Walk into Alexandria's Department of Human Services on Mount Vernon Avenue and find the world. A poster announces in 12 languages -- from Amharic to Somali -- that free interpreter services are available. Another notes that brochures are available in 24 languages. A caseworker talks quietly in Spanish to a worried-looking woman about her electric bill. The scene is little different from waiting rooms in Arlington and Fairfax counties and Falls Church.
Because of the surge in ethnic diversity and immigration in Northern Virginia, local governments are struggling to make sure they can communicate with the people who really need them.
For years, health, police and fire departments in Northern Virginia have had to hire bilingual workers and provide translation services just to do their jobs. Now, recent initiatives are forcing every government office and agency to assess its needs and develop a comprehensive, federally mandated language access plan.
The results have been eye-opening, said JoAnn Maldonado, Alexandria's multicultural coordinator, who has been overseeing the project for the city.
"Everyone knew we had a large Hispanic population in Alexandria," she said. "But we have people from so many other countries here, as well." Many did not show up in the 2000 Census, she said, and took city officials completely by surprise.
For instance, when the Office of Aging and Adult Services did an audit of who its clients were, the agency found a significant Korean-speaking population. JobLink, the city's one-stop job training and placement agency, found a heavy demand for Amharic translations for the large number of Ethiopian-born residents needing help. The finance department found that far more Spanish-speaking residents came to pay personal property taxes and other fees in person, so the department now makes sure that it has bilingual staff members at its service windows.
As a result of putting together the language access plan, each agency is now hooked into a national translation service called Language Line, where it instantly can get translators on the phone who speak any of more than 100 languages. Social workers can now access these translators via their cell phones. Plus, Alexandria has just come up with a list of certified local interpreters who are qualified to translate documents.
For the first time this year, Maldonado will be able to track how many times foreign-language services are offered citywide and in which languages.
"We really need to know our customer base and eliminate language barriers," she said. "This is all about improving customer service." It's also about making sure that residents don't have to rely on children or neighbors to translate and are not dissuaded from seeking help just because they speak little English, she said.
Arlington County leaders passed a plan last summer to come up with a similar language access plan. Agencies have until March to submit their preliminary drafts, said assistant county manager Raul Torres. "Twenty percent of the population in Arlington County is Hispanic, and most are not good speakers of English," he said. "And we have people from all over the world."
The effort to better communicate across many languages and cultures has put Northern Virginia governments in an odd position.
The federal government requires the plan but provides no funding for it. The state of Virginia doesn't encourage the effort and therefore doesn't pay for any of it.
Virginia passed one of the first English-only laws in the United States in 1981, proclaiming it the official language of the commonwealth. Other than providing driver's license tests in Spanish and a few other foreign-language initiatives, most state agencies do little or no interpreting, according to a report last year by the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission.
Some, such as officials at the Department of Social Services, felt translations weren't necessary, leading to inefficiencies and added costs for localities that pay to translate documents and information. Those state agencies that tried to offer materials in other languages produced documents rife with inaccuracies, the report found.
