Need grows as Spanish population increases

Need grows as Spanish population increases

Published 15 hours ago

BY TERRY FLORES

tflores@kenoshanews.com

According to U.S. Census Bureau data, the percentage of the county’s population that speaks languages other than English has increased from 9.7 in 2000 to 11.6 in 2012. The majority of non-English speakers in Kenosha County are Spanish speakers.
Since 2000, the county’s Hispanic population has also grown more than 82 percent from 10,757 to 19,592. According to 2010 U.S. Census data, Hispanics comprise about 12 percent of the population compared with just over 7 percent more than a decade ago.
In the last two decades, as the number of people whose primary language is not English has grown, so has the need for translators. Hispanic community advocates have long been concerned about the issue of younger children translating for parents who speak little or no English.
Efforts throughout the community have come a long way since then, but whether the needs are being met with existing community resources remains a challenge, according to Yolanda Santos Adams, chief executive officer and president of the Urban League of Racine and Kenosha.
“It used to always be a problem, but I think schools know they shouldn’t have children interpreting for parents,” she said.
More than a year ago, the Spanish Center closed its doors and Hispanic community leaders grew concerned about the lack of places where people could go to turn for help with interpreting and translating when they needed services. Adams said social service agencies have sometimes directed Spanish speaking clients to the Urban League and Adams, in turn, recommends the Latin American Center at St. Mark Church.
“They’re limited for what they can do,” she said.
Often, when Adams sees a person referred to her agency it’s to translate and explain things they need to know in their daily lives, such as, municipal citations, IRS notices, or bills.
“The population and the need is so great but there’s no one agency that can help all of them,” said Adams, who is bilingual. “I’m always getting pulled out to speak or to translate.”
But it’s not just at her job. It’s almost everywhere.
“I’ve been in the Save-A-Lot and I’m in the checkout line,” she said, “and they will just turn to me. I will help them out.”
John Jansen, director of the the county’s human services department, said he, too, has seen the needs for bilingual services grow by nearly 20 percent in the last four years.
In his department alone since 2009 the number of interpretations needed grew from 19,729 to 23,640.
Jansen said interpreters help clients with a number of needs whether receiving food stamps, medical assistance, immunizations or aging and disabilities services.
Human services relies on 15 staff members at the Job Center who are bilingual English-Spanish speakers and a number who speak a variety of other languages, Jansen said.
“We’ve been able to mostly serve people here with interpreters on-site,” he said. “We also have folks who just live in our community and can cover for a number of other languages. Obviously when we’ve advertised for some of the positions we have asked for bilingual (Spanish) preferred.”
Including Spanish, at least 40 languages other than English are spoken as primary or secondary languages in the Kenosha area.