Highlighting our Impact: Partnership with Santuary for Families
"The last thing we want a client to worry about is telling their story in a language that isn’t the most comfortable for them. Respond has been able to deliver quality translations frequently used in court, providing an essential gateway to getting our clients the safety they need. Offering translation allows for a survivor to feel supported, heard, and cared for.”
Emily Lo Bue & Jessica Francois
Volunteer Management - Santuary for Families
Can you tell us a little bit about yourself and your story?
Emily Lo Bue is a feminist justice seeker, a wife, a mother, a sister, a daughter, a dog lover, and a lifelong learner – among other things. She first became connected to Sanctuary for Families as a volunteer herself almost 20 years ago and started working for the agency over 14 years ago. She left a career in television production after realizing that she was much more passionate and dedicated to her volunteer work. Recently, she completed her Masters of Social Work focusing on Organizational Management and Leadership.
Jessica Francois is a first generation Haitian American, originally from Boston, MA. She graduated from Wesleyan University in 2014 with a Bachelors in Government. After graduating she worked at Rosie’s Place, a homeless shelter for women in the Boston area for three years. Wanting a bit of change, she moved to New York City and joined Sanctuary for Families in 2018 as the Manager of Volunteer Relations.
Emily and Jessica discuss their experiences navigating language access challenges and working with Respond Crisis Translation in the following interview:
What is the mission of Sanctuary for Families?
Sanctuary for Families is dedicated to the safety, healing and self-determination of victims of domestic violence and related forms of gender violence. Through comprehensive services for our clients and their children, and through outreach, education and advocacy, we strive to create a world in which freedom from gender violence is a basic human right.
What is your role / your day to day like?
As the Director of Corporate and Volunteer Relations within Sanctuary’s Development and Communications Department, there is no typical day – especially over the past several months. We support our clients, staff, and the agency overall with volunteer, intern, funding, and in-kind donations – based on current needs which continually change. On any given day, we could be speaking with corporate partners, giving trainings to volunteers, preparing for deliveries of donations for clients, or leading a meeting for one of our Affinity Groups.
In what ways has the collaboration with Respond Crisis Translation helped your work or allowed you to do new things that you couldn't have done before?
The partnership with Respond Crisis Translation has assisted our staff, clients, and the Volunteer Program exponentially. When we were approached by Respond, it almost sounded too good to be true as it was more support than we could have imagined. Our Volunteer Program team is a staff of two, with Jess overseeing the requests and placements of translations. Prior to our partnership with Respond Crisis Translations, the volunteer services team was responsible for all translation volunteers.
All volunteers also must be screened, vetted, and trained to make sure they are a fit for the confidential and sensitive work. Not only has the team at Respond been a pleasure to work with, they have allowed us to expand the volume of translation requests we take on, helped to alleviate the need for staff to translate or interpret for clients throughout the agency, vetted and on-boarded translation volunteers, responded very quickly to our requests, allowed our volunteer translators to assist our wonderful organizations with projects in addition to Sanctuary, and have truly been just all-around wonderful partners in this important work. Additionally, language requests varied and we were unable to fill certain language requests and Respond Crisis Translations with its wide range of translation volunteers has been able to help with almost every language including Uzbeke, Mandarin, Hebrew, etc.
Is there a specific success story (or stories) that stands out for you?
During COVID, Respond Crisis Translation was incredibly helpful in getting our Safety Planning Guide translated into 7 different languages so that it could be distributed widely across New York City. This guide was imperative for victims of DV that were currently living with their abusers during the stay at home order and provided steps to take in case of an emergency. It was imperative to have this translated into numerous languages in order to reach a wide breadth of victims and survivors.
What are the greatest challenges inherent in your work? Can you share the language-specific challenges and context that come up frequently?
The experiences that survivors have gone through are traumatic and complex. They face many barriers, even after they receive support from Sanctuary or elsewhere. The last thing staff want a client to worry about is telling their story, reading, or writing in a language that isn’t the most familiar or comfortable for them. Our clients’ needs are very specific, thus volunteer needs regardless if they are interns, translators or groups have to fill a very specific request or role. This is also true for our translations. Over 71% of our adult clients identify as immigrants from over 150 countries and thus two translations requests are never the same. Respond Crisis Translation has helped not only with the varying requests in languages, but has been able to deliver quality translations that are frequently used in court and provide an essential gateway to getting our clients the safety they need.
When we can offer the option of translation/interpretation, it is a huge relief for all involved, and, in addition to fulfilling a concrete need can allow for a survivor to feel supported, heard, and cared for.
Anything else you’d like to add about the importance of language access to your work, or just about yourself and your work in general?
We are so grateful for Respond and look forward to continuing to work together!
Help us make essential language access support possible for all in need →
Since September 2019, Respond Crisis Translation has fought to provide interpretation and translation services for anyone experiencing language barriers.
