LYNN — Mayor Jared Nicholson’s office is continuing to bolster language access at City Hall with the hiring of a language-access coordinator before the end of the year.
The effort is tied to the growing diversity of the city’s residents, Nicholson’s office said in a statement, and seeks to expand language access at City Hall to overcome language barriers and ensure that services and assistance are accessible to all residents regardless of the language they speak. Interpreters in Arabic, Khmer and Spanish have already been hired, and officials are seeking to hire a Haitian Creole interpreter in 2023.
The language-access coordinator will coordinate language-access efforts and provide oversight to ensure the city’s interpreters are able to assist residents and city departments successfully, the statement said. They will also serve as an interpreter and aid the city in learning more about community needs by engaging with residents at events and within their spaces.
The language-access coordinator will be hired this year with an anticipated start of mid-January.
“Improving language access will continue to take a lot of work, but is critical to our goal for a city that works for all of us,” said Nicholson. “I’m grateful for the major strides that city staff have made working with our partners and appreciative of the commitment that our team has shown.”
The city now has bilingual directories — Spanish and English — on every floor of City Hall in recognition of the fact that, after English, Spanish is the second most spoken language in Lynn. Nicholson’s office has also made a commitment to elevate and honor all the
languages spoken in Lynn by providing language support at public meetings, made possible by the city’s acquisition of simultaneous interpretation equipment, according to the statement.
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Officer Faustina Cuevas anticipates that the simultaneous interpretation devices will soon be available for local organizations to use through a rental program launching in the new year.
Last year, city employees wishing to improve their own intercultural communication skills were able to sign up for a 15-week Spanish language course through a partnership with North Shore Community College. In the spring, nine city employees successfully graduated from this program. City Hall will be launching the program again in the spring of 2023, the statement said.
As part of a continuing initiative to improve and adapt to ensure it’s communicating effectively with residents, the city has also made an effort to communicate announcements and critical information in multiple languages — as seen in communications from the City of Lynn and Nicholson on social media and email, which are often translated into multiple languages.
Nicholson’s office also worked with the City’s Parking Department to tackle a daily issue at City Hall — parking tickets.
Prior to this collaboration, parking tickets were issued only in English. The Parking Department worked with the city’s ticketing vendor to enable the handheld meters used by parking attendants to issue tickets in both English and Spanish. That update is now live, and
the city hopes it will assist residents in understanding parking violations and being better informed on enforcement policies, according to the statement.
The city has also hired a consultant to revamp the city’s website to prioritize accessibility and language access. That work will begin in the new year and will be a multi-year phased approach.
“We have made a genuine effort to hear the concerns of community members and organizations on what we could be doing better in regards to language access and are thoughtfully responding to those requests,” said Cuevas. “This issue in particular is a personal one for me, as I served as my mother’s translator for the majority of my life. It is my goal that no child coming into city hall will have to translate for a family member because we will have the resources available to directly communicate with anyone that enters the building regardless of the language they speak.”
