Language Access Work Group
Notes from
Meeting 1 Main Room
July 25, 2023
SUMMARY OF MEETING 1
|
Welcome, agenda review and technology orientation |
Anita Maguire |
|---|---|
|
Zoom Support Staff introductions |
Ben Lee, Tony Rice |
|
Breakout Room explanation |
Anita Maguire |
|
Breakout Room Facilitator introductions |
Sharon Armstrong, Adolfo Capestany, Herminia Esqueda, Stacii McKeon |
|
Brief self-introductions |
Participants |
|
Community agreements |
Anita Maguire |
|
Project Manager introduced and provided explanation of the work group’s unifying focus |
Malia Wallace-Mello |
|
Breakout Room discussions |
Breakout Room Facilitators and Participants |
|
Breakout Room discussion recap |
Breakout Room Facilitators |
|
Conclusion and next steps |
Anita Maguire |
Meeting 1 Participants
| Fatma Abdinasir | Lynora Hirata | Olga Okhapkina |
|---|---|---|
| Patricia Alonzo | Larysa House | Casey Peplow |
| Gabrielle Bachmeier | Carrie Huie Pascua | Theresa Powell |
| Milena Calderari-Waldron | Jarrod Irvin | Jennifer Price |
| Gwendolyn Cash, EdD | Teddy Kemirembe | Joana Ramos |
| Nadia Damchii | Trisha Lamb | Cindy Roat, MPH |
| Helen Eby | KaraLynn LaValley, PhD | Elsie Rodriguez Paz |
| Marguerite Friedlander, Esq. | Eliana Lobo | Zenaida Rojas |
| Sherri Fujita | Ruiqin Miao, PhD | Roy Salonga |
| Zugey Garcia | Leroy Mould | Manny Santiago |
| Jon Gould | Natalya Mytareva | María Siguenza |
| Luisa Gracia | Fidelie Nawaj | Yun-Mei Wang Wilborn |
| Tony Griego | Hugo Nuñez | Sandy Yang |
Meeting 1 DSHS Support Staff
| Sharon Armstrong, Breakout Room 1 Facilitator |
|---|
| Adolfo Capestany, Breakout Room 4 Facilitator |
| Herminia Esqueda, Breakout Room 2 Facilitator |
| Benjamin Lee, Zoom Co-Host |
| Anita Maguire, Main Room Facilitator |
| Stacii McKeon, Breakout Room 3 Facilitator |
| Tony Rice, Zoom Host |
| Malia Wallace-Mello, Project Manager |
WELCOME
The Main Room Facilitator introduced herself then gave a quick recap of the agenda. The Zoom Host and Co-Host then introduced themselves. Participants were encouraged to send chat messages to the Zoom hosts if encountered any technical problems.
BREAKOUT ROOM EXPLANATION
Participants were informed that they would spend some time in breakout rooms to capture their ideas about the importance of the work they are doing, their ideas for improvements, and barriers they have experienced. Each breakout room had a dedicated facilitator to help prompt the conversation and document participants’ thoughts. The Breakout Room Facilitators introduced themselves.
GETTING TO KNOW YOU FORM and SSB 5304 LANGUAGE ACCESS WORK GROUP SITE
Following the participant introductions, the Main Room Facilitator thanked everyone for attending and thanked those who had filled out the Getting to Know You form. Some information from that form will be shared on the SSB 5304 Language Access Work Group website. If participants would like to have their contact information shared with fellow participants, they were asked to inform the work group Project Manager. Information regarding the Senate bill and the work group can be found on that website.
ESTABLISHED COMMUNITY AGREEMENTS
The participants considered various community agreements before deciding on the following for how they will treat each other and the work:
- Respect each other in action and in speech.
- Stay present.
- Listen with an open mind.
- Arrive prepared and ready to engage.
- Consider your thoughts before speaking.
- Honesty in all communications.
- Contribute from your lived experience.
- Clarify to avoid assumptions.
- Plain speak as much as possible.
- Avoid acronyms and complicated verbiage.
- Ask questions out of curiosity.
- Use specific (brief) examples for clarity.
- Be open to different modes of expression (cultural/linguistic).
- Respectful disagreement is okay.
Participants were thanked for accepting these agreements and holding themselves accountable to them as the group works together to develop understanding and propose recommendations.
EXPLANATION OF THE WORK GROUP’S UNIFYING FOCUS
After the work group Project Manager introduced herself, she provided some background information for the participants.
With the onset of COVID-19 in 2020, changes in the deployment of the program to protect the community were made to include online third-party options for interpreters to be tested.
Substitute Senate Bill 5304 requires DSHS to convene a language access work group. The purpose of the work group is to study and made recommendations to the Legislature regarding interpretive service certification policies and programs for limited and non-English speaking Washingtonians. The work group shall hold its first meeting on or before August 1, 2023, and shall submit its final report before December 1, 2023.
The unifying work group goal is to ensure that all Washingtonians have access to medical interpreter services without language barriers. Participants’ help was welcomed in this work.
BREAKOUT ROOM DISCUSSIONS
Participants were moved into breakout rooms to discuss two questions: (1) Why is this work important to Washingtonians? (2) How do you think we reach our unifying goal in the most equitable, accessible, and financially reasonable way?
For more information about the breakout room discussions, please see the notes from each of the four breakout rooms on the Meeting 1 of 6 page of the SSB 5304 Language Access Work Group site.
CONCLUSION AND NEXT STEPS
All participants were encouraged to complete the Getting to Know You form, which can be found on the SSB 5304 Language Access Work Group website.
In preparation for the August 8 meeting, participants were asked to think about how they would answer this question: In what ways can the State of Washington support having more qualified medical interpreters?
Participants were encouraged to contact the work group Project Manager, Malia Wallace-Mello, if they have any questions.
Everyone was thanked.