Author: Juliellen Simpson-Vos
Centro para Familias Hispanas (the Hispanic Family Center) has successfully trained 15 Interpreters and is ready to begin the Interpreters Project, available to anyone involved in the Wake County Early Intervention and Special Education System. The project was originally the brain child of the Wake County LICC which recognized the lack of specialized services for Spanish speaking families (in particular) involved in the Early Intervention System. More and more non-English speaking children were being enrolled in the Early Intervention program with very few services available to them to help navigate the complicated system.
Members from the Wake County LICC brought the idea to the attention of Catholic Charities and the Hispanic Family Center, who then wrote a grant to the United Way to fund the project. The project is now overseen by Consuelo Kwee and Mario Triolo of Catholic Charities. Over the past several months, Interpreters were recruited, screened, and trained to provide interpretation services to families and agencies in need of their desired skills. The training was extensive and intense covering topics such as IEP and IFSP development, social/emotional development of young children, understanding the EI system, medical conditions and terms, play-based activities, working with families, cultural considerations and several mock (practice) interpretation sessions.
The program now has 15 Interpreters on staff. Several languages are represented. In addition to Spanish, services will be available to Arabic, French, Portuguese, Vietnamese, and German speaking families. The program is interested in knowing what other language needs are out in the community so that they can target Interpreters with those skills for the next training session.
Interpreters are available to assist during IEP or IFSP meetings, consults, or other meetings between non-English speaking families and service providers. The cost for the service is $25.00 an hour. Each Interpreter is on an individual contract with the Hispanic Family Center and can be contacted directly to set up a meeting or appointment. Sites using the services will be asked to sign a participation agreement and complete an evaluation after every session.
You can find a complete listing of the Interpreters and the languages with which they can assist on the TelAbility website located in the Expertise Directory or you can just type ?interpreter? into the search box on the Home page. For more information about the Interpreters Program, contact Maria Triolo, Program Coordinator, at 418.3501 or via email at triolom@raldioc.org
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