HomeMy Public PortalAboutInterpretation Services - IndividualCity of Watertown, MA
ARPA Project Proposal
Submitted by: Jacky van Leeuwen
Submitted on: May 31, 2023
Request Number: ARPA-29
Project Name: Interpretation Services
Proposal Type: Individual
Recommended Project Manager: Community Interpreter Services
Project Summary:
Requests $10,000 be appropriated for Language Access services available for City Departments needing safe and reliable communication with
people with limited or no English proficiency. $10, 000 is estimated to be sufficient for interpretive services needed for 2 years. But, at
minimum - from communication with Community Interpretation Services (CIS) and one municipality (Somerville) - $10,000 can be reasonably
expected to adequately meet Watertown’s needs for 1-2 years.
Amount of ARPA Funds Requested: $10,000
Minimum Funds Needed: $10,000
Matching funds available? Don't Know
Other funds available? Don't Know
Project Narrative: I have a detailed narrative to upload
Watertown ARPA Proposal – Interpretation Services
Application and guidelines: https://watertownma.viewpointcloud.com/categories/1087/record-types/1006593
Project Name: Interpretation Services
1. Applicant name: Jacky van Leeuwen & Sophia Suarez-Friedman
2. Contact person (if applicant is an organization): Jacky van Leeuwen
3. Contact email address jacky.vanleeuwen@yahoo.com
4. Contact phone number: 617-645-2171
5. Project name: Interpretation Services https://communityinterpreterservices.org/
6. Amount of ARPA funds requested to run the project: Project Proposal requests $10,000 be
appropriated for Language Access services available for City Departments needing safe and reliable
communication with people with limited or no English proficiency. $10, 000 is estimated to be sufficient
for interpretive services needed for 2 years. But, at minimum - from communication with Community
Interpretation Services (CIS) and one municipality (Somerville) - $10,000 can be reasonably expected to
adequately meet Watertown’s needs for 1-2 years.
7. Matching funds available for the project from other sources:
Don’t know
8. Other sources of funds that could be used for the project other than ARPA funds:
Don’t know
9. Minimum funds needed to make the project worth doing: $5,000.
10. Recommended project manager (i.e., City department, non-profit entity. Note that if a non-profit entity is proposed as project manager, they should submit the proposal.): City of Watertown
will contract through the Community Interpreter Services for on-demand phone and scheduled
interpretation and translation services for Watertown residents. A City staff person should be
designated for administrative and reporting outcomes.
Project Proposal (brief description): This proposal requests that the City of Watertown utilize ARPA
funds to contract with interpretation/translation services for all City departments to be able to
communicate with residents in multiple languages.
Several factors call for a need for Watertown to establish a long-term, streamlined, centralized, reliable
and cost-effective interpretive services. See below.
11. Narrative Description of Project:
Community Interpreter Services (CIS) is run by Catholic Charities and is used by many municipalities in
this area. They have the capacity to provide on-demand phone interpretation. CIS provides a phone
number, access code, and language choices so the caller and the person with Limited English Proficiency
LEP can communicate in real-time. They also can provide services for scheduled in-person or virtual
meetings. According to Somerville’s Office of Immigrant Affairs/Language Access specialist, CIS is
especially useful for interactions requiring an ability to be culturally sensitive and to avoid re-
traumatizing persons with LEP.
Watertown would benefit from interpretive services:
1. At least 14% of Watertown families speak a language other than English in their households
(from Feb 2022 WPS audit). This rate is higher than the state average of 10.5% and may be
higher now as school staff anecdotally report seeing a significant increase in new immigrant
families this past year.
3. There is a chance that some LEP residents do not contact City Departments due to their limited
English proficiency. When services are made available in multiple languages, more LEP residents
are likely to contact City Departments. Project Literacy staff and volunteers report that students
with limited English proficiency ask them for help to navigate and connect with various City
departments and services – for example, Recreation for summer kids’ programs, rental
assistance, Tax payments. The Social Services Resource Specialist for Watertown reports that
some LEP residents opt not to call Town Hall and other City Departments for their needs
because they are worried about not understanding the response.
4. Without a dedicated city entity or staff person yet charged with interpretation services, each
department seeks and uses its own options for communicating with LEP Watertown Residents
and others interacting with City staff. Police, Fire, and the Public Schools each contract with
their own Interpretation Services. However, other city departments do not have access to
interpretation services and therefore use bi-lingual staff or rely on commonly used apps such as
Google translate. There remains a need for interpretation services for various languages in all
Watertown Departments, in particular the Council on Aging/Senior Center, Health Department,
Public Library, and Town Hall who interface daily with residents.
a. Some departments (e.g. Fire and Police) report that they would welcome an alternative
service when their current service does not meet the need. Despite bi-lingual officers
(Vietnamese, Armenian, Chinese, Spanish, Portuguese) they report a need for additional
help with those languages, and others: Middle East languages, all Chinese dialects, are
examples cited.
b. The Senior Center has staff with Russian and Armenian language capacities to best serve
older adults with those language needs.
c. The Health Department has materials available in multiple languages, but does not have
access to any interpretation services to speak with residents over the phone or in-
person in other languages. This is particularly important for the Health Officers who
conduct home inspections and interface frequently with City residents.
d. The Watertown Public Library has librarians who speak Spanish, Portuguese, and
Russian. They recently provided an interpretation device for all departments. There will
be times when they would benefit from on-demand or scheduled services.
5. Financially, Watertown may find that what is spent for interpretive services in the Police
Department, Fire Department, School Department, for example, can be better spent with CIS.
Community Interpreter Services Budget: https://communityinterpreterservices.org/
• On-Site Consecutive Interpretation: $85/hour with 2-hour minimum
• Virtual/Telephonic Interpretation: $85/hour with 1-hour minimum.
• On-Demand Telephonic Interpretation: $2/minute with 10-minute minimum
• Additional Services: Written Translation, Virtual Simultaneous Event Interpretation.
No additional fee, outside of the fees for services rendered.
Resources required in addition to the ARPA funding. Dedicated staff person/department to contract
with service, communicate availability of services to city departments, allocate funds/pay for services,
and collect outcomes.
These responsibilities can be supported by and simplified by the shared work of MAPC Language Access
Roundtable, a monthly meeting with language access practitioners in the Greater Boston area. The
coordinator of the group is Sasha Parodi: sparodi@mapc.org.
g: How the project meets the City’s ARPA proposal criteria: ARPA Proposal Criteria: Practical: 1. Can the project meet the deadlines for encumbrance no later than December 31,
2024 and expenditure in full by December 31, 2026? YES
2. Does the applicant demonstrate that they are qualified and have the capacity to
execute the project? Yes. Currently used by Wayside in Watertown and by nearby municipalities (such
as Somerville, Boston, Everett, Gloucester). CIS is an authorized state vendor and contracts with a
multitude of state agencies.
Benefits to residents: 1. What number of residents are being served? At least 15-20% of residents.
2. Does the project serve the most impacted residents? Yes
3. Are the benefits long term and over what period? Yes. The community benefits when its most
vulnerable are aware of and a part of all the community requires and has to offer us. Welcoming people
with limited English proficiency is good for the economy – small businesses flourish, etc. Financial: 1. Does the project leverage other sources of funding so we get more bang for our buck? We don’t know if there are state funds available for this. Operational Services Division of MA has
vetted a large list of interpretation and translation services for municipalities to use, along with
guidelines and other help for use of these services: https://www.mass.gov/doc/prf75/download It’s
possible that OSDMA is also a resource for funding sources. 2. Is there a funding cliff and if so, what is the plan to deal with it when it comes? 3. Does the project address the unintended impact of COVID on our City’s ability to maintain the service levels expected? We can safely assume that Watertown residents who have
Limited English Proficiency include a high percentage who worked in essential services or lost their jobs
due to the pandemic. Without a foundation of language access, many may have lost out on critical help
to maintain family and community stability.
Strategic: 1. Is the project aligned with our Comprehensive Plan and ours Charter Preamble? YES 2. Are we ensuring a variety and a balance of spending across priorities and needs?