Council members Steven Neal and Dee
Andrews proposed in November 2011 that a universal language access
policy be drafted to allow citizens that don't speak English greater
opportunity for civic engagement.
The initiative, dubbed CD-6, was
accepted unanimously at the November council meeting, but after a
period of review that was supposed to last only 90 days, the Non
profit groups charged with the task of drafting the policy have not
yet returned a plan of action for the council to proceed with.
Several groups including: The Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles,
the Long Beach Immigrant Rights Coalition, Housing Long Beach, CentroCha, and United Cambodian Community were included in the drafting of
the policy.
In an article dated November 3, 2011
by staff of the Long Beach Post; Sarah Pol-Lim of the United
Cambodian Community said, "Language access is the #1 barrier to
the success of immigrant integration for the residents of Long
Beach.”
Lim's feelings are resounded by
Esther Del Valle, a graduate of the Downtown Long Beach Neighborhood
Resource Center's leadership academy, who along with her sister Ana,
strives to address the problems in her neighborhood near PCH and
Atlantic. Esther Says in the video, “to be able to have them hear
the voice of the community, and feel us, would be a grand
opportunity.”
City officials at the Neighborhood Resource Center where Esther was trained, as well as councilman Dee
Andrews were reached for comment, but were unable to contribute as
the council has yet to ratify a plan for the initiatives
implementation.
Updates on this story will be posted
to Centro CHA's facebook and twitter pages as they become available,
with perspective from the policy-writers themselves.
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