Language Access: Keeping Systems 
Accountable During Emergencies 

LEO MARTINEZ: Good afternoon or good morning whenever you 
are, wherever you are. We are providing you with an opportunity 
where hear some information about a different topic on language 
access today, and which is systems advocacy. So the information 
that we're going to provide is directed at being able to hold 
systems accountable, especially like in the light of COVID-19. And 
it could be any other emergency. 

How do we keep those systems accountable? How do we go about 
making sure that services for those who are limited English 
proficient or for those who are deaf or hard of hearing don't stop? 
That we still have those things in place. So I'm going to share a 
few things today about that, and some information that is 
definitely necessary to know to be able to do that. 

So my name is Leo Martinez, and I'm a project manager with 
Casa Esperanza and National Latin@ Network. Within the 
organization, I do a lot of work around training and technical 
assistance on topics such as language access or cultural 
responsiveness, working with Latino families and-- that are going 
through domestic violence or sexual violence or human trafficking 
and a plethora of other topics. 


So let's start with a little bit of information about our 
organization. We are a national technical assistance provider. We 
are considered the national resource center on domestic violence 
in the Latino community, that is under one of our grants, which is 
the FVPSA and HHS. FVPSA for the Family Violence Prevention 
Services Act. HHS for Health and Human Services Department. 

We started as a small organization back in 1982 in St. Paul 
Minnesota. And today, we are, as I mentioned, a national 
organization doing work around the country in different things, 
such as training and technical assistance, research, policy and 
providing the capacity building for those who are doing the work 
across the country in different parts of the country, whether it is 
with Latinos, whether it's with immigrants and any other 
underserved communities who are at the intersections. 

So our mission is to mobilize Latino communities to end domestic 
violence. However over the years, we have expanded that 
mission a little bit to other forms of gender-based violence and 
compounded violence that sometimes the clients that we work 
with are the-- are the target of. So you can read here a little bit 
about our core values. And, definitely, we are a community-
driven type of organization. We believe in the expertise of 
community. 

We believe that we're not the ones that are going to end 
domestic violence, but it's actually folks in the community the 


ones that are going to be able to do it. We're just here to 
facilitate change and provide tools to those out there who can 
make those changes happen. And for today, the objectives are 
these three. 

And the first one is sort of like a little bit of a review about why 
language access is important, why it matters, why it makes a 
difference when we're talking about victim equity, about 
compliance with civil rights and why also is a trauma-informed to 
be able to provide language access. 

And sometimes, you know, this is a lot of trendy or buzzwords, 
and a lot of people throw out trauma-informed, oh, we're being 
trauma-informed, but sometimes they don't include cultural 
responsiveness, which is one form of being trauma-informed. 
We'll discuss the importance of language access so you are able 
to fulfill your missions. 

I'm sure that if there's anything that we can agree on for 
anybody that is looking-- watching this webinar is that for all the 
victims or survivors that we're working with, we want them to 
have access to safety, access to justice, and access to healing. 
And if we don't provide language access, none of those three 
could happen. It would be really hard for them to achieve any of 
that. 


So starting from that point we can understand that we have a lot 
more in common, and that this presentation might help you to 
maybe achieve that and also understanding the strategies to 
challenge systems when they're not providing language access. 
What can we do when somebody is not providing language 
access? Who is-- what is obligated or has the obligation, the legal 
obligation or an ethical obligation to provide language access? 

So first, we got to sort of define what language access is. Some 
of the materials here in this presentation are actually from the 
curriculum of Translating Justice that a-- that ourselves along 
with the Bureau Institute of Justice and many other partners who 
we have been working together within the National Resource 
Center for Reaching Victims we developed that a few years back. 
And it lives in the website of the National Resource Center, so you 
can reach-- and reachingvictims.org and you'll find information 
about the Translating Justice curriculum. 

So some slides are from that-- from presentations from that 
curriculum. And when we're talking about language access, we're 
meaning the process in which we are being able to provide equal 
access for those who have limited English proficiency or no 
proficiency or for those who are hard of hearing. And the idea is 
that we are able to provide access to information, access to 
programs and services at a level that is equal to those who are 
English proficient and to those who are hearing individuals. 


So limited English proficiency is the ability of individuals who do 
not speak English as their primary language to be able to read, 
speak, write or understand English. And when it comes to the 
deaf community, we-- we have to understand that, for example, 
capital D Deaf means a cultural group, a cultural distinction. And 
a lot of folks in the deaf community identify themselves as a 
cultural group and, you know, just akin to like an ethnic group. 
Just like calling some group of Hispanics or African-Americans or 
Pacific Islanders. 

In this case, it may not be ethnicity, but they identify as a-- as a 
cultural group with a specific dynamic, specific interactions and 
identities. And there are some folks that may not identify with 
this, with the being deaf as a culture or as a cultural group, which 
might-- you might see as a small d deaf. And that might refer to 
folks who they may feel they have a physical condition or a 
disability. 

Sometimes folks who are hard of hearing may, you know, a-- you 
know, they have-- you know, they are deaf, but they might have-
- they might be a late-deafened or it's age-related. They might 
refer to that with the small d, and they consider themselves as a 
person living with a disability. 

We also have to think to account that even though for folks who 
are deaf and hard of hearing that we are protected under the 
ADA, the Americans with Disabilities Act, so legally, it is a 


disability, but for us, we consider it to be a language access issue 
because we have to be able to provide or facilitate effective 
communication. 

So something else about those who are hard of hearing, you 
might find the-- I am hard of hearing myself. In the last couple of 
years, I have found that I have a-- my hearing loss, and I wear 
hearing aids. For myself, it was just the question of doing some 
reckless activities when I was young, such as listening music to 
very hard-- very high volume. Like I used to be in a rock band, so 
that was not very good for my-- for my hearing. 

And later now in my late 40s, I'm having this-- this issue with 
my-- with my hearing loss. For other ones, it may have been 
progressive throughout their lives. Others might be later in life 
are losing their hearing ability, sometimes completely, sometimes 
it's just one side or it's just the other. And for the majority of 
those who are hard of hearing is age-related. As we age, the 
majority of us will have some-- some loss of hearing. 

From the point of view of consumer, of being a consumer, you 
can check a lot of great information in the website for the Hearing 
Loss Association of America, which is-- the website is 
hearingloss.org. I'm a steering committee member of the 
Jacksonville Chapter. So I work with some of the folks who are 
wonderful that have been doing this type of work for many years. 
So I've been learning. 


The last couple years being just the self-advocate and trying to 
find resources for myself, I ran into this wonderful organization 
that can provide resources. And they have chapters all around-- 
all across the country. So whether it is that we're working with 
LEP, Limited English Proficient individuals or deaf and hard of 
hearing, there is a cost of not providing language access. And 
that's why we're mentioning system advocacy and emergencies 
and what you see here. But there is ways in which we can be 
proactive. 

And we're going to get to that in just a moment. But when we do 
not provide language access, negative things happens to 
survivors and the client that we're working with. For example, 
legal proceedings are delayed. Testimonies may be 
misunderstood or misrepresented. Survivors do not receive key 
information. 

I worked a couple of years ago with a-- with a-- actually he was a 
gay male survivor of domestic violence and sexual violence. And 
his partner was very abusive with him and eventually threw him 
off the balcony of his apartment. Luckily, he-- it was the first floor 
and fell-- he fell on top of some bushes. So his injuries were not 
as-- as, you know, they were not as bad as one would imagine if 
you fall from a-- from a first floor of a building. 

Eventually, he started working with an advocate with the court 
and the Victim Witness Services Program, but he kept receiving 


all of the information about the hearings all in English. And when 
I started working with him that he got hold of us, we realized that 
all the information that he kept receiving-- and I-- and I asked 
him, I said, did anybody ever talk to you in your language in 
Spanish? 

Because I believe he knew a little bit of English, but for the most 
part, he did not understand a-- what do you say? A majority of 
what was being told him-- being told to him in English. And he 
said, no, I keep telling him that I speak Spanish. And I even 
spoke with a bilingual advocate from the court. But they keep 
sending me all of this in English, and I don't know what to do. I 
don't know what it means. 

So he missed some of the hearings if he wanted to be part of 
that. And then at some point, they sent him instructions to write 
his big victim impact statement also in English. So at that 
moment, we got involved. And we contacted the court and said, 
hey, I think we-- there's something that we need to do differently 
here. And it is you already had information that his first-- that his 
first language is Spanish. How come you did not have this 
information or translated, you know, this document translated so 
he could have-- what do you say? The right information. 

So there are many instances like that. And I'm sure that with 
clients that you've worked that you would that that has 
happened. So we need to start making that-- those kind of 


situations stop. Survivors may become less involved in court civil-
- court or civil proceedings. People do not come forward and 
report crime when they don't feel that they are going to receive 
services, the same quality services that others who are, you 
know, English proficient or who are hearing-- hearing individuals. 

So we have to make sure that we increase the quality of our 
services in regards to language access so more people can come 
forward and can have access to safety, justice, and healing. 
Sometimes relief or remedies are not explored. Unsafe custody or 
visitation determinations may happen. Maybe the wrong person 
that should not be receiving the children ends-- ends up with the 
children, and that may cause harm, actually, to the children. 

Charges against English-speaking perpetrators sometimes are 
dropped because in situations which may-- may be law 
enforcement may be involved and they come to in a scene and 
the perpetrator speaks English and the-- and the survivor 
doesn't, or the-- or the perpetrator is the hearing person and the 
survivor is therefore hard of hearing person, then there's an 
imbalance of power there. 

And we need to make sure that that's been looked at and 
changed protocols and policies, so we are able to always 
understand the story from both sides and make the proper-- the 
proper interventions. In this case, it may be an arrest. And that's 
for domestic violence but for many other crimes also applies. 


Survivors may be wrongly charged or convicted. You know, 
sometimes safety protocols may not be followed, and advocates 
or family members may be serving as interpreters. And I usually 
like to ask you about this one. Why is this a bad thing? But I'll 
answer this for you all. And it is family members or neighbors or 
some bystanders may have a bias, and they will-- may not want-
- let's say I'm the nephew of a-- and my uncle is-- has been 
abusing my aunt. 

But, yes, I don't want my aunt to suffer, but I do not want my 
uncle to go to jail. So I may not interpret all that information, and 
that, you know, that would be going detriment of the survivor, 
which, in this case, would be-- in this example would be my aunt. 
So, yes. So bystanders may have a bias. And it's even worse 
when they are using the perpetrator or they are the one that 
committed abuse or you definitely are using children, which is 
absolutely something that we should not do. 

I mentioned some of these consequences of not providing 
language access. This is Daisy Garcia and her daughters. Daisy 
Garcia lost her life. She lived in Brooklyn, New York and 
contacted the NYPD, the New York Police Department a few times 
to report abuse at the hands of her partner. And nothing 
happened. They just gave her a form for her to fill, and she did it. 
She filled it up in Spanish. 


It never was translated. None of the four statements that she 
made were translated. So nobody ever followed up with her. And, 
eventually, her partner killed her and her two daughters. So we 
can see that sometimes it could be a matter of life and death. So 
why do we have to provide language access to survivors of 
crime? And I'm here quoting one of my favorite characters right 
now on TV. 

If you know a show called Schitt's Creek, and there's a character 
called Moira Rose who looks for some words and sometimes a 
little bit more advanced words. And she says is this a quandary? 
Thinking, you know, is it so difficult to figure this out that we're 
so perplexed? Can we decide, or what do we do? Do we provide 
language access to survivors of crime? And my answer is 
absolutely. We have to. 

And there are several reasons why we have to do that. The first 
one-- and I think it should be on everybody's mind is that 
because it's the right thing to do. We're advocates. We are 
working with a mission, which is that to stop, you know, to stop 
crime from happening or to provide services to those who are 
victims of crimes and-- and facilitate access, like I mentioned 
before, to safety, justice, and healing. 

So if you are in an organization dedicated to support individuals 
who are victims of crime, you will try to make sure that they are-
- they have access to that. So language access is very important. 


And we have to be proactive. We have to have measures in place 
to be able to make sure that those who are LEP or who are deaf 
and hard of hearing can have that equal, meaningful, and 
effective access to critical services. Second reason why it's very 
important that we provide language access, and it is that it does 
improve services and enhances outcomes. 

Casa Esperanza, the organization that I work with, we did some 
research a few years back along with the-- The National Domestic 
Violence Hotline, and we found that for the respondents to that 
research, they mentioned that they were more likely to seek out 
services if those services were provided in their language. And 
also additional research in the domestic violence and sexual 
assault field shows that survivors appreciate it and feel more 
supported when language access services were provided. 

So it does make a difference. And the outcomes sometimes are 
better. I have heard many countless stories that have happened 
in courts around the county-- around the country that I've heard 
from other advocates and saying, yes, the interpreter maybe 
made a mistake and, you know, and changed one word. And all 
of a sudden, that meant something totally different, and the 
person did not get an order of protection or did not get custody of 
her children. 

So it does make a difference when we provide language access 
and when we provide quality language access, which in courts, it 


has to be a certified interpreter or a certified ASL interpreter. And 
the last-- the last reason why we also have to provide language 
access. And this one is the most compelling if you don't believe in 
the other two, is that because it's a legal requirement. You have 
to. 

If you are a recipient of federal financial assistance, you are to 
provide language access to those who are LEP, Limited English 
Proficient because the law, the Title IV of the Civil Rights Act of 
1964 and the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 
1968 talk about providing meaningful language access. This 
works also with other laws and regulations that came after this. 

And when it comes to the deaf and hard of hearing community, 
the requirement is because in places of public accommodation 
and government entities, they have to provide with language 
access to-- for effective communication. And that is covered by 
the Americans with Disabilities Act. 

So it is the law. So we would have to follow what the law and the 
regulation says. That's why we talk about compliance. And what 
do we mean by compliance? It's making sure that we know what 
those laws and regulations say and that we follow and that we 
put protocols and policies in place that follow these laws and 
regulations. 


The information on the text of the language of the title IV of the 
Civil Rights Act of 1964 said that no person in the United States 
shall, on the ground of race, color, or national origin, be 
subjected to discrimination under any program or activity 
receiving federal financial assistance. 

So anybody who receives even just $1 or is in contact or have 
maybe an MOU, a Memorandum of Understanding with another 
organization that receives federal funding, we all might be able to 
get it to provide language access. And we need to take 
reasonable steps to be able to do that. And this is when it comes 
to LEP or Limited English Proficient individuals so they can receive 
the same benefits and services. So there is a requirement for 
them, you know, if they receive funding for those who are limited 
English proficient. 

Now, when it comes to those who are deaf and hard of hearing, it 
does not matter if someone receives funding or not because the 
legal standard is different. In this case, the legal standard is 
about effective communication. And information on the Americans 
with Disabilities Act and the 504 section of the Rehabilitation Act 
mention information about public accommodations. 

So under the ADA, no qualified individual with a disability shall, 
by reason of such disability, be excluded from participation in or 
be denied the benefits of services, programs, or activities of a 
public entity, or be subjected to discrimination by any such 


entity. So, like I mentioned, the money does not matter. If you 
don't get any funding, you still-- if you are a public-- a place of 
public accommodation, you have to provide services to those who 
are deaf and hard of hearing. So effective communication 
happens. 

And that's both ways because if someone comes to us who is 
deaf, yes we need-- they need an interpreter so we can 
understand about-- we need the interpreter as well to understand 
them, to be able to do our job. So it is both ways. So it's not 
something that-- a burden because, oh, this person's coming, and 
we have now to do this. We just need it for ourselves as well. 

So here there's information about effective communication and 
what Title II and Title III entities, you know, what all entails. And 
the goal is to ensure that communication with people with 
disability is equally effective as communication with people 
without disabilities. So here is the two different standards. 

I'm making sure that we know that for limited English proficient 
individuals, the standard is meaningful access. And for those who 
are deaf and hard of hearing, the legal standard's effective 
communication. Even though we wanted to make sure that 
everybody receives equal access to services by the mean of 
providing language access, unfortunately, one of these legal 
standards is stronger than the other. 


Effective communication is a stronger standard. So we want to 
make sure that if there is a situation in which somebody is not 
receiving language access and we said that person that we make 
sure that we educate those out there, or we are doing system 
advocacy, letting them know that it is an issue of effective 
communication, not one of meaningful access because that's for 
those who are LEP. 

And now I want to refer to COVID-19, which I'm pretty sure that 
by now, you have received a lot of information. And I will not go 
into in depth about the particularities of what happened with 
COVID-19 in the-- this year. It was a pandemic. It's an 
emergency as it would be maybe an earthquake or a tornado or 
something that happened in a community that makes us maybe 
shape the way we provide services and makes us change the way 
we provide services. 

So for any emergency, we have to make sure that we looked at 
the way that we we're doing our work before those emergencies 
happened. So, for example, we knew before COVID-19 that there 
were language access gaps. And where-- where were those 
language access gaps? Some were on obligations. Some people 
did not know that they had obligations to provide language 
access, which led to not planning for any language access. Some 
people didn't have a language access plan in place. 


And part of having a language access plan in place is also being 
able to monitor what we are set out to do when we have a 
language access plan. And that didn't happen as well. So we 
know that obligations lead to lack of planning, lead to lack of 
monitoring. So when an emergency happens, we are just running 
like a chicken with a head cut off because we do not know who 
are we going to call? Where do we get these resources from? 

Instead, we had a language access plan in place, and we had our 
resources, our list of resources. It might take us maybe a couple 
of days to find those resources and put those that need them in 
touch with those. So what are the-- under the obligations, the 
gaps in obligations? What can we do about that? So one of those 
things is learn more about our legal obligations. 

Sometimes it's not just the legal part. Sometimes it's ethical 
obligations. Some of you listening or watching this-- this 
particular webinar, you are a social worker or a psychologist. And 
you do have ethical obligations under your profession. So for 
some of us, it's an ethical obligation. For some of us, it's also 
both, an ethical and a legal obligation. So maybe you can do 
some educating. 

Many people I have run into in the past that I've done work with 
that did not know that they needed to provide language access, 
for the most part, they need not-- they did not know. So my work 
was just to educate them and let them know, hey, did you know 


that you were supposed to provide this and this? And here there 
are some resources. And if you need a training, I might be able to 
help you with that. And there is no cost to that. So I'm not trying 
to sell you anything. 

So sometimes that's were some of the interactions I have had in 
the past. So it's important that we do systems advocacy. And I'm 
going to talk more in detail about that in just a few minutes. So 
what do we do about lack of planning? So we got to learn how to 
put together a language access plan. If we do not have one in 
place, we should have one in place now and try to find 
information out there on how to put one together. 

Learn about your demographics. You know your town, or city, or 
county, or jurisdiction better than anybody else. So make sure 
that you do some research and find out what languages are being 
spoken in your community? Who is deaf and hard of hearing, and 
how many of those folks are in your county or your city? And who 
is providing services to them now? Have we ever received a 
request from people from those communities? 

If we have not, is there any reasons why we haven't? And do 
some self-reflection about if we maybe have been providing 
substandard services, or we did not do outreach to let people 
know that we were providing services in language. So there's a 
lot that you can do along with the language access plan. And you 
can create a lot of language access protocol so everybody in your 


organization know how to react when somebody requests 
language access. 

And the idea-- and I'm sort of going back just for a second-- and 
the idea is that the language access plan is a living document. If 
you're going to put together a plan just for it to live in a drawer, 
don't-- don't even waste your time because that doesn't help 
anybody. The idea to have a language access plan is that you are 
very aware of everything that is in there. 

That you're aware of all the policies and protocols. That you put 
them in place. That everybody in your organization knows them. 
That you train everybody in your organization. That when a new 
person comes is hired and receive onboarding, that language 
access is part of their onboarding. So that's the way that you 
make it a living document, is that you always follow. And that 
you're always making changes to it, and that you monitor it. That 
if things have changed, that you record that and that you make 
changes. 

Whether it is every so often. Usually, every year, at least once a 
year, you should do a comprehensive revision to your language 
access plan. So that's why, you know, we were talking about 
monitoring. And monitoring your language access plan means 
making sure that if there's any changes, if there is any 
emergencies, that we anticipate those. That we gather 
information constantly. 


One way of knowing if there's changes in demographics is 
through intake information. You probably-- what do you say? 
Gather a lot of information when you're doing intakes with your-- 
with your clients. Make sure that you have, you know, language 
in there. Is English your primary language? They'd say, no. Then 
what language do you-- do you speak at home? And, you know, 
and use that data to make changes. 

Be aware of significant changes in demographics that may 
happen because of a natural disaster. I can think, for example, a 
couple years back about folks from like Haiti or in the Puerto Rico 
that moved to the United States because there was an 
earthquake, there was a hurricane, and they resettle in cities in 
America. 

And those cities got an influx of people that spoke another 
language. So now, all of a sudden, maybe you have to be 
providing more services in Spanish or more service in-- in French 
creole. And also a few years back, there was a big crisis, which is 
still going on in Syria. And a lot of Syrians were resettled in some 
cities here in America as refugees. 

And that created an influx of people that maybe spoke Arabic in 
some communities or other languages that Syrians speak. So if 
something like that happens, you should be prepared. You should 
have conversations with a language access agency that provide 
good services, and you know if they provide those services. If 


not, always ask, do you provide-- what are the languages that 
you are able to cover? 

So well, if you don't cover these other languages, I will have 
another contract with another-- a backup contract with another 
agency that may provide services in those other languages. And 
the same goes for ASL, making sure that you do have a contract 
in place with those who provide-- who are ASL interpreters and 
those certified deaf interpreters and-- what do you say? Anybody 
who can help with situations that might come up, like some-- a 
situation in which you might need to do some relay interpreting. 

Like, for example, some may request telephone line, and you 
might need a team of people. So if you have an ad hoc plan, 
you're not going to be able to answer to those needs right away. 
You'll take a long time to be able to provide services. And we 
cannot afford that sometimes. The survivors that we've worked 
with can't afford, sometimes, to wait that long. 

And in the case of like COVID-19 or big emergencies, big events, 
we have to have some emergency preparedness written into our 
language access plan. So you need to anticipate needs. Make 
sure that you have funding for those needs, for those emergency 
needs. If there is anything that-- new materials that need to be 
translated. 


For example, I was doing some language access reviews with 
some agencies this week. And looking at their language access 
plans, they didn't have information about-- and all the vital 
documents that they needed to translate. For example, they 
made changes. They created some documents about COVID-19 
procedures for their agency, and they were not translated. So 
that, for example, became a vital document that needed to be 
translated. So that's what you need to make sure that you have 
in your language access plan. 

So all of this information, you know, about the legal obligations, 
the ethical obligations, being prepared by having a language 
access plan not always happen. And we have to make sure that 
those who do not follow these procedures are educated about 
those procedures, and that we are able to change the bigger 
picture. 

So what is systems advocacy? It's an effort to change policies, 
rules or laws which determine how services are provided. And 
sometimes, this is a-- is a long process, a tedious process. 
Sometimes people feel like, well, I'm just the-- you know, just an 
advocate. What can I do about this? And, yes, there is things you 
can do. There is things that your organization can do. Talk to 
your leadership to make sure that you are able to do some of 
these activities to be able to provide system advocacy. 


And the idea of doing this is for a very important reason. We 
mentioned, already, about how we're supposed to provide 
services to those who are LEP or for those who are deaf and hard 
of hearing. But if we only follow the law, the minimum 
requirements of the law, that's what we call the floor. 

We are really just scrap-- scratching the surface. But we have to 
strive for the ceiling. We have to strive to be able to provide-- 
you know, to use best practices so everybody can have access to 
the same services that those who are hearing individuals or those 
who are limited English proficient are receiving. 

So in that-- what do you say? In that example that I gave you 
earlier about that gay survivor that I worked with, he was not 
given written communications in his language. So that wasn't 
even the floor. So we're talking about going beyond that. And 
how does this system advocacy happen? Sometimes it's maybe 
you're working with an individual, and that triggers the idea that 
things need to change. 

Sometimes it's because you're working with systems and you 
realize that, you know, protocols and policies that they have are 
not working, and maybe you have some influence into that and 
you can do some of that. I'll give you an example about how, 
from an individual experience, you can do some-- some system 
advocacy. 


I worked, a few years back, with a-- with a woman in a program 
that I was working with back then. She had a child who was 
diagnosed with ADHD and oppositional defiant disorder. And he 
was at school. He was misbehaving but, you know, it's 
understandable to a certain degree because he had a diagnosis. 
And the resource officer told him that if he would not behave, 
that he was going to be deported. That he was going to get him 
deported. 

Of course, he went home and told that to his mom. And the mom 
immediately went to the school and started requesting 
information about what had happened. And she was receiving 
some information, but it was through the parent liaison, who was 
not a certified interpreter. So she was getting sort of like all this 
half information about what was happening, what happened, and 
nothing seems to be done about the incident. And she wanted 
something done. 

So she brought it up to us. And when I started working with her, 
we realized-- we met with the school and we made-- we did 
schedule a meeting. And during that meeting, I noticed that the 
person that was interpreting, which I thought was an interpreter 
was the parent liaison. And she was leaving a lot of information 
out. 

So then I stopped the meeting and said, oh, whoa-whoa. I don't 
think that here, you know, this person that I was with is 


understanding everything. You are not able to provide all the 
information. So we need to make sure that we have a certified 
interpreter in this situation. So we cancel that and we reschedule 
for another time, a week later until they were able to provide an 
interpreter. 

In that case, she got all the information. She was able to express 
her concerns. We made the demands that she wanted to make, 
which, in this case, is that she wanted to somehow this person be 
reprimanded and that also that all the resource officers would 
receive training. And we asked for the-- you know, we wanted to 
know what kind of training they we're going to receive. 

And the school really was still not wanting to bulge in some of 
those demand. And we also talked with the police system that 
worked within those schools and houses. They didn't want to give 
us more details about what kind of training they were going to 
receive. So we went all the way up to the superintendent. 

And at that point, not getting the answers that we wanted, we 
were about to file an OCR violation, which is an Office of Civil 
Rights violation. And we got all that information ready. And at 
that point, the survivor she said, well, you know what? We have 
gotten a lot done. And I don't think that I want to move forward 
with this, which myself internally I was like, no, let's keep going. 
Let's do this. 


But that's the thing. It's not about us. It's about the survivor. It's 
about the victim. And we have to respect survivor autonomy. And 
in the moment that she told me that that was the stop, that's 
where we stopped. Years later, I actually saw her again, and she 
says, you know what? You know, I'm glad that we never followed 
through on that. And, you know, every time, since we had all 
those interactions, every time that I go to school, they 
immediately provide anything that I request. 

They understand that if I'm requesting something that they are 
going to do it because it's my right, and I understand my rights, 
and I can defend myself, and I can do it by myself. And that's 
what we're supposed to do. We're not supposed to hold people's 
hands. We're supposed to give them the tools so they can be a-- 
what do you say? Empower themselves and do this for 
themselves. So that was a great outcome, even though at the 
time, I didn't understood. 

So that out of one case-- what do you say? We started doing a lot 
of system advocacy to make sure that there was changes. At the 
system level, I'll give you another example. There was a county 
in Georgia, so where I worked for many years. And we were 
working with a judge. And she was a wonderful judge here of a 
domestic violence court. 

And she wanted to make sure that, for example, Latinas that 
lived in the county would feel free to come forward and report if 


they were suffering any kind of a domestic violence. And she was 
seeing that even though the demographics were higher, she was 
not getting any cases. So very few cases where a Latina was 
involved. 

So we worked together to put together some lunch and learns 
and invited a lot of the women and women in the community and 
brought an interpreter that he would interpret for the judge, so 
she would be able to provide information herself and let them 
know, herself, that they would, you know, that it was safe for 
them to come to her court. That was a really good thing. 

But while we-- when we were doing that, in the same one of 
those meetings, one of those lunch and learns, we started 
hearing, for example, the women telling us that the local CPS, 
Child Protective Services agency, who also is the-- manage the 
wealth for benefits in that county, were telling some of these 
moms when they were going to their office, if you don't speak 
English, please go back-- go back and get yourself your own 
interpreter. Come back with your own interpreter. 

And I kept hearing this the same story from all these women. So 
then what we did, we started doing some system advocacy. 
Started contacting the CPS office and start making sure that they 
were educated about what their obligations were, about what 
they needed to do, what they needed to change. And change 
eventually happened. 


Did it happen overnight? No. It took us a little while, but we were 
able to make some changes. And they were starting to provide 
services in language. So that from a system perspective also, we 
were able to make changes. So try to determine sometimes if you 
are working with folks, just-- and you hear these cases, 
document those because you might be able to use that 
information to do some system advocacy. 

And we have to be aware that this is a long-term process. 
Sometimes it takes a long while to make changes to systems. 
Some systems more than others. And when I refer to systems, I 
mean sometimes the courts, the criminal justice systems in 
general, law enforcement, school systems, hospital systems. 
They tend to, sometimes, you know, because of bureaucracy and 
protocols that they have had in place for a long time, for long, 
long periods of time, they are afraid to make changes because 
they think that, oh, everything is working. 

But if you are not making it work for those who are limited 
English proficient or those who are deaf and hard of hearing, then 
you are not making it work. You are leaving people out. So you 
have to be able to identify decision makers when you are doing 
system advocacy. Gaining access sometimes is a little hard, 
especially if you are just like the frontline advocate. 

Myself, over the years, having build relationships with a lot of 
people in Georgia, I was able to pick up the phone or send an 


email to someone and be able to make changes much faster. But 
if you didn't have those relationships built, then you might want 
to start building those relationships. And that's what I mean when 
I talk about the diplomatic route. It's do a lot of work building 
those relationships. 

Make sure that they know you. Make sure that the-- that the 
work that you're doing and that you are able to see that 
sometimes injustices are happening, and that you're going to 
take notice of those, and that you're going to inform them of 
those. And, you know, and-- and offer solutions too. You know, if 
you're able to provide some of that training yourself, then maybe 
you offer that. 

Say, hey, I know that, you know, the folks that are working with 
your agency don't know everything there is to know about 
providing language access. Let me give you some information. 
Maybe we can set up a training, or find other folks like technical 
assistance providers like ourselves, and we might be able to help 
you along-- along the way with things like that, with requests like 
that. 

And sometimes, the diplomatic route can mean to use a coalition 
building route. You might be part of a coordinated community 
response taskforce in your county, in your city. Find allies. Find 
those other folks in your coalition, in your task force, that will 
support being an ally to provide a language access to make sure 


that language access is being taken, being considered in all 
aspects of victim service providing. So that's another way of 
doing it. 

So in reality, how that's happen is it happens to start the process 
by identifying an issue. You know, what's the issue that is going 
on? Courts are not providing interpreters, or an agency is not 
providing ASL interpreters. Or, you know, a government agency 
did not have a language access plan. 

You know, a few years back, I lived in-- outside of Atlanta in a 
city called East Point. And they sent information about a water 
main break that-- that it was affecting the whole city. So they, of 
course, they inform about a water boil advisory. But that was 
only sent in English. And the city had about 15% to 17% Latino 
and Latino Spanish-speaking community. 

And at that point, I figured out, oh, I didn't see any information in 
any other social media about-- what do you say? This particular 
event or emergency in Spanish or any other language for that 
matter. So I contacted them and I asked, hey, what happened 
with this? Are you able to provide this information in other 
languages? Do you have a language access plan? And the 
attorney of the city said, no, we don't. What can we do about 
that? 


So then I started working with them to be able to provide some 
information so there where it would maybe put together language 
access plan because, in that case, people could have gotten sick 
for not following the water boil advisory. And that's something 
that even outside of the field of victim services, you know, we can 
see that communities are getting affected by the lack of language 
access. 

Right now, for example, with COVID-19, if-- you know, I've seen 
all around the city here in Atlanta-- in Jacksonville, Florida, that 
there was different programs giving food or money to families 
that were affected. But they were not putting it out in other 
languages. So those in the city that spoke other languages 
probably didn't get the information, or depended from folks, 
activists or advocates in the community to do those translations 
and putting them out in social media that those communities read 
about. 

And sometimes, it was just too late for some of them to get those 
benefits. So we have to make sure that everybody gets access, 
equal access. So once you identify the issue, you need to make 
sure that you know the laws and regulations. You need to know 
as much as you can. And I know that sometimes it's hard. 

And we've been working in the-- within the National Resource 
Center for Reaching Victims putting together a phone card, 
actually, it's more like a postcard with information about legal 


information about obligations for agencies. It's going to come out, 
most likely, during this month of September. 

So be on the lookout because that information might be helpful 
for you. It's something that you might be able to print and maybe 
put in your purse, bag, pocket. And take it out when you are out 
and about and doing-- and accompanying people to different 
agencies. And if somebody is not providing language access, you 
take out that postcard and say, hey, did you know that the Civil 
Rights law of 1964 you know, covers this, the obligation that you 
have to provide language access. 

And, you know, sometimes when you are able to give some legal 
language, people might take you more seriously. So that might 
be helpful. So know the laws and regulations. And document, 
document, document. If you're having more than one case in 
which they are not being provided language access, just 
document. Take note of everything that happened. 

Be, of course, careful about confidentiality issues. Make names 
anonymous. Don't put as much-- or don't put any identifying 
information. But make sure-- let's say, you might go to an 
agency that is not providing and say, hey, in the last three 
months, we had about 10 cases. And this happened with this 
person, this happened with this person, and that happened with 
this person. And I think that it's time that we do something 
different. 


Do you need help with this? We might be able to provide with 
some help. Do you need to be connected with someone who can 
help you with this? We might be able to help you connect. So do 
that. But if you document, you have ways of proving to people 
that the violations that happened. 

Be kind in the way that you approach people. We don't need to 
be hostile. But also we have said it, educate not only about the 
legal obligations but also about impact. And impact is very 
important. Like I mentioned, document those cases telling people 
about real things that have happened. That resonates with 
anybody. A story resonates with anybody. 

So maybe share a story from your program that highlights, you 
know, how important language access is for people. Maybe it is a 
challenge that someone had, you know, where language access 
was not provided. Maybe it was a success story. So, you know, 
hey, did you know that, you know, after you put your language 
access plan-- language access plan in place, we had this 
individual that went to you, and they raved about how well they 
were treated and everything that we see from your agency 
because of what you provided in language, and they were very 
happy, and they've let us know. 

So use those stories as well. And like I mentioned, keep in mind 
confidentiality when sharing participants stories. And something 
that I maybe have not mentioned when we started talking about 


language access is the idea that we-- anybody who is limited 
English proficient is going to be on a continuum. I even myself 
might consider to be limited English proficient to a certain degree 
because English is not my first language. Spanish is. 

Fortunately, I was able to receive education here in the States. 
So I have that privilege that my English is pretty good, and I'm 
able to then stand for myself. But still even if I would go through 
a court, there might be some things that may not be familiar to 
me. And I can give you an example of a couple of years-- a few 
years back that we were working with a family. Their child, it was 
a teenager who was sexually abused by someone who was 
providing transportation. 

The mom was sending her-- her daughter to school in a taxi. And 
this person abused of this child several times. And, eventually, 
what do you say? She told the family. She told us, and we were 
ever to support the mom and the family to be able to talk to law 
enforcement and get the wheels in motion for the criminal justice 
system to press charges and do all of that. 

And at some point, the defense attorney felt that it was maybe a 
good idea to subpoena all the records that we had in their case. 
And the reason was because, oh, this is an immigrant woman and 
her daughter. She's doing all of this just because she wants to 
receive a U visa and change her status because she is illegal and 


that's what's-- that's all it matters. And that's what she wants to 
do. And that was not the case at all. 

However, in our records, we, after working with her for quite a bit 
of time, we had supported her opportunity to apply for a U visa 
and refer her to an agency that was helping her with that. So we 
were afraid to give those. So we started trying to find those. And 
so in this process, which I was involved with since my executive 
director was not-- was out of town at the time, I was able to get 
representation, legal representation for our agency. 

And all of a sudden, we were talking about things that I had 
never heard-- heard before. Like we had to file a motion-- a 
motion to quash. I mean, what is a motion to quash? I have no 
idea. You know, and that isn't worse then the judge was asking 
for a in camera review. And what is that? Which, you know, 
actually which is all that was was entailed that the judge would 
look at records in her chambers, not make them public to those 
in the process and make decisions based on that. 

And she only-- actually after looking all the records, she only 
what do you say? Decided to give a very little information from 
our records. So sometimes things happen. And, you know, and 
even if I consider myself to be pretty good with my English, there 
will be things that I don't know about that might be beyond my 
knowledge, beyond that limited English proficiency. 


And here in the story of this individual says I'm a citizen in this 
country now, but I still have problems with the language and not 
understanding the legal words in English. I feel now that I 
understand a lot better but need help with the words. So that's 
really telling. So what happen when we are not going anywhere? 

We have tried the diplomatic route, building coalitions, building 
allies, educating people, and still they are not doing anything. 
They are not doing any changes. And they're actually sometimes 
even defying with us. Considering us that we are being hostile 
while we're not. So there is the opportunity to file an OCR 
violation, which is an Office of Civil Rights violation or an ADA 
complaint. 

So I have put here information of where are those departments 
where you can actually find more information on how to file an 
OCR violation or an ADA complaint. And sometimes, depending 
on where it happened and what the situation is, it might be a 
different department. It might be Health and Human Services, 
might be the Department of Education. 

For most of us that work with victims, it might be the US 
Department of Justice or also the US Department of Justice for 
those who are deaf and hard of hearing. And if that still doesn't 
work, and the Department of Justice has the obligation to look 
into those complaints and to those violations, investigate, and 


give you an answer. So they cannot go unnoticed, and they 
cannot go unanswered. 

But even if after that the outcome that you receive is not 
sufficient, or you just don't want to do that-- go that route, 
maybe what you are doing might be file a lawsuit. And I'll now 
talk about an example here, which is the case of Yanahit Padilla 
Torres, et al versus The City of New York, et al. 

And this was brought in by a group of women led by an 
organization called The Violence Intervention Program, who is a-- 
which is an organization in Brooklyn, New York. At the time, the 
organization was being led by Cecilia Gaston. And what do you 
say? They had several cases in which women had very bad 
outcomes because of the lack of language access. 

And most of it was because the NYPD, the New York police 
department was not providing services in language. So they 
gathered all these documents. They documented all these cases, 
and they put together a lawsuit, including a violence intervention 
program and a legal aid organization with all plaintiffs in this 
lawsuit. Eventually got settled out of court because the city of 
New York realized that they were in the wrong and that they 
needed to change things. 

Is this what we want to do? No. This is the last resort. This is the 
last thing that we wouldn't always want to do. But if you have to, 


but if you have-- you feel that eventually, you may have to do 
something like this, I have included a link here to a webinar or a 
blog talk that we did last year with Cecilia Gaston and Paula 
Gomez-Stordy from-- my supervisor at Casa Esperanza who 
interviewed Cecilia. 

And she provided a lot of great information about that particular 
situation. The whole process how that lawsuit came about. And 
you might be able to learn a lot from that. And you can find this 
webinar in the reachingvictims.org in our website with the 
National Resource Center for Reaching Victims. So make sure 
that you take a look and listen to that webinar or watch that 
webinar. 

So what else we need to make sure that when we're doing all of 
these forums of system advocacy, and I mentioned the first one 
when I was giving you that example about that lady that I 
worked with. That she decided that there was a point where she 
was not going to go any further. And that's a survivor's 
autonomy. Always, always, always make sure that you-- what do 
you say? Respect survivor's autonomy. 

If they tell you that they don't want to do something, don't do it. 
There could be repercussions or unintended consequences from 
something. And so every time that you're going to help them do 
something like this, make sure that they know about the 


repercussions and that they know that potential or unintended 
consequences. 

Especially when we're working with immigrants, there's a-- you 
know, the reality is that maybe if there don't have a status that 
protect them maybe from being deported, maybe that's 
something that could be an unintended consequence. So we need 
to make sure that everybody knows everything that could happen 
when you are doing this type of system advocacy on behalf of 
somebody. 

Always make sure of confidentiality issues. If you are going to 
reveal any kind of confidential information, explain that to the 
survivors and have them sign all the proper releases. And be 
transparent. Be transparent about the process. Be transparent 
about why you are doing this. You know, some of those-- some of 
those reasons might be, OK, yes, this is helping you, but this is 
also going to help other survivors just like yourself later down the 
road that will receive better care, much better than the one 
maybe you have received. 

And like I mentioned earlier, it's not about us. It's not about you. 
It's about the survivors. It's about the community. It's about 
people receiving equal treatment. It's about people receiving 
equal services for if they are a victim or a survivor. Some things 
that you could be doing. So there is some advocacy tips here that 
one of my colleagues shared with me. This slide is great. 


Maybe some of the things that you can be doing proactively is 
provide know your rights information. I mentioned that postcard 
they might be getting later on. That's something that's good for 
advocates but also for your clients. You might be able to provide 
know your rights information. You know, letting people know, 
hey, these are your rights when it comes to language, you know, 
and language access. These are your rights. 

And maybe you can do like a small pom card that you can give to 
people. Know their rights for jobs. A lot of information about 
know your rights for immigrants. That also is very good. Make 
sure that you clarify myths and information-- and misinformation. 
Sometimes we hear, and especially in immigrant communities a 
lot of misinformation about things that are not true. And people 
just hang on to those sometimes in the hopes of making changes 
in their lives and getting more stability if they are a survivor. 

So making sure that you-- you help with that. And conduct or 
attend training to expand your knowledge. Accompany survivors 
and participants to services. Work with community partners or 
other system to ensure that this is a coordinated community 
response where we're working with survivors who are LEP or 
survivors who are deaf and hard of hearing. 

And here are some links to the National Resource Center for 
Reaching Victims. We have there a lot of documents and 
information, webinars. We have for-- for a curriculum called 


Translating Justice, that is a sort of train the trainer type of 
information that you can use to put together maybe training 
yourself to train your community or others in your community 
about language access and other obligations about different 
aspects. 

Maybe it's to train your staff about language access provision. So 
make sure that you look into the library and the virtual library of 
reachingvictims.org. At Casa Esperanza, we are in 
nationallatinonetwork.org. Check our website. We do have 
language access toolkit and a language access toolkit for the 
courts. 

And make sure also to check with the Asian Pacific Institute on 
Gender-Based Violence. They do have also a lot of great 
information about language access and how to work with 
interpreters and things like that they are very comprehensive as 
well. So this is all that we had today for this particular topic. 

I appreciate your time. We are a little bit over right now, and the 
idea was to stay about an hour of content on this. But I 
appreciate that you are going to be listening to this webinar. If 
you have any questions, if you have any concerns, please reach 
out to us. Please reach out to my myself, 
lmartinez@casadeesperanza.org. That's my email. I answer 
promptly. Most of the time within 48 hours. 


Check to our website and maybe sign up for a newsletter. Check 
the website of the National Resource Center for Reaching Victims 
and sign up for it there, for that newsletter. They also will be 
sending out a lot of information that might be helpful to you 
about future-- future webinars or future information that is 
coming out, not only on this topic but many other topics for 
underserved communities. So that is-- that is it for today. I hope 
you have a great day, and get back with me if you need any help. 
Thank you so much.