Originally published on the inWhatLanguage blog.
Our goal is to unify people and communities from all backgrounds through innovative translation and language service solutions. We’re always developing new technology and human networks to enable knowledge and information to flow more seamlessly between diverse communities. Breaking down language barriers creates an environment of trust and mutual understanding, increased access to critical information, and improved lives.
To nurture this vision, inWhatLanguage donated a total of 103,050 words to social impact related projects. The market value of those translations was almost $25,000 from June-December 2017. In addition to translation services, inWhatLanguage regularly volunteers in the community to help bring people from diverse backgrounds together.
ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNERS (ELLs)
A report by nprED stated that 1 in 10 public school students in the U.S. is learning to speak English. This group is categorized as English Language Learners (ELLs). Being able to communicate with and educate these ELL students–in English and other valuable school subjects they’ll need to excel in life–is one of the main challenges in public education today.
We recognized this as an opportunity to step in and provide translations for critical documents and parent-teacher communications, to empower diverse, non-English speaking students and their families with the information and resources needed to build successful lives.
Several organizations, including the United Way of Salt Lake, the International Rescue Committee, the Utah Transit Authority and many others have helped to make our mission a reality.
This category alone encompassed over 81,000 words valued at over $21,000 in language services. We are excited to work with these organizations to improve communication with our linguistically diverse community.
For more details on English Language Learners, visit our ELL page.
DISASTER AFFECTED COMMUNITIES
Areas of the world that are affected by devastating hurricanes, violent earthquakes, deadly outbreaks or other disasters, receive aid from around the world. It’s incredible to watch the world unite in times of crisis to assist people in tragic circumstances.
The only problem with volunteers from around the world, is the need to coordinate and communicate with each other to provide the most effective relief strategy. Unfortunately, this challenge has eluded a solution for many years. As a translation and localization company, inWhatLanguage jumped on the chance to offer assistance to people in need.
We’ve translated over 19,000 words for this initiative, worth almost $3,000 in language services. We look forward to developing this initiative to break down language barriers when the world unites to provide assistance in disaster-affected communities.
GRANT PROGRAM
We’re also excited to implement our new English Language Learners Grant program. We are offering 13 grants of varying amounts to organizations committed to supporting ELLs. The following grants will be given as translation services and the award amounts are the value of the translations to be conducted:
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1 Grant for $5,000 of language services
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2 Grants for $2,500 each for language services
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10 Grants for $1,000 each for language services
Deadline for 2018 applications is March 15. All submissions will be reviewed by March 27. Grants will be awarded on March 30. Grant awards must be used for inWhatLanguage language services by August 30, 2018.
For more information about how to apply, visit our Grant Application page.
COMMUNITY OUTREACH
inWhatLanguage worked with the United Way of Salt Lake to provide vision screenings for elementary school students. In South Salt Lake schools alone, 18% of students are refugees and 44% are ELLs.
We were able to translate critical information so that parents would be aware of these free services available to them. Many team members of inWhatLanguage supported the initiative by showing up and helping these students with their vision screening tests.
inWhatLanguage also competed in the Startup Santa Utah initiative, which encourages companies to compete against each other to donate children’s books for kids living in low-income families.
The team quickly rose to the top of the leaderboard for our company size, with a total donation of 925 books. Many of the donated reading materials were written in various languages to support diverse communities.
About inWhatLanguage
inWhatLanguage is a localization and technology provider breaking down language and cultural barriers to unify people and communities around the world. Through technology and professional linguists, we connect organizations to communities by allowing them to create, control and manage all enterprise-wide content through a proprietary, cloud-based translation management platform called UNIFY.
Originally posted: March 22nd, 2018
