What is Language Justice? According to Community Language Cooperative,

• Language justice is more than interpretation and translation, it is an intentional practice that values interpretation and translation as critical tools for opening communication and empowering all voices.

• Language justice is needed to facilitate opportunity for everyone to engage and participate in the language of their heart, and to create an inclusive and equitable space.

In the Fall of 2022, ELA and Help Me Grow-North Texas conducted a survey of partner organizations to determine how children and families who do not speak English were being served. The vast majority (94%) of responding organizations reported that they did serve clients who do not speak English, with Spanish being the most commonly spoken language, followed by Vietnamese and Arabic.

Although most organizations reported providing services and materials in a language other than English, these were primarily only in Spanish. Almost half (44%) of respondents indicated that their organizations faced barriers in addressing their interpretation and translation needs, including insufficient funding, insufficient translation and/or interpretation services in the community, and lack of knowledge on how to connect with those services.

In response, ELA curated resources to help North Texas organizations identify, access, and fund translation and interpretation in order to better serve all members of our community.