"To build an infrastructure that enhances youth language broker skills and experience to leverages their capacity for medical, legal, and other interpretation in the service of non-English speaking communities"
In 2015 there were more than 200,000 Limited English Proficiency speakers in Ohio, all of whom, like proficient English speakers, require medical, legal, and other forms of social and civic services. Many of these people are in families that depend on young family members to interpret and/or translate on their behaves. Young people who are legacy language speakers (grew up speaking a language other than English at home) and provide translation and interpretation for family members are often referred to as Language Brokers.
The Amplifying the Impact of Language Brokers Project is designed to achieve two primary goals. The first is to support the need that non-profit organizations servicing new-comers and returning immigrant community members by providing trained high-school aged legacy language interpreter interns especially in clinical settings. The second is to provide holistic training and mentorship to these students through a stackable certification program that both leverages their abilities while also up-skilling them so that they can be viable interns for corporate partners upon entering college.