Spanish speaking interpreters for Nov election

Posted by on September 22, 2008

The City of Philadelphia is undertaking a major effort to recruit at least 300 Spanish-speaking interpreters for the November 4, 2008 Presidential election. Given the intense popular interest in and importance of this year’s Presidential Election, the City has teamed up with Campus Philly in the hope that local college students who speak Spanish will want to join in the City’s efforts and perform a vital public service by serving as interpreters for Philadelphia residents whose primary language is Spanish.  We are looking for students who have a grasp of conversational Spanish.  Faculty and staff are also welcome to volunteer!

To that end, the City would like to work with you to enlist those students who speak Spanish to assist voters.  If you would help us by:

* Sharing this information with students, faculty, and staff
* Asking students, faculty, and staff to respond with interest by Wednesday, October 15th, 2008 by emailing the contacts below.

The City hopes to work with individual faculty members to coordinate the recruitment effort perhaps by including the interpreter service as a part of course curriculum or as part of a service project.

The time commitment is relatively minimal–any interested student will attend one two-hour training and certification session shortly before election day and will serve as an interpreter for one of two 6.5 hour shifts on election day.

If you are interested in joining the City in this worthwhile effort, please respond to this e-mail. Please include in your response the number of students you can think of that would be willing to assist and any ideas you have for incorporating this effort into your curriculum or public service requirement. You may also ask students to respond directly. In the coming weeks, the City will have more detailed information on the certification process and we will certainly forward that information to you as it becomes available.

The City looks forward to working with you to ensuring a smooth election day for all Philadelphians!

Thank you in advance for your assistance,

Melanie Rago
Senior Director
Campus Philly
215-988-1707
melanie@campusphilly.org

Jennifer Burns
Chief of Staff
City of Philadelphia Law Department
215-683-5067
jennifer.burns@phila.gov