Across Languages Translation and Interpretation
Source: Across Languages Translation and Interpretation
Number of requests for service at Across Languages Translation and Interpretation (ALTI) from April 2021 to March 2022: 15,080 (this is still significantly down from before COVID)
Community partners served: approximately 2,010
Newcomer/refugee/non or limited English speakers served: approximately 7,540
Languages and dialects in which service was provided 70+
Gendered Violence Program (April 2021 - March 2022)
Assignments (April 2021-March 2022)
United Way Subsidy Program (April 2021-March 2022)
For this reporting period, Across Languages Translation and Interpretation (ALTI) had 1,780 requests of which 96.8% were fulfilled.
Indicator CIAP 2021-22 received 1,780 requests for service during fiscal 2021-22 for 32 different languages (Albanian, Arabic, Assyrian, Cantonese, Dari, Farsi, French, German, Japanese, Karen, narrative: Khmer, Korean, Low German, Mandarin, Nepali, Polish, Portuguese, Punjabi, Russian, Spanish, Tigrigna, Turkish, Ukrainian, Urdu, and Vietnamese) and dialects (Bhadini, Bosnian, Croatian, Kurdish, Kurmanji, Serbian, Sorani). The discussion related to what constitutes a language versus what is defined as a dialect is very sensitive and has become very politicized. When ALTI coordinates interpreters, they have to be very familiar and sensitive towards the needs of those who need the interpreter to communicate with service providers. There are often years of oppression and hardship linked to the experiences of non or limited English speakers and sending the "wrong" interpreter will retraumatize.
Most note-worthy is the trend that there was a return to requests for onsite interpretation (79.8%) with the rest of the requests primarily for scheduled phone.
The second trend for the past seven years is that one language (Arabic) is dominating the need in our community by a large extent. There are only minor shifts in the percentages for the same top five languages from last year:
Arabic increased from 45% to 57% last year but has now settled down to 51.5% of all requests. Please note though that "Arabic" is general term to include many different dialects and variants.
Spanish for the first time in 3 years increased from 16.3% to 18%.
Kurdish includes several dialects: Sorani, Bhadini, Kurmanji and increased by almost 4% from last year to 9.6% this year.
Mandarin dropped further from 5% to 3.3%. as well as, 5) Nepali from 3% to 2.3% of all requests.
There were a total of 32 (up from 20) languages and dialects requested by 790 non or limited English speaking clients and their 150 unique service providers. For 2021-22:- On average a limited or non English speaker was provided with an AL interpreter for 2.3 appointments (up from 1.04 last year) this year. This speaks to the impact of CIAP. We know that newcomers and refugees were impacted by COVID longer and that it was difficult for our clients to navigate the different lock downs and their restrictive measures. Most did not schedule their regular medical appointments until this year, let alone received medical care for diagnostic issues over the past two and half years.
United Way subsidies helped managed the backlog in appointments but we are predicting that without government funding, the wait times will increase for 2022-23.