Featured Post: Organizations Facing Shortage of Bilingual and Bicultural Professionals and Volunteers

by Andrés  T. Tapia -

Ask people in Chicago to close their eyes and picture the demographic mix in the Second City’s  north and west suburbs with names such as Hinsdale, Arlington Heights, Libertyville, Schaumburg, and Vernon Hills and most will paint a largely homogeneous picture of white suburbanites.

But in the past decade the real picture has gone from white to multicolor.  A few years ago when preparing to present to the entire police force of one of the counties which encompass various western Chicago suburbs about the shifting demographics of the county they served, I shared with them that already 22% of the population were people of color, 21%  spoke a language other than English at home, and that a third were under the age of 18 with that group nearly 40% minority.  In the meantime their police force was mostly monolingual and were less than 10% racial/ethnic minority.

With Latinos already the largest minority in the U.S. and poised to become 1/4th of the country, the shortage in bilingual professionals and volunteers is becoming increasingly acute. In this article by the Daily Herald which covers the very suburbs I am talking about here, reporter Larissa Chinwah writes, “Suburban organizations need more people like Veronica Patino – willing to volunteer, but most importantly, able to speak Spanish. Civic groups are struggling to communicate with increasing numbers of non-English speakers in need of social services such as food and shelter and language classes, as well as those who need a helping hand to care for a sick child or relative.”

She then goes on to quote a leader of one of these organizations: “The need for bilingual or Spanish-speaking volunteers has definitely grown,” said Annette Sommer, program director for the Volunteer Center of Northwest Suburban Chicago, an Arlington Heights-based organization that pairs volunteers with more than 140 service agencies in 53 northern Cook County and northern DuPage County suburbs. “Our population has become so diverse; we need to be able to help everyone.”

Chinwath continues. “However, program leaders say, attracting volunteers – let alone those who can speak another language – is vexing.” The report also points out that while Spanish is the predominant language spoken after English, volunteers fluent in Polish, Korean, Japanese, Russian and Hindi are also desperately needed.

But language is only a tip of the iceberg issue. Vitally important but not enough. In addition to needing bilingual professionals and volunteers, they also need them to be bicultural and crossculturally competent.

This was especially apparent to the police officers to which I presented.

With a citizenry rapidly becoming more diverse, no surprise that this suburban police force, like many others like it throughout the country, was encountering never before seen challenges including their own vulnerabilities in the increased scrutiny on the part of legislators on racial profiling. They also faced greater complexity in knowing how to best be effective in their many duties as police officers. When different cultures are involved, how best to interpret when violence was indeed imminent? how to deal with face-saving cultures? how to establish a deeper connection with minorities in implementing a community policing strategy? how to deal with a hostage situation? Are there different strategies when dealing with these and the many other situations police get involved in?

It turns out there are.  And knowing what the diversity savvy answers are – how to apply the Inclusion Paradox to law enforcement - could mean the difference between life and death. More on this in future postings.

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