Main Room Notes

Language Access Work Group

Notes from 

Meeting 5 Main Room

September 19, 2023

SUMMARY OF MEETING 5

Welcome and agenda review

Anita Maguire

Call attention to community agreements

Anita Maguire

Informational update 

Theresa Powell

Breakout room discussions

Breakout Room Facilitators and Participants 

Breakout room discussion recap

Breakout Room Facilitators
Homework for Meeting 6

Malia Wallace-Mello

Conclusion and next steps

Anita Maguire

 

Meeting 5 Participants

Gabrielle Bachmeier Eliana Lobo Elsie Rodriguez Pas
Milena Calderari-Waldron Ruiqin Miao, PhD John Rogers
Vicky Chan Leroy Mould Zenaida Rojas
Rep. Carolyn Eslick Natalya Mytareva María Sigüenza
JoAnna Gaffney Hugo Nuñez Yvonne Simpson
Zugey García Casey Peplow Elena Vasiliev
Tony Griego Theresa Powell Cathy Vue
Aranzazu Granrose Jennifer Price Yun-Mei Wang Wilborn
Carrie Huie-Pascua Joana Ramos James Wells
Christina Labra Cindy Roat  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Meeting 5 DSHS Support Staff

Scott Hubbell, Breakout Room Facilitator
Benjamin Lee, Zoom Host
Anita Maguire, Main Room Facilitator
Morgan Olson, Breakout Room Facilitator
Tony Rice, Breakout Room Facilitator
Malia Wallace-Mello, Project Manager
Don Winslow, Breakout Room Facilitator

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

WELCOME AND AGENDA REVIEW

The Main Room Facilitator introduced herself and the Zoom Host. She then gave a quick recap of the agenda.

 

COMMUNITY AGREEMENTS

The Main Room Facilitator held space for self-review of the Community Agreements established during the first meeting:

  • Respect each other in action and speech.

  • Stay present.

  • Listen with an open mind.

  • Arrive prepared and ready to engage.

  • Consider your thoughts before speaking.

  • Honesty in all communication.

  • Contribute from your lived experience.

  • Clarify to avoid assumptions.

  • Plain speak as much as possible.

  • Avoid acronyms and complications.

  • Ask questions out of curiosity.

  • Use specific and, whenever possible, share brief examples for clarity.

  • Be open to different cultural and linguistic modes of expression.

  • Respectful disagreement is ok.

Participants were thanked for accepting these agreements and for holding themselves accountable to them as the group works together to develop understanding and propose recommendations.

 

INFORMATIONAL UPDATE

The Senior Director of DSHS’s Office of Equity, Diversity, Access, and Inclusion provided an informational update:

  •  The Attorney General’s Office reviewed the Language Access Work Group’s FAQs page to ensure that answers to questions are clear.

    • Highlights from the updated FAQs were shared.

  • If any participant has a question that is not covered under the FAQs, please contact Theresa Powell directly at theresa.powell@dshs.wa.gov.

 

BREAKOUT ROOMS

Participants moved into breakout rooms to discuss recommendations necessary to support language access and interpretive services that include:

  • Strategies for increasing access to language access providers in rural communities and for languages of lesser demand,

  • Strategies for workforce resiliency including adequate workload and compensation, and

  • Standards of ethics and professional responsibility.

For more information about the breakout room discussions, please see the notes from each of the four breakout rooms on the Meeting 5 of 6 page of the SSB 5304 Language Access Work Group site.

 

CONCLUSION AND NEXT STEPS

The Project Manager introduced participants to a new page on the Language Access Work Group website called Draft Options. She then explained the contents of the two tables on that page.

To get ready for the sixth and final meeting of the Language Access Work Group, which will be held from 10:30am-12:00pm on Tuesday, October 3, please:

  • Review Table One and Table Two on the Draft Options page and decide which interpretive service certification programs you think work best for Washington State.

  • Be prepared to discuss your recommendations during the October 3 meeting. Following the discussions, we will ask you to take an online poll to rank the options. The top recommendations from the poll will be shared in the final report to the legislature.

Participants were encouraged to contact the Project Manager, Malia Wallace-Mello, if they have any questions.

Everyone was thanked.