also been very strategic in keeping in close communication with the agencies from the very beginning.

We started in 2022 by issuing an initial assessment asking agencies, Where are the opportunities? Where do you need support? What are the things that you really want to share with other agencies that you're doing really well? And that's really how we determined next steps and really the milestones for our last couple of years from funding for additional translation of vital documents, our assistance to agencies so that they could add up to 4 languages to the list that they translate vital, vital documents into, which is part of our law. And one of the things that we get compliments on from the, the legislative perspective that it is a very clear law, but also that allows agencies to be able to even augment. And furthermore, it also helped us realize the importance of raising awareness about language access rights in New York State and also building that trust. So that's how we embarked in our media awareness campaign in 15 languages. That really was the beginning of promoting our listening tour that took place during the— during last year and the beginning of this year. We collaborated very closely with community-based organizations and nonprofits. Over 20 of them were kind enough to collaborate with us and give us their feedback so that we could plan for a listening tour that spanned over 10, 13 weeks.

We had not— we had a total of 9 sessions. 7 of them were in person. They were in Buffalo, Rochester, Albany, Westchester, Long Island, and 2 in New York City, where we know most of the population with limited English proficiency is based. So we had one session in Harlem and another one in Queens. The other 2 sessions were virtual, understanding that folks may not be able to travel, but we really still want to make sure that, number 1, we raise the fact that folks have language access rights in New York State, and 2, to deliver the community survey that we did. That then informed future steps for our office. And just to mention a couple of them, through that process, we developed our American Sign Language video series, which are interpret— ASL interpretations of key documents, a collaboration with the Governor's Office of the Chief Disability Officer. We also began the process of recruiting a community collaborations and outreach manager that we're onboarding early next year, as I'm very happy to share. As well as having a language survey that we issued across the different agencies to better understand what is the linguistic diversity that we see in New York State workforce and what does that mean for our future planning.

And, and the last thing that I'll mention here is going back even more so to data and making data-informed decisions, the dashboard that we developed. So this is a dashboard with American Community Survey data where, you know, that data typically in ACS or the American community survey data is distributed by public use microdata areas, which is hard for folks to navigate, right? If, unless you have that experience. So we reframed that to be county-based and then offered it to language access coordinators. Seeing how much that helped in the provision of language services, we're now working on making that public, which is happening next year. So that dashboard will be available to anyone who wants to understand better the linguistic diversity of New York State. So we definitely are very focused on data-centered initiatives, Jake, but also I would say making sure that we're peppering them with the understanding that community directly gives us through their feedback.

[00:20:49.24] - Jacob Hofstetter

Thanks so much, Margarita. And it's— that's just a really interesting overview of sort of this very developed model in New York that you all have for working on language access, which has clearly been a large part of this hard work that you've been doing. Two things in particular I just really wanted to highlight is I appreciate you talking about the Office of General Services and really the nitty-gritty of making language access happen. That, you know, there's a law, there's a policy, but then there's a lot of really intense practical work that has to happen. And this idea of having a backbone agency that can help support that across state agencies is really interesting. And just the idea of a listening tour as well is really fascinating to hear, to ensure that there's that feedback constantly coming from the communities, that really these pro— that these efforts at language access are centered on assisting. So I want to move to Guadalupe and to talk a little bit about Michigan as well. So if New York's sort of very well into its journey on working on language access in terms of already having an office solely dedicated to language access, you know, Michigan's sort of getting into things, right?

Michigan's sort of midway through this initial journey. So Michigan passed its own language access law in 2023, which appointed the Office of Global Michigan as the as the overseeing entity for the law's implementation and created new responsibilities for state agencies in Michigan, a lot of which were sort of similar to New York's law and a lot of other state laws as well, such as developing language access plans, appointing language access coordinators, and just more broadly providing language assistance to the public in Michigan. So, Guadalupe, I'm wondering if you can tell us a little bit more about the initial implementation of Michigan's language access law and how that's gone. What challenges and successes have you encountered? And the other piece I'm really interested to hear about too is how has this process differed across state agencies in Michigan as well?

[00:22:34.05] - Guadalupe Ayala

Yes, uh, thank you, Jake, and good afternoon, and thank you for the opportunity to join you all today representing the state of Michigan and to speak today about our language access initiatives. As Jake mentioned, we're really getting into the first really almost the first year. So Michigan's language access laws were passed and were signed by Governor Gretchen Whitmer in November of 2023, so just a little over a year ago, and they actually just became effective in February of this year. So the first law, the 2023 Meaningful Language Access to State Services Act, and the second is the Statewide Meaningful Language Access Coordination Act. And really, they aim to improve the access to state services for individuals who speak languages other than English. And the FIRST Act really created the responsibilities for state agencies to provide language access, including the appointment of language access coordinators for departments and the provision of language assistance such as interpreters and the translation of materials. So I'd like to take a few minutes just to discuss, like, those initial implementation of the law, like, as you asked and share like the challenges and the successes that we really encounter, but really highlighting like how the process has really varied across like the departments.

And when Michigan's laws were passed, they were really giving that— agencies were given that clear set of responsibilities to ensure that language assistance was effectively provided. And the implementation began with the Office of Global Michigan, where I'm housed, leading the outreach and training sessions for state agencies. So our role really has been helping agencies understand what the requirements are and really navigating like the planning and the execution of the language access strategies that they've created. So agencies that had already had some infrastructure in place for serving diverse populations were, of course, able to move more quickly, while we've seen that others just require additional time and resources to really develop and implement their plans. So there has been notable successes in the initial stages that we're at in the implementation of the law. And at first, we think really awareness has significantly increased within our agencies. All our departments have a language access coordinator and have received training to have, like, that clear understanding of what the language needs of our diverse Michiganders is. And so we think that is really important, and we are continuous— continuing to provide that awareness at different levels within the state.

Second, we know that, you know, we've seen improved access to the services, and we see that as a success even in our initial stages. Our agencies, we see that through our agencies really utilizing the language service providers that we have in place in translating their vital documents, prioritizing them really, and seeing which vital documents need to be translated. And we've seen an increase in them utilizing in-person, virtual, and telephonic interpretation. With that, I think lastly, like, our collaboration with community organizations have definitely increased. We've seen, you know, receiving feedback from them as far as what has worked, what has been the challenges, and many state agencies are working closely with local community groups really to understand the needs and to share resources that need to be created or that have been created. And within our Office of Global Michigan, we do have the commission, ethnic commissions administrators. So we are able to, you know, go throughout the state, hear from leaders and from community partners on the challenges and also the successes of some of the language access services that have been provided by the state. So there are those successes that we are going to, of course, rely on and also learn from.

And, but more than anything, we learn from our challenges as well. You know, definitely it has, this is a large-scale implementation. And with that, there has been challenges along the way. You know, one of the first things that I can say is like just the identification of resources For example, like staffing, the identification of staffing to really fully implement language access requirements and the budget. And some of that is just really education, right? Making sure that departments understand how, you know, the budget was already created when these acts were passed and when they became effective. We were in the middle of a fiscal year already. So that is just, you know, education and better planning for the future. So that was definitely a challenge and something that we had to educate, and we continue to educate our language access coordinators and their departments. And another challenge has been really like the speed of training and implementation. And it might seem something that, you know, for some agencies, again, were able to move quickly because they had that experience. And others, you know, just need additional time to provide that necessary training for their staff at different levels, creating the systems, and, you know, creating even like their initial language access plan.

Then when you ask about like, you know, the difference across state agencies, the process of implementation, of course, has not been the same across all state agencies, and this is, you know, due to several things, one of them being like the size of each department and the scope, you know, of the services that they offer to the public. And as well, you know, with that is really their experience with populations that speak other languages than English. And again, that goes into making sure that we provide the training of, you know, of who is in our state and we provide the resources and the data. And for example, some agencies that interact regularly with, like, large number of individuals that speak other languages are able to quickly assess their needs and really implement the changes that were required by the laws. And these agencies, of course, sometimes come with larger budgets, more experience, and you know, that immediate need to language requirements is more usually a little bit faster in being met. So we saw the progress a little bit early on, and this sometimes discouraged other departments and said, you know, we want to get there, you know, why are we not there already?

But again, it comes with them understanding what it is that needs to be implemented and what needs to be acquired. And so yeah, and it's a challenge because sometimes these departments that are smaller have that fewer direct public interaction, or their services are more specialized. So they do have that slower start. And we're just making sure that we work with all of them, no matter the size, on making sure that they understand how the law needs to be applied with their specific services. So it's a lot of technical support and just, you know, understanding, hearing them out, and knowing that it's not going to be the same across all agencies and how they implement it. So just like a summary of everything, the implementation in our state with the law, you know, we've made significant strides that have been a little bit, you know, it may seem like it's slower, but it's something that we're really proud of, especially improving that awareness. Ask, because with that awareness, you know, we're able to move things along. And, you know, all of it at the end of the day is really increasing the access to the services for those that speak other languages.

And across all our departments, we continue to refine our approaches and work together, you know, with our language access coordinators. And I'm sure and I'm confident that we will be able to overcome challenges. Making sure that we ensure that all Michiganders, no matter of their language background, they have the access that they need to those services that are offered to everyone. So, yes.

[00:31:27.16] - Jacob Hofstetter

Thank you so much, Guadalupe, for providing that answer and all that detail on Michigan's work. I mean, it sounds like a tremendous amount of work, of course, and some really great progress as well. I really appreciate you talking about sort of agencies having existing efforts. And then some being able to sort of go a little faster because they already have those— that skill set in place. And I think that'll tie into some of what Dee will be talking about really well too. I mean, this whole process, sometimes folks in the language access field have described getting these types of programs and implementation efforts off the ground as basically building a plane while you're flying it. And it certainly sounds like you're, you know, definitely going through that in Michigan as well. So I want to move on to Colorado to Dee, and Colorado is unique in that it doesn't actually have a formalized language access policy, but in some ways it seems like the state's sort of trying to build the plane on the ground before it takes off, if I can stretch the metaphor a little bit. So Dee, I'm just really curious. I want to hear, number one, sort of why the ONA began working on this issue.

And then the second piece is, of course, we have this MPI report out today, which details this assessment and analysis of recommendations that we worked on to help understand what was going on across agencies in Colorado as well. So I just want to ask you, number one, sort of the origin story of your office's work on this issue in Colorado. And then second, why your office thought it was important to do that type of assessment prior to sort of undertaking broader state work on this issue.

[00:32:57.10] - Dee Daniels Scriven

Yeah, thank you, Jake, and thank you to MPI. It's so good to be here with all of you. I'm just going to back up a little bit to let you know that Our ONA, our Office of New Americans, was created in June of 2021, and I was hired as the first director in, uh, in June of 2022. So our office is about 2.5 years old, and ONA is committed to being an office for our whole state, um, not just the Denver metro area or those on the I-25 corridor. So very early on, we decided to travel to every corner of our state to listen and understand our community's needs. And both in urban areas and in rural areas, we consistently heard about language access being a barrier to our community accessing services. And it's an issue that has prevented New Americans from knowing about and accessing opportunities, experiencing a good quality of life, and really fully participating in Colorado's economy. In Colorado, we also have a really vibrant immigrant-serving CBO network who started a coalition on language access, and we learned that our partners are very eager for movement And then also with our state agencies in our regular work, we're in regular contact with many of our state agencies and we know that they are also committed to serving all Coloradans.

So we saw this potential for partnership on a national level. We're also part of a national network of ONAs and about 2 years ago we started seeing similar size states. Like, I don't know if we'll ever be in New York. Margarita, you're doing amazing things. But we started seeing similar size states like Nevada and Hawaii making big strides in improving language access, and this also helped encourage us to look more closely into the issue to see what we could do. So, we decided to take action and make language access within state government, government one of our priorities, to be responsive to community needs and to proactively address language access where we were best positioned to make an impact, which is within state government. So we reached out to you guys at MPI and started chatting about what would be best in terms of an assessment. And we also are so grateful we reached out to a community foundation in Colorado, the Colorado Trust, and we're so grateful that both of you guys agreed to work with us, Colorado Trust to fund the assessment and MPI to do this great work. And so the reason, to your second question, Jake, the reason why we thought the assessment was the next best step was because through these listening sessions, we did hear a lot of testimonies and anecdotal evidence about the specific instances where better language access was needed, but we didn't have a sense of the big picture in state government.

We all obviously had our assumptions, but we really didn't know if these real-life experiences of our community members, um, was sufficient evidence of systemic gaps. So when we heard about these incidents, we did reach out to specific state agencies and worked with them to solve the issue or solve like one-off issues and provide technical assistance. But we did need to know the bigger picture so we could find out what the best solution was. We also needed to know what all state agencies were doing in terms of language access and how they stood in relationship to each other. Also, with tight state fiscal budgets for the next at least 2 state fiscal years and ARPA dollars going away, which I think everybody is experiencing right now, we knew that we needed to be strategic. And in order to be strategic, we needed better information. 

We wanted to ensure that the next steps we took would be steps that Colorado would realize the biggest impact on language access investments with limited resources. And so without the assessment, it would be like trying to map our route without knowing our starting point. And finally, an unanticipated benefit of doing the assessment first was that it got state agencies more engaged with ONA and language access, which has really helped ONA grow these relationships and has really laid the foundation for future partnership. Thanks.

[00:37:12.16] - Jacob Hofstetter

Thanks so much, Dee. Yeah. And I think if folks are interested in seeing sort of more with that, assessment and analysis engagement process look like, I really encourage you to check out the report we have out today. We're really proud of it and think that speaks to some— a really unique model that states and localities and even individual agencies can take to identify a lot of the different things that Dee was talking about as well. So we do want to move into the Q&A function in just a couple of minutes, but I have a last final question for each of you, and I'm hoping maybe you could address it in maybe 2 minutes or so, just to make sure we have enough time for the Q&A portion. And so I want to ask sort of what's next and lessons learned across. So Dee, I'll start with you. So we'll sort of go from Colorado to Michigan and then to New York for this question. So starting in the Rocky Mountains, my question is, you know, obviously engaging with state agencies has been a really important part of this, and I understand that there's this potential effort to put together a working group for agencies to explore a more cross-agency response.

So I'm curious if you can tell us a little bit about that, but also more broadly, where do you see this work heading in Colorado as you move forward?

[00:38:23.24] - Dee Daniels Scriven

Thank you, Jake. Yeah, well, first of all, we're so excited the report is coming out today with all the recommendations in it, and we're also excited to learn from our peer states and, and those of you right here who've gone before us. And the other thing that we're really excited about is because MPI came and did the assessment, we actually had an ONA, our ONA administrator, participating in all of those research interviews and what would work best for state agencies to be engaged and equipped to do language access well. So I, I would be remiss if I didn't give a shout out to Adam Coachman, ONA administrator from Colorado, who's really spearheading this work. A big thanks to him. But our state agencies have very diverse missions and programs and varying levels of exposure to the public. And one major takeaway we learned is that many state agencies that intersect with the public are already doing a lot on language access. And these— there are language access champions within state government that want to make their programs and services even more accessible. And we want to leverage that existing infrastructure and those best practices and wisely use taxpayer dollars thoughtfully to maximize impact.

So as you, as you referenced, Jake, we are hoping in the very near future to launch an interim language access workgroup to unify around what a tailored structure would look like for the state to share best practices and enhance collaboration. This interim group will consist of state agency staff, and we want to engage and provide the opportunity for state agencies to really buy in and have agency in this process. Additionally, we know that state agencies have the experience, the insights, and the data. They know where the opportunities lie in these areas and the, the ability to implement internal changes. For example, just like in New York, how now they have like contracts that are statewide and available to all state agencies. We'd love to see those things here, and some of the biggest wins we think will probably come in those areas, like streamlining contracts for translating services or deciding standards for multilingual staff pay. We also in Colorado want to ensure that we don't apply a one-size-fits-all approach. We don't want to have a blanket law that imply— that applies to all state agencies that may or may not have impact with the public.

Um, finally, this interim group, we really want to ensure that they strategically receive and welcome community input. We really don't want a product at the end of this that is like fabulous on paper, but it really doesn't work with our community. Um, because ultimately, like, what we're here for is to, um, help New Americans access the services and benefits that they're eligible for and that they deserve and that will help them live a better life. So I don't have a future ball after this interim language access work group, but I'm really excited and know that we are committed to this in Colorado. We have about 300,000 folks. And you know, Jake, that I hate the term limited English proficiency, even though it's the federal term. I know that most of those individuals probably speak 2, 3, or 4 languages. So If there's ever a federal push to change that term, I would be on board with that. But we have about 300,000 folks in Colorado who would need that assistance and, and really excited to help them get it. Thanks.

[00:42:03.11] - Jacob Hofstetter

Yeah, thanks, Dee. And certainly I understand one step at a time, but appreciate you sharing those, those next steps. So, Guadalupe, I do want to make sure we have time to move to questions. So if I could ask you very quickly, how do you see things playing out in Michigan in sort of the medium term? You know, it sounds like you're sort of working out a lot of the kinks, getting things running in terms of implementation, but where do you think, where do you see things going from here?

[00:42:28.12] - Guadalupe Ayala

So yeah, so in the medium term, like as you refer, like how I see things going forward, I see the implementation of Michigan language access laws really processing, progressing, I mean, like really from like a focus of improvement and growth. And really, over the next few years, our state agencies will most likely continue to build on the foundations they established. So yes, things are going to be really changing over time, but really for the better, you know, to make them better and to make them stronger, especially with their language access plans. You know, things are going to be changing over time and things do progress and they progress for the better. And it's all really in just improving really the language assistance services that we would provide to all Michiganders. So really focusing on refining and ensuring that language access becomes more integrated into their daily operations with that, you know, that awareness that I spoke about earlier. And really, and all of that is to meet the needs of all individuals that speak other languages more effectively. And as for like the variation in implementation across really, you know, the state agencies and the regions, I really anticipate that the agencies that deal directly with large and diverse populations again will continue leading the, being leaders in that space and really being and providing innovative strategies, and with that, I think other agencies within the state will also come along with them.

And yeah, so like, I feel like when it— and then there is that regional differences that we spoke, and there will be certainly challenges between those that are in urban and rural areas, and where the urban areas really have that, generally have that more diverse populations. And may see like a quicker adoption of like language access services really for that high demand. And because we really rely on data a lot, but we also rely on the community input. So I think that's really vital and where we can definitely progress. And I feel like also in contrast, like in rural areas, they might face more of like that challenges to do the lower concentration of individuals that speak other languages and possibly fewer resources as well. So in those agencies within the rural areas, we anticipated what they may need additional support. So our agencies that have those local offices will need to provide that local, that additional support just to recruit more of like the bilingual staff. Those partner agencies and those communities are going to be very vital just to make sure that, you know, we expand the equitable access to the services. So really overall, I believe, you know, Michigan, our language access system will become more robust and more efficient and more integrated with agencies and regions adapting based on their specific needs and their, really, their capacities and what they can provide.

[00:45:51.16] - Jacob Hofstetter

Great, thanks so much, Guadalupe. So just given the time, we're going to move to Q&A. But don't worry, Margarita, because someone actually asked more or less the question I'm going to ask you. So I'm going to take moderator's privilege to say this was a question from the audience, but also a question that I had. So kudos to the member of the audience who asked this question. So just for folks who are in, who are from the audience who want to have questions, we have a lot of great questions coming into the Q&A. Feel free to keep adding those in. We'll get to as many as we can. I'll also be in a lot of cases sort of grouping questions together or addressing certain topics. So you may not hear your exact question asked, but it will certainly be sort of rolled into other questions that we have for the panelists as well. You can also email [email protected]. So, Margarita, I think, so a question that I had for you, as I mentioned, that was also a question from the Q&A, is what are the lessons for states who are looking to get into this work.

You've been, I mean, New York broadly has sort of this collective wisdom from over a decade of working on this issue, and you yourself obviously have been working on this as well. So I'm just curious, and someone had asked a question sort of for states that don't have laws and policies, how they can promote that, but also how they can think about getting into that work as well. So what lessons do you think are important for government staff or policymakers or advocates who are in the initial stages of this work or seeking to expand language access in their own states?

[[FOR THE Q&A PORTION OF THE TRANSCRIPT, SPEAKERS ARE NOT IDENTIFIED BY NAME. PLEASE SEE THE RECORDING TO IDENTIFY SPEAKERS.]]

[00:47:18.01] - Speaker 2

Thank you for that question. And I will just start my response by saying that I absolutely agree with Dee about the term LEP. I'm on that same bus. I agree. We should definitely have a term that is less deficit-oriented and that really showcases the incredible skill that it is to be bilingual, trilingual, et cetera. So just wanted to put that out there And in terms of lesson— in terms of lessons learned, I would say one of the things that I think is really key for this work, and I think it really applies to work in general under the diversity, equity, inclusion, accessibility umbrella, is really having an incremental mindset, right? Every— it's important to have short-term, medium, and long-term goals, not just so that you have a plan and that you can create a strong foundation, but because that is really the best way to implement and to pivot as you need to, right? Like, that's one of the things that you were alluding to earlier, Jake, like the operations of being able to provide language services across the state has many parts, including the contracts that have been mentioned here, as well as the different stakeholders.

[00:48:25.08] - Speaker 2

So definitely the first thing I would say is thinking about that incremental progress No step is unworthy. Every little step counts and gets you to where you need to be. I know that that can sometimes feel frustrating because we are all— I really find that those of us that do this work find it very personal, and it's hard to not just constantly feel the sense of urgency of doing more. But every step counts, you know, and having a long-term plan helps. Helps you see that. That's one part that I would definitely highlight. And then I would say absolutely, I would say that having legislation, having codified policy, and, you know, the specificity of what are the standards and the expectations is really important and has a lot of weight. But if you don't have the support from the top and you have a team that really is able to harness that support to be able to oversee the implementation and support and guide You're missing the other part of it, right? You really need someone to be taking care of that, to be the experts in that, and to be able to explain, you know, the specificities of the work that we do.

[00:49:39.03] - Speaker 2

Oftentimes we equate fluency with interpretation skills or translation skills, and those of us in this arena know that that's— those are such different skills, right? To be a medical interpreter or to be a consecutive or simultaneous interpreter, even within those two different categories, requires a whole different skill set. So I think it also has to do with making sure that we're representing how professional, the level of professionalism that it requires to do either of those jobs and to make sure that we continue to promote that across culture. And there's also all the other parts of the linguistic, if you will, ecosystem, right? There's of course the professionals in language, but there's also the folks that make sure that the wheels keep turning, right? Like the administration of the operations of language services or external affairs and communications folks that let us put out there the message that is meant for the public, right? Where you can have great messaging, but if it doesn't get to the right ethnic media or in the right language or even in the right avenue, right? Like folks will not get this information. And I think that was also one of the questions of sort of, it kind of alludes to that.

[00:50:55.08] - Speaker 2

And the key of all of it, I would say, at the center is the community, which I know my colleagues have also mentioned here, right? Like really being really authentic and vulnerable to the feedback that we get from the community. Because if we don't actually have that at the center, then we're not doing the job that we're supposed to be doing. And the Office of Language Access hugely in New York State hugely exists because of the efforts of advocates and of course the partner relationships that happened with legislators. So a key part of it as well. And the very last thing that I would say is not losing— the third thing that I would say is not losing sight of the intersectionality of the work that we do and the power of those collaborations, right? Being strategic in who we collaborate with helps us be able to reach a wider audience. And I see that every day when we're working with our colleagues at the Governor's Chief Diversity and Inclusion Office or at the Chief Disability Office, right? We tend to see this work as siloed, and it is unfortunately oftentimes, but making the effort to go against the grain in that sense and showing that we're really all pursuing the same thing, and it is for folks to have the freedom to access government services and have really agency over their lives is what we're all looking for.

[00:52:14.15] - Speaker 2

So having those strategic relationships and collaborations, I think, is fundamental.

[00:52:20.12] - Speaker 1

Thanks so much, Margarita. And yeah, I really appreciate that response and that you were able to fit in another question from the chat too. Great, great job as well. So, you know, a lot of questions that have come through the Q&A function, which again, folks can keep adding your questions in there and we'll get to them as best we can. A lot of questions have been around the use of these contracted language services at the state level. So this is largely contracted interpreters for oral communication, contracted translators to translate written materials or web content. And there's a lot of questions around ensuring quality of those, ensuring that they are practicing with proper ethics, that they're delivering the type of communication that can really facilitate language access. Because as we all know, poor quality interpreting and translation can actually impede language access in a lot of cases as well. So this question is for Guadalupe and Margarita. Based on that, can you just tell us a little bit more about how your states are in your positions that you seek to address issues related to quality control when it comes to contracted language services? And why don't we start with Guadalupe?

[00:53:23.22] - Speaker 3

So thank you for the question. So the state had already had two language service providers that we've been working for since 2018. So prior to my time with the state of Michigan, we are getting, you know, all the feedback that you know, from our different departments and agencies, but also from the community. So we're keeping track of those things and making sure that we hold accountable our providers if that is the situation, because we wanna make sure that that's something that we provide, you know, quality interpretation and translation. Things are not always 100%, you know, perfect, and, you know, translator or interpreter perfect, but we wanna hear that that feedback because we wanna make sure that we provide that quality. So that is something that it's important to always mention that, you know, that we wanna hear that feedback and that we're open to, you know, hearing those suggestions or, you know, available resources if it's partners in the community that we need to reach out to better understand a community or the dialects that, you know, that need to be provided or if there's a gap Getting those things, you know, from our community and those that use, you know, the services that we provide is always really important and vital to make things better.

[00:54:42.24] - Speaker 2

And I would just add to that to say that we see it similarly, right, in the sense that without feedback we can't improve the services. We definitely want to get the feedback, and we have two mechanisms really for this. So we have our complaint form available on our website for anyone in the public to submit their complaints. They go directly to the agency to whom they're directing that complaint and to us at the Office of Language Access directly, and then we work together to ensure that those are being addressed. In the specific case, if there's contact information for the person that put in the complaint and also at a system level, right, regardless of whether we have contact information, what steps can we take to address that in the future? And does that have to do with our collaborations with contractors? Directors. On the other hand, we work very closely also with the statewide language access coordinators who are incredible at staying on top of the work that their agency does. We're starting to see some growth in those teams as well, because it cannot be understated how much work this is. And that's another thing that I think we need to effectuate some cultural change in understanding how much goes into the language access coordinator role.

[00:55:50.12] - Speaker 2

And they submit to us, you know, their any feedback that they have, and then we make sure that we collaborate internally with the the folks that work on this contract. And I should also say from the perspective of the question along the lines of what do the contracts ask for, all of the centralized contracts at OGS, specifically the language service contract that I'm alluding to, includes the necessary rules, regulations, and standards by New York State. And we expect the contractors to abide by those rules and regulations. And I should say that they really do have high standards. And that, you know, we collaborate actively with the contractors to give them feedback as well, because I think it's also fair to say that keeping open communication with them is really important too.

[00:56:39.10] - Speaker 1

Great. Thank you so much for all that wonderful information. So I think what's unfortunately going to have to be our final question, but one that came up in the chat as well, which is increasing awareness of both the availability of language access, in a lot of cases individuals' right to receive meaningful access to federally funded programs as well. And I know there seems to be, you know, a lot of folks in community who are asking for language access, right? It's not— so there does seem to be awareness of this. At least all three of you described that in your remarks a bit. So I just want to ask the three of you sort of the work you're doing to build awareness around the availability of language access in your states to ensure that communities know this is available, that they're able to access translated materials and interpreting as well. So maybe if we could just do, you know, 30 seconds a person, and we can go from Dee to Guadalupe to Margarita.

[00:57:33.01] - Speaker 4

Thanks, Jake. Yeah, I think we are so at the beginning phases of this. While different state agencies do have language access services our populations. It looks different, like I said before, across state agencies and whether they have that intersection with the population or not. And so as we continue to move forward, I think we will work with trusted community-based organizations who really have those lines of communication with all of our community members to get the word out. But until that time, I think each state agency is doing their own different approach with community members.

[00:58:19.13] - Speaker 3

And to speak on that, you know, just what Dee said, it's really what we are intending to do at this point with the state of Michigan is really making sure that we have a robust plan that we can implement when it comes to communication and outreach. We are again, bringing that awareness to our own agencies at this moment, and we want to make sure that when we do communicate all the different, you know, services that we have available to the public, that it's something that comes to them knowing that it's going to be 100% or as close to making sure that it is reliable. But however, as we said, you know, our language— our departments have the information on how to utilize how to implement the language, the interpretation or translation of documents through our language service providers. And at any point, if there is a need, we have our community partners that are able to reach out to us and also, you know, make sure that we provide a remedy. But down the line, you know, that's something that you're going to see within our websites throughout our state agencies, and then also a formal website within the Office of Global Michigan with all of the information and resources for our partners.

[00:59:38.16] - Speaker 3

It's been great, you know, seeing all the best practices around the other states, New York included, onto making sure that, you know, things are easily accessible and in multiple languages in our websites.

[00:59:50.24] - Speaker 1

Okay, well, unfortunately we're out of time. I'm sorry, Margarita, that you won't get to respond to that one. So we do have a final slide with just our contact information for folks who are interested, and another link to the report. I just want to thank everyone for joining us today. I think we had almost— we had well over 400 people joining us today, which is so exciting to have so many people interested in language access. I also just want to thank our panelists for being here. Really appreciate you sharing your time and expertise with all of us, and apologize that a number of questions went unanswered. We got to as as many as we could. We could stay on here for hours talking about language access, of course. So an audio and video recording of this webinar will be available on our event website. Reporters can contact Michelle Mittelstadt with any questions as well. So just once again, thank you so much for joining us, to our audience, to our panelists. I really appreciate you being here, and happy holidays to everyone. I hope you have a wonderful holiday season.