[lg policy] Chicago: Emanuel's plan to provide city services in many foreign languages advances

[Harold Schiffman]

Emanuel's plan to provide city services in many foreign languages advances
Posted: 04/28/2015, 02:10pm | Fran Spielman

Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s plan to provide city services in an array of foreign
languages — and create a municipal identification program — advanced
Tuesday amid concern that the “Language Access Ordinance” is not strong
enough.

Ald. Scott Waguespack (32nd) pointed to lessons learned in San Francisco,
where officials now want to strengthen a trailblazing, 2001 ordinance with
increased  training, a beefed-up complaint process, more resources for
language services and an end to a “two-tier system” that has excused
public-safety departments.

Instead of learning from San Francisco’s mistakes, Chicago may be doomed to
repeat them, Waguespack said.

The ordinance advanced by the City Council’s Committee on Human Relations
calls for city departments to provide services in “any non-English language
spoken by a limited or non-English proficient population that constitutes
10,000 individuals or five percent” of the city’s 2.7 million population,
“whichever is less.”

But the mayor’s plan also creates a two-tiered system of services,
appearing to let some departments off the hook by stating: “Those
departments that provide services to the public that are not programmatic
in nature, such as emergency services, shall implement this chapter [only]
to the degree practicable.”

Waguespack said the trigger point for access to city services in a foreign
language should be not 5 percent of the overall city population, but 5
percent of people who access that particular service. Waguespack also wants
to scrap the two-tier system.

“Police and fire should not be pushed to a second tier. We’re diminishing
our ability to deal with people in crisis situations, which is what we seem
to be revolving around more so lately than ever,” Waguespack said.

“When you’re in a crisis situation and you’re a person who speaks a
language that someone on the other line doesn’t, that exacerbates the
situation. That could be valuable minutes lost . . . I know that we do
provide some of the translation services right now . . . in a crisis
situation — especially with a larger group of people, you’re putting them
in more danger than they need to be.”

Ami Gandhi, executive director of the South Asian American Policy &
Research Institute, seemed to agree.

“Domestic violence victims, who are limited English proficient, often need
help from emergency services as well as other social service departments,”
Gandhi said.

“They face inconsistent results. You’ll hear some really amazing
inspirational stories of city personnel really helping someone in the worst
situation imaginable. And there are other situations where city personnel
are not understanding the best practices when it comes to someone who has
these double- or triple-layers of vulnerability.”

Ald. Ameya Pawar (47th), co-sponsor of the Language Access Ordinance, said
police and fire are not off the hook.

But he said, “We can pass a paper policy today. That doesn’t mean the boots
on the ground are going to embrace that. Their unions need to be at the
table as we are developing the language access policy and plan with the
advocates.”

The ordinance advanced Tuesday also would establish a “working group”
charged with developing an “implementation plan for a municipal ID program.”

The ID would be used to connect Chicagoans with city services and benefits,
whether or not they are homeless and regardless of their immigration status
and gender identity.

“I’m sick and tired of the criminalization of homeless people. If you want
to get people into homes, supportive housing, taxes, services, an ID is the
first step,” Pawar said.

“If you go get a state ID or driver’s license, you have to declare gender.
Our plan with this municipal ID is that you don’t have to declare. It also
says to everyone in the city — whether you’re homeless, transgender or
undocumented — you belong here and we’re here to serve you.”

According to the mayor’s office, more than 400,000 Chicagoans have
difficulty speaking, reading, writing or understanding the English
language. If that’s true, 16.1 percent of the city’s population may face
“significant language barriers” when they try to access city services or
programs.

Emanuel’s plan would require every city department to designate a language
access coordinator to implement policy and submit an annual compliance
report.

http://chicago.suntimes.com/chicago-politics/7/71/558943/emanuels-language-access-ordinance-municipal-id-plan-advances

-- 
**************************************
N.b.: Listing on the lgpolicy-list is merely intended as a service to its
members
and implies neither approval, confirmation nor agreement by the owner or
sponsor of the list as to the veracity of a message's contents. Members who
disagree with a message are encouraged to post a rebuttal, and to write
directly to the original sender of any offensive message.  A copy of this
may be forwarded to this list as well.  (H. Schiffman, Moderator)

For more information about the lgpolicy-list, go to
https://groups.sas.upenn.edu/mailman/
listinfo/lgpolicy-list
*******************************************
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/lgpolicy-list/attachments/20150429/7228ee69/attachment.htm>
-------------- next part --------------
_______________________________________________
This message came to you by way of the lgpolicy-list mailing list
lgpolicy-list at groups.sas.upenn.edu
To manage your subscription unsubscribe, or arrange digest format: https://groups.sas.upenn.edu/mailman/listinfo/lgpolicy-list