Welcome to the D.C. Language Access Coalition website!

ESL students from the LAYC and the DC Language Access Coalition’s SMART program met with Michelle Rhee yesterday to share their problems and concerns about DCPS. A similar meeting was held this time last year, when students presented issues including the need for more materials, bilingual security guards, bilingual counselors, better teachers, and more supports for newcomers. While some of these issues were addressed over the year, others have yet to be solved and were brought up again at this second meeting.

The 2010 Census is here and the D.C. Language Access Coalition is involved! The Coalition is working together with the Census Bureau to educate limited English proficient or no English proficient (LEP/NEP) communities on what the Census is and why it is important. Typically the populations hardest to count are the LEP/NEP individuals who are unaware of what the Census is, why it is important and how to go about participating in it. Language barriers and insufficient outreach are the cause of this.

On January 26, 2010 the Coalition hosted a Policy Briefing where they presented policy priorities to D.C. Council Members representatives. The Coalitions policy intern Amber Carran-Fletcher worked with coalition members to come up with 3 policy points for education, healthcare, housing, human services, workforce development and employment relations, and WMATA.

To read the recommended Policy Priorities click here.

After the deadly crash of a metro train in late June 2009 Coalition members started looking into how the LEP/NEP community was going to be served with important information and notices. One Coalition member in particular noticed that WMATA was using machine translations to translate important information on their website. This created some concern within the Coalition because with machine translations the information is often inaccurate and sometimes even more confusing.

Julia Alanen published an article in the International Legal Studies Program Law Journal on the significance of Language Access in the United States.

The D.C. Language Access Coalition’s director Jennifer Deng-Pickett was invited to meet with Assistant Attorney General Tom Perez to discuss LEP Issues. The meeting took place on December 15 2009 and consisted of 15 other individuals from around the country. The purpose of the meeting was to give the advocates of the LEP/NEP community the opportunity to present a national agenda to the Assistant Attorney General by sharing stories and concerns from the LEP/NEP communities, suggesting priorities to be considered by DOJ and pushing for them to take action.

Sarah Santana, an active student in the Coalition’s SMART program, was selected to join Michelle Rhee’s High School Cabinet on Monday. The Cabinet is made up of 20 to 25 high school students, usually one from each school. The purpose of the cabinet is to compile a list of problems that students feel need to be addressed in their schools and present it to Michelle Rhee when they meet for their monthly meetings. Sarah is a limited-English Proficient (LEP) student from Roosevelt high school and is a leader in the SMART program. She has been active with the Coalition since last year.

The D.C. Language Access Coalition released preliminary findings from a study that it conducted on limited and non-English proficient community members' access to primary health care services in the District of Columbia. The research, conducted on funding received by the Consumer Health Foundation, highlights some of the language barriers that inhibit LEP/NEP community members access to health care in hospitals and clinics in the District.

The governing board of the Office of Police Complaints (OPC), also known as The Police Complaints Board (PCB), released a report on July 16th 2009 giving Mayor Adrian M. Fenty and Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) Chief Cathy L. Lanier a set of recommendations on why and how MPD needs to serve more efficiently the Limited English Proficient (LEP) population of the D.C. area.

Juan Estenos is an immigrant from Peru. A highly qualified accountant in Peru, he was unable to find employment in this field in the USA. As is the case for many immigrants, the need for survival prompted him to apply for employment for the position of office clerk at the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and World Health Organization’s (WHO) Federal Credit Union. In January of 2000 he was invited to an interview with PAHO’s CEO, Operations and Finance Managers.