http://www.3-way.org

Meeting the demand for language interpretation

Non-English speaking individuals – particularly new immigrants – face an array of barriers that limit their ability to access day-to-day essential resources and services, including communicating with sales personnel, reporting a criminal activity, and seeking medical attention or legal assistance.  Furthermore, their inability to communicate with local businesses, government agencies and social service organizations compromises their influence in society, contributing to social isolation and community disenfranchisement.  Although there have been attempts by the government and social service organizations to provide more multilingual services, the demand still far outstrips the capability to deliver such services.  As a result, non-English speaking individuals are often times unable to access and employ these crucial services including public advocacy, legal assistance and community development. 

Speakeasy as the solution

Speakeasy is a service that offers non-English speaking individuals convenient, free and easy access to a network of well-informed, multilingual “Guides” who would be able to provide on-demand, confidential language interpretation via the telephone.  Aside from their interpretation services, Guides would also be able to effectively address callers’ concerns and needs as they are more familiar with the social service options available in this country.  In practice, Speakeasy is not a new concept as many multilingual individuals are already serving as informal interpreters for their family members and friends, but often with uneven or inappropriate results.  Instead of having to depend solely on this informal social network and to ease some of the unduly burdens placed upon family members and friends, Speakeasy would be able to take advantage of the ubiquity of cell phones and connect non-English speakers to Guides promptly.  Speakeasy is not meant to discourage non-English speaking individuals from attaining English language proficiency, but rather, to provide these individuals access to critical social services and resources while they learn English and acclimate to their new society.

Technically, Speakeasy consists of three components – a web service for Guides’ registration and scheduling, a telephone server for call routing and conferencing, and a database that stores Guides’ phone numbers, language capabilities and available times.  Callers – any non-English speakers, including immigrants, refugees and other limited English proficiency individuals – would place a call to Speakeasy from any telephone and then be greeted by pre-recorded messages and prompts in English, Cantonese and Mandarin.  After callers navigate the voice menu by pressing the appropriate buttons, Speakeasy then queues their calls through the database, and connects them to available Guides who would act as “linguistic liaisons” to city service agencies, community organizations and local businesses via their cell phones.  In that sense, Speakeasy transcends geographic, spatial and temporal boundaries as it allows Guides to provide assistance wherever they may be and whenever they are available.         

Volunteer Guides

Volunteer “Guides” are multilingual individuals who would be able to provide on-demand language interpretation for non-English speakers who need to access social service agencies, government institutions and/or local businesses.  In addition to providing critical language interpretation, Guides would also serve as the cultural and social bridge to help callers access and navigate complex and unfamiliar systems and institutions.  Furthermore, as Guides are both adept with the American society and familiar with the idiosyncrasies of the Chinese community, they would be able to effectively address the needs and concerns of the callers in addition to providing appropriate guidance and advice.                       

For this specific six-week pilot phase of Speakeasy, we will be targeting Chinese-speaking participants and volunteer Guides who are fluent in Cantonese, Mandarin, Toisanese and/or other Chinese dialects.  Training will be provided to both users and Guides, and booklets containing instructions on using Speakeasy and a phone list of various Boston government and social service agencies will be distributed to the Guides.  

Building a stronger and more cohesive community

Eradicating the linguistic and cultural barriers that hinder non-English speaking individuals to effectively advocate for themselves and their families would enable them to play a more active and stronger role in the economic, cultural, social and political realms of their respective communities.  Additionally, Speakeasy not only allows Guides to serve and be engaged in their community, but the system also fosters community identity, building and cohesion through the creation of productive relationships among new immigrants, established members of the community and community-based organizations.  Even more importantly, the community would be able to leverage the social capital and resources that have been developed to build and ensure sustainability for the long-term.         

 The Asian Community Development Corporation (ACDC) is currently recruiting bilingual individuals who are fluent in Chinese (Cantonese, Mandarin, Toisanese and/or another Chinese dialect) to serve as volunteer interpreters (“Guides”) for Speakeasy.  Please feel free to disseminate this information to all interested parties.  For more information or if you have any questions, please contact Mary Fuller at maryfuller@asiancdc.org or 617.482.2380x 203.

888 Washington Street, Suite 102 | Boston, MA 02111-1426 | 617-482-2380 t | 617-482-3056 f | info@asiancdc.org