Our Proposals

  • The Community Legal Interpreter Bank (CLIB) model has been used successfully since 2007 in the District of Columbia to expand language access and increase the supply of trained, vetted immigration legal interpreters. We propose that the City provide funding to a community-based nonprofit organization to set up a Community Legal Interpreter Bank and recruit, train, and dispatch legal interpreters. City-funded immigration legal service providers will then request interpreters from the CLIB for legal services where they lack language capacity, and receive these services free of charge, up to a set number of hours, from the CLIB.

  • New York City has recognized the importance of worker-owned cooperatives as a way to create community-controlled businesses, particularly in immigrant communities that may face barriers to traditional business ownership. There is tremendous potential for immigrant community organizations to develop language services worker co-ops that provide services such as interpretation, translation, and ESOL instruction.

    Beyond nonprofit immigration legal services, language services worker co-ops could eventually help meet demand for professional, high-quality language services in the courts, education, health care, and the private sector, while providing skilled employment and business ownership opportunities to immigrant communities.

    We celebrate the launch of Afrilingual, the first African language worker cooperative, and look to the City to fund immigrant community-based organizations to develop and launch one for Asian LLDs and one for indigenous Latin American LLDs.

How Does it Work?

Government Agencies & Nonprofits

Funding for CIBs comes from both the public (New York State and New York City), as well as private foundations.

Agencies that need language services

Community Interpreter Banks

CIBs recruit, train, and dispatch interpreters and translators to provide a wide range of language services.

CIBs exclusively service government agencies and non-profits, free of cost.

Co-op interpreters may work simultaneously for CIBs and their respective co-op.

CIBs may subcontract from co-ops for specialized language needs.

African, Asian, and Indigenous Latin American Language Co-ops provide interpretation and translation services to a wide range of clients.

They provide a comprehensive range of languages specific to their communities.

Revenues come from Fees for services.

Language CO-OPS