Supporting the Creation of Multilingual Spaces in the Region
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By Liliana “Li” Sierra, Language Justice Program Manager
The Language Justice Program is excited to share that our Interpretation Equipment Library is open to all community members and organizations in the Hudson Valley region.
The Interpretation Equipment Library is part of a long-term commitment from the Hudson Valley Farm Hub to support local language access efforts and an intention to move towards Language Justice practices in the region.
The seeds for the Library were planted in 2017 when the Farm Hub first invested in purchasing a small batch of equipment including receivers and transmitters (made by Smart Bug Corporation) for internal use. The need for interpretation equipment access in this region became apparent immediately. Even in the early stages of this idea, the Farm Hub lent out equipment to community partners although with limited availability.
The work of language access and interest in moving towards language justice began to grow internally leading to the launch of the Language Justice Program in 2019. Through this program, the Farm Hub has been able to offer Language Justice related support, access to training, education, and resources to local multilingual communities already doing language work at a variety of intersecting levels.
It is through the Language Justice Program and its team that the seed for the interpretation equipment lending library has been able to germinate.
Timing as with many things in life is critical. In March 2020, right before our collective reality was dramatically changed by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Language Justice Program purchased 200 receivers/headsets, four transmitters, and four microphones intended for local community use. Turn the clock forward to today, and the time has come to fully launch the Interpretation Equipment Library, keeping intentional guidelines to protect everyone’s health.
The Interpretation Equipment Library is open! Interpretation equipment is available for use via a simple request form and can be used to create multilingual spaces in a variety of settings. As of June, the program has fulfilled 19 requests for interpretation equipment, and we hope to be able to support many more events in the future. We invite you to reach out to the Language Justice Program if you have any questions on how to foster more multilingual spaces in our local communities. We would love to hear from you.
You can reach Li Sierra (Language Justice Program Manager) at [email protected] or Jeni Negrete (Language Justice Program Assistant) at [email protected]