Found in Translation

Found in Translation creates opportunity at the intersection of two problems: Poverty and homelessness has a disproportionate effect on women, immigrants, and minorities, and language is a major barrier within the American healthcare system.

Found in Translation bridges the gap between bright under-resourced women and pressing healthcare needs for their communities. We remove socioeconomic barriers to help women to rise from poverty into a female-dominated profession with a median annual wage of $47,190 nationally and $61,430 in the Boston Area. Approximately 20% of the US population (63.78 million) is bilingual, and 8% (25.51 million) is Limited English-Proficient. At scale, we have the potential to make a significant and permanent shift in the way economic opportunity and health equity are distributed across race, gender, and ethnicity. Our long-term plans include expanding the impact of our programming - training more interpreters in Boston, in other cities, and even online. 

Found in Translation is a Boston-based nonprofit with a two-fold mission: To give low-income bilingual women an opportunity to achieve economic security through the use of their language skills, and to reduce linguistic disparities in health care. According to a 2018 report, 49% of all families in Boston with children under 18 were headed by a single female householder. Of these families, 48% were living in poverty.  At the same time, hospitals in Boston struggle to find the bilingual talent needed to meet the growing demand for interpreters, leading to costly and fatal medical errors. In 2017, almost 20% of Boston's population over the age of 5 said they spoke English “less than very well” and an estimated 97% of physicians see patients with difficulties understanding English. Through our free Language Access Fellowship Medical Interpreter Certificate Training and Job Placement Program we bring these issues together to solve each other. As mounting evidence shows that minority communities are most affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, our work takes on increased importance. Language access is vital to bringing us out of the health crisis. In the light of the economic downturn accompanying this event, workforce development programs are needed more than ever. 

Our Language Access Fellowship program levels the playing field for under resourced bilingual women: It is free, and includes supports such as childcare, transportation and technology assistance, and career coaching. Upon earning their certificate, alumnae begin working as interpreters and have the opportunity for direct job placement via our Interpreter Services. In the long-term, they continue to benefit from our year-round career advancement support and professional development to further their careers. 

Our model transforms our program participants into agents of change, helping them to move from the margins of society into positions that enable them to achieve economic security and give back to their own communities. As medical interpreters, our program participants are partners in our mission, creating health care access for those who do not speak English, and protecting their right to equality in health.

The target population of our Medical Interpreter Certificate Training program is as follows:

-Women (self-identified)

-Economically Disadvantaged (low-income, homeless currently or in the past)

-Bilingual (our most common languages are Spanish, Arabic, Haitian Creole, and Portuguese, but also includes Hindi, Somali, Swahili, Mandarin, Amharic, Russian, Cape Verdean Creole, etc.)

-Adults 18+ (We’ve had program participants as young as 19, and as mature as 67. The average age is 35.)  

Participating in our program results in a permanent upgrade in earning power and employment prospects for participants. Our model disrupts the cycle of poverty and changes lives. As medical interpreters, alumnae of our program enter a flexible profession where wages start at $25/hr entry level, and where they can draw on an existing strength to find a new confidence and sense of self-worth. 

Our programming is tailored specifically for the demographics we serve, and is designed to adapt to the evolving needs and ambitions communicated to us by our participants. Today’s service model of continued engagement and innovation is a co-creation in partnership with the women we serve.

Increasing access to high-quality, affordable, skill-building for vulnerable communities has been the modus operandi of our work since our inception. As the only free interpreter training program with holistic supports in the US, we are the only viable option for talented low-income and homeless women to enter this field. We were designed to serve the very demographic this challenge seeks to uplift. Beyond our solution and the population we serve, it is our proven commitment to innovation and expanding the economic impact of our work that make us an all-around fit for this challenge. 

Full Time staff = 7, Part Time = 2 office staff, 2 contractors, and a faculty team of ~25

Our vision is to tip the scales of opportunity across gender and ethnicity by creating an economic mobility portal for multilingual women through a strength-based approach. With this in mind, childcare and transportation supports are an integral part of the program. Included in this mindset is our commitment to flexibility and accommodation for the diversity of needs of our participants, which include space and time for breastfeeding or prayer during programming, access to elevators/ramps, and extended time when taking written exams. Over the years we have embedded trainings on DEI and related topics into our programming, with a focus on how they impact the work of interpreters. 

In addition, we collect regular feedback from our participants, creating space for them to voice concerns, influence programming, and steer our organizational direction. Whenever our programming has improved, it was in direct response to our alumnae’s evolving needs and growing ambitions.

Our uniqueness lies in how we differentiate from established players in the field. In addition to being tuition-free and designed specifically for low-income and homeless women, our values-based (and not profit-based) approach provides us with the ability to do what other training programs cannot. It is most cost-effective to train at least 3+ speakers of the same language at once - because of this, fewer speakers of rare languages are trained and working in Boston, leaving communities without professionals to provide them the services they need. Our model welcomes speakers of all languages. This has established Found in Translation as the go-to source in Boston for training and hiring interpreters in rare languages.Indeed, Found in Translation is frequently contacted to fill assignments or send interpreters to cover rare language assignments that other agencies or institutions do not have the capacity to fill themselves. 

Another cornerstone to Found in Translation’s effective approach is the continued engagement and support we provide our program participants after graduation. Our model allows for wage and employment gains to be sustained over time, an outcome that strongly contrasts with the common “Cliff Effect” phenomenon, wherein gains drop off after services are withdrawn. We have created a self-nourishing community where new interpreters enter our program seeing living examples of where their career might take them in 1, 2, or 5+ years. This community accelerates the success of new interpreters, and it serves as a way for experienced interpreters to find their footing as mentors, teachers, and leaders.

Found in Translation employs technology to support our content delivery and communications. Our staff and faculty rely on online platforms and file sharing software (GSuite and Dropbox) to collaborate on curriculum and track student progress. Our team communicates through technology, relying on email and messaging services like Slack and Whatsapp to stay connected with our community. More recently, we have relied upon platforms like Zoom and GoogleMeet for meetings and events.

The pandemic has accelerated our progress towards further incorporating technology into our programming. This year we made the decision to host our first online training course, starting in January 2021. In addition to video conferencing software, this program will also rely on a new online learning management system set up through Canvas. This will allow us to achieve greater equity and serve a broader spectrum of participants (e.g. to women with disabilities that prevent them from participating in person). Furthermore, it will lead to enhanced computer literacy skills that will position our newest interpreters for success in an increasingly digitized field. We plan on further using this new digital educational infrastructure to create additional advanced learning opportunities for graduates, as well as access to a resource library for self-guided study. We will also use the platform to enhance future in-person trainings with options for hybrid learning.

Our interpreter services offerings have also adapted due to the pandemic - our interpreters are now equipped to provide phone and video interpretation (also through Zoom) as well as complete written translation assignments. 

Aside from keeping operations running smoothly, Found in Translation’s incorporation of technology and tech education into our programming has played a significant role in the success of our participants. For a long time now, basic tech literacy has been an unspoken requirement for success in a professional setting. Women from low-income backgrounds, who have a history of homelessness, or are of an older generation may not necessarily have these skills when they enter our program. That is why our professional development modules include instruction and mentoring regarding writing a cover letter, setting up a LinkedIn account, and applying to jobs online. Our program does more than provide the necessary credentials to be a medical interpreter, we also make sure our students have the skills they need to apply, secure work, and be successful in the field. 

We recognize that effectively delivering our program online in 2021 will mean that our students will need not just skills, but also access to the internet and a computer/laptop/tablet. We intend to fulfill all demonstrated needs for accepted students, including paying for internet service if necessary.

In part of this effort, we will be partnering with the nonprofit Tech Goes Home, who will join us in supporting a high-need subgroup of students with structured computer skills learning. We hope that this course (which students will undergo before beginning our certificate training) will close the technical gap and prepare students for our intensive program. 

Found in Translation’s approach represents a paradigm shift in thinking about economic mobility and the US workforce. Our opportunity analysis shows that some of the most highly-demanded skills exist in immigrant women who are disproportionately low-income and homeless due to racism and systemic barriers. Most interventions for immigrant and linguistic-minority women are focused on shortcomings, weaknesses, and risks. Found in Translation focuses on strengths, namely the unique ability to speak multiple languages and knowledge of multiple cultures. We not only empower women to capitalize on their language skills to achieve economic security and professional success, but also help them to turn their most stigmatized characteristic—their linguistic and cultural background—into their greatest asset in the labor market. 

Inputs: Staff, faculty, volunteers, funding, community partnerships, curriculum, materials, alumnae peer network

Activities:

• Medical Interpreter training: 140+ hours of training over 20 weeks, including medical interpreter skills instruction, lessons in Anatomy & Physiology, financial literacy and professional development. Volunteers support our participants through mentoring, childcare, and guest lecturing.

• Career Advancement: All alumnae have access to direct job placement through in-house Interpreter Services, receive ongoing professional development opportunities and support to grow their careers, and access to the knowledge and connections of our growing alumnae community. As established and experienced interpreters, our alumnae have become our—and each other’s—greatest resource. 

Outputs (each year): 

• A class of 36+ students will be selected for, and complete, the Medical Interpreter Certificate Training.

• Alumnae benefit from ongoing case management and career resources, participate in events, network with their peers, and carry out interpreting assignments. 

Outcomes:

• Within 1 year of graduation 70% of graduates will attain work as medical interpreters or in a related field within 1 year, and average wages will increase to $25+/hr 

• Alumnae able to work will maintain or increase average wages at or above $25+/hr per class, and maintain or increase their rate of employment at 80% per class, earning on average $10,000 more per year than before enrollment.

• Our alumnae’s services will reach tens of thousands of limited English speakers per year.

The devastation of the pandemic created unprecedented and urgent need for trained medical interpreters and workforce development opportunities for immigrant communities. Our goals for the next five years include adaptations of our program model and operations to current conditions to remain viable, and the leveraging of these adaptations to become an efficient and scalable organization that can meet rising community need.

Our initial response centered on safety and basic needs (food and housing security, access to PPE, etc.) and mitigating sudden job loss (access to financial relief programs, rapid rollout of creative direct job placement initiatives, etc). Over the next year our focus will be on converting our award-winning Medical Interpreter Certificate Training program to a fully virtual format and helping alumnae navigate the changing interpreting job market, and on stabilizing our organization through financial contingency planning, investments in development capacity, and digital infrastructure improvements. In the subsequent years, we will focus on leveraging our adapted, technology-enabled program model for growth, providing training and job placement to more interpreters, and life-saving language access services to more patients. 

Though the pandemic created disruption and uncertainty,  it has also charted a clear course for us toward a future as a more flexible and accessible program, and opened up growth possibilities free from the geographic restrictions of our original model, which is not viable in pandemic conditions. Paradoxically, the structural changes we must make in order for our mission and impact to survive may actually fast-track us toward growth and bigger impact. 

• Shift away from in-person interpreting to remote interpreting: What once was a profession with plentiful opportunities (and preferences for) in-person work has become an increasingly digital landscape in the past six months. Indeed, this transition was already in progress long before COVID-19 made in-person gatherings unsafe. For years now, we have seen hiring, recruiting, job searching, and interviewing incrementally move to the digital realm, along with the boom in demand for remote video or phone interpreters. In addition, interpreters in our community have noticed that though the field is predominantly women, the remote interpreting realm has so far been overwhelmingly men. Therefore, one of the barriers facing our participants is the urgency to develop and keep up their technological skills.

• Uncertain Fundraising Climate: We foresee funding opportunities to be a major challenge for the next few years, especially due to the pandemic. COVID-19 continues to generate uncertainty and unpredictability in the philanthropic landscape. As our organization seeks to expand and continue to adapt to meet the needs of our community, we predict the extent of these efforts will be tied to the maintenance and growth of reliable funding streams. 

Shift away from in-person interpreting to remote interpreting: This year we are strengthening the computer literacy and remote interpreting components of our training program to help future participants along with current alumnae navigate the changing landscape of interpreting. We are taking elements that were once advanced skills workshops for alumnae (ex. translation, remote interpreting 101) and incorporating them into our core curriculum delivered to all new students. Many of our program participants have limited experience with technology, and/or have various barriers to accessing the internet, using computers, and meeting modern technological expectations in order to find work. To address this, we are partnering with the nonprofit Tech Goes Home, who will join us in supporting a high-need subgroup of new students with structured computer skills learning. 

By upgrading their technical abilities and knowledge of the unique skills needed to effectively interpret in virtual settings, we aim to get ahead of the curve. Through our program adaptations we will upskill our alumnae with the knowledge, etiquette, equipment and confidence to keep up with the industry, positioning them to succeed in a changing job market that threatens to leave behind interpreters who do not adapt. Through these adaptations we are reimagining pathways to interpreting employment.

Uncertain Fundraising Climate: Given the importance of identifying funding streams for our work, we have made strategic investments in the development capacity of our organization. This increase in capacity has already enabled our team to source additional funding partnerships not previously on our horizon. 

Healthcare:

Much of our impact is in healthcare settings through language access provided by interpreters. While we are able to collect some data (estimates) on the number of encounters/patients served by our graduates, we are not able to provide further insight into how the quality of care increases as a result of the services our grads provide. We are curious about best practices on how to capture this information while still respecting patient privacy and protocols. This can also be applied to impact in non-healthcare settings.

Social Capital 

Our current outcomes measurement system ably tracks the quantitative success of our graduates, but we are still working on ways to best capture the impact of this powerful community, which has value beyond rising wages and rates of employment. The ability to measure the growing influence, clout, network power, prestige and recognition of our graduates is something we would like to explore. 

As part of our efforts to ensure our organization reflects the communities we serve, we collect demographic data about our staff and board. Most recent data shows that 88% of our staff identify as women, and range in age from 25 to 54. 63% report that they have experienced poverty, 75% are immigrants or children of immigrants, 75% are themselves multilingual, and 50% identify as people of color. Certain staff members also have lived experience being homeless. 43% of our board members are under 44 years old and 86% identify as women. 57% reported that they have experienced poverty, and 43% are immigrants or children of immigrants. 86% are multilingual, and 29% identify as people of color.

Key staff team members are:

Maria Vertkin, Founder & Executive Director is a 2x immigrant and Forbes 30 Under 30 Social Entrepreneur with a background in designing, running, and evaluating innovative nonprofit programs in the areas of workforce development, poverty, and homelessness. 

Bindiya Jha, Program Director - Interpreter Training, is an accomplished interpreter with extensive experience in immigration, refugee law, and language access advocacy. With a background in education and community-based healthcare administration, she brings a wealth of knowledge in interpreter training and management.

Board of Directors:

Provides technical expertise in program design, evaluation and impact measurement and cultural competency. Members have been formative in the creation and development of the medical interpreting profession through their work with establishing interpreting organizations and through their influence in local medical and academic institutions

The Greater Boston Area has everything it needs to break cycles of poverty: job openings in well-paying and rapidly-growing fields, talented and driven bilingual candidates in low income communities, and, through our program, all the supports necessary to connect one to the other. Our work relies heavily on collaborations with the local medical and business communities, as well as the social service sectors. Boston Medical Center provides us with free classroom space. Partners at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center teach an interviewing workshop to our class, while the hospital hires our graduates. Tufts Medical School and Dental School partner with us to create post-training opportunities for our graduates, such as our job placement site at the Sharewood Project, a free clinic in Malden. Boston Rotaract provides volunteers for our on-site childcare during the program. Partners at Cross Cultural Communications provide market insight, help us keep tabs on trends in interpreter trainings, and collaborate with us to fast-track employment for our graduates. 

Over 500 local organizations, institutions and individuals are on our recruitment mailing list, including area shelters, social service agencies, community centers, libraries, and more. A new collaboration this year with the nonprofit Tech Goes Home will provide a select group of accepted students in our Class of 2021 with computer literacy training and access to affordable technology in the lead-up to participating in our course. This will be focused initially on those students with the highest level of need, but moving forward we hope to include all interested alumnae/students. 

The primary customer of our program is the low-income, multilingual woman facing systemic barriers to economic security and professional success. The women we serve are all low-income (according to HUD guidelines) at program intake, with 60% identified at Below Poverty Level or Extremely Low Income. 49% are or have experienced homelessness in the past, and 45% are single mothers. While we do not currently collect data on immigrant status or racial/ethnic identities, our participants report over 35 different countries of origin, and speak over 47 different languages from Albanian to Zulu. 

 Indirectly, we benefit the women’s children, families, communities, and the patients who receive vital access to health care. One year post-graduation, average wages climb to $25+/hr and stay at that level. By 3-6 months post-grad over half of graduates have begun work as interpreters, and after 1 year, virtually every graduate  available to work is employed (80-90%). 

However, to capture our impact it is important that we view employment through a multidimensional culture- and gender-appropriate lens. While some graduates do seek out full time employment, in many cases part-time, higher-paid work on a flexible schedule is what is most valuable and life-transforming. The women we serve often carry tremendous familial responsibilities, even as they are primary or sole earners for their families. Increasing the earning power of an immigrant woman’s hour of work provides her flexibility, enabling her to increase her income and more comfortably balance the demands of her home life. 

Our proven record of success has earned us recognition as one of the most promising emerging economic mobility organizations in the country. We are primarily sustained by grant funding, individual donors, and fee-for-service revenue through our Interpreter Services. To date, we have raised over $2.5 million through these philanthropic channels, with grant funding now accounting for approximately 60% of our revenue. We aim to further supplement this philanthropic support by continuing to grow our fee-for-services revenue. Interpreter Services not only provides a reliable influx of cash to the organization, but also serves as a pipeline for our alumnae from our training to well-paying assignments. 

Summary of Revenue (November 2019-November 2020)

Grants/awards: $481,580 

Supporters include: The Imago Dei Fund, The Royer Family Charitable Foundation, NBCUniversal Project Innovation, The MAV Foundation, The A.C. Ratshesky Foundation, The Roy A. Hunt Foundation, The Mabel Louise Riley Foundation 

Individual donors: $272,100 

Includes major donor gifts ranging from $5000-$192,000, and individual donor support at the grassroot level

Fee-for-service Interpreter Services: $28,000    

Clients include the Sharewood Project, Tufts Dental School, BARCC, Revere Public Schools, Office of Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley, Rian Immigrant Center

Corporate sponsorship & fundraising events: $39,615

Sponsors include Battery Ventures, Eversource, and Eastern Bank

Subtenant income: $11,605

Anticipated FY21 Funding Overview:

$621,565 in grants/awards

$329,000 in donations from individual donors

$45,000 from fee-for-service Interpreter Services

$10,000 from fee-for-service Education Services

$40,000 from corporate sponsorship and fundraising events

$13,260 from subtenant income

Total: $1,058,825

Staff Salaries & Wages: $542,520  

Taxes and Fringe Benefits: $114,196  

Supportive Job Placement- Interpreter & Translation Services: $33,750  

Supportive Job Placement- Faculty and Assistant Faculty & Education Services:$75,970  Program contactors & Contract Services: $7,000  

Non-program contactors & Contract Services: $132,356  

Staff, volunteer and board development, recruitment & retention: $20,300  

Non-Personnel Program Expenses: $72,998  

Overhead & Administration expenses: $53,616 

Fundraising: $5,800

Total: $1,058,825

Budget narrative: Being a direct service organization, our biggest expense is personnel. This includes program staff, contract services, and supportive job placement wages. Additional (non-personnel) program expenses include recruitment, supportive services, graduation and other program events, supplies, program participants’ professional development (such as outside workshops, conferences, memberships, and certifications), and outcomes tracking and evaluation. Our overhead includes physical and digital infrastructure costs, and risk management protocols such as insurance.

Support from the Solve Challenge would be coming at a pivotal point in our growth trajectory. The pandemic has initiated significant changes for us and the communities we serve. Our team has worked tirelessly to strengthen the computer literacy and remote interpreting components of our program, redesign our 140-hour training curriculum and wrap around services for a virtual setting, and restructure the size and sequence of cohorts we will be training in order to maintain quality. We believe that these innovations can fast track our expansion to other geographies. Most importantly, arming our beneficiaries with the technical skills to navigate remote medical interpreting will increase their competitiveness in the labor market, helping us continue to fulfill our promise of providing a sustainable pathway out of poverty. 

We are poised to achieve outsized impact for the Greater Boston area and other major cities. Partnering with the Solve Challenge would help ensure this impact materializes. The partnership with IBM would provide us with a “technical thought partner” to help us navigate issues that might arise as we implement our remote training for the first time. Funding and valuable philanthropic connections through the challenge would be critical to stabilizing us in this pivotal time of drastic, ambitious, and inevitable change. Key to our aspirations of expansion is in-depth knowledge of the needs and demographics of cities where our model can next be implemented.  

With 20% of the US population being bilingual,  leveraging the workforce development board’s expertise could prove to be invaluable. 

Funding:

To protect our sustainability in an uncertain funding landscape, it is crucial that we continue to invest in our fundraising infrastructure. If available, we would be very interested to receive technical assistance with grant research and introductions to other funders. 

Board Members: 

Assistance with board recruitment would also be very welcome. We are currently seeking new members with expertise in fundraising and finance, and would be grateful for connections. 

Marketing

While our organization is well-known within the Boston interpreting industry, we would appreciate assistance in efforts to increase our media exposure through tapping into local/national media and generating high-quality content for our social channels and website.

Evaluation

As mentioned in a different question, we welcome assistance in developing and implementing outcome measurement efforts for qualitative metrics such as changes in social capital and healthcare outcomes resulting from increased language access. 

Our goals for building partnerships are the following:

1. Extend existing partnerships with other players in the interpreter training field in order to grow our course offerings and workshop opportunities for participants, and begin to offer continuing education credits for the greater interpreting community.

2. Strengthen the pipeline of direct job placement from our training to employers through establishing internship/apprenticeship opportunities, where students gain valuable experience observing interpreters in action at healthcare institutions and clinics before taking on the role themselves. 

3. Establish longer-term partnerships with corporate entities willing to financially sponsor our programming, provide engaged volunteers, and connect us with event space for our programming and fundraising efforts (once in-person activities can safely resume).

4. Identify and collaborate with local/regional mission-aligned organizations to design and implement custom interpreter trainings for their clients, employing our graduates as faculty and expanding the impact of our programming and of language access.