Many Spanish-speakers in the US have lost their lives due to poorly translated information, which is why it is extremely important for state governments and organizations to have more urgency in providing high quality, accurate translations. Lucia Middleton, Community Water Advocate at The Watershed Institute and native Spanish speaker, will give an overview of the most common challenges that organizations face, such as the lack of state laws requiring translation, free resources, and internal and external collaboration. Lucia will then discuss some best practices that organizations should incorporate, such as fostering relationships with community organizations that have strong ties to the target population, creating translations that use language that is accurate to the region and culture the target community is from, and assessing the impact and effectiveness of the bilingual outreach on a regular basis. Overall, the audience's main takeaway will be that this is a somewhat complex communication issue, but with the right knowledge and tools it is very feasible for organizations to successfully outreach to non-English speaking communities.
