Partnership trains court interpreters so all people have the chance to be heard

Nebraska’s Statewide Language Access program has been chosen for this year’s Outstanding State Innovation of the Year award by the Coalition on Adult Basic Education (COABE), a national organization dedicated to advancing the field of adult literacy.

Currently, Nebraska has the largest limited English proficient (LEP) population in the Midwest and is second only to Minnesota in providing Language Access in its Judicial Branch. The state has 30 court interpreters to serve more than 90 counties. Due to the multiple refugee resettlement programs and increased immigration, the need for language access has outpaced the availability of interpreters. Individuals who speak limited English rely upon trained court interpreters to access judicial services.

Knowing of this challenge, Northeast Community College reached out to Statewide Language Access coordinator Jennifer Verhein in June 2019 in hopes of increasing the number of aspiring interpreters who pass the written and oral court interpreter certification exams. The College initiated a class for English Language Learners to prepare them for freelance court interpreter opportunities that pay family sustaining wages. Affirming the Nebraska Supreme Court’s commitment to ensuring that individuals with limited English skills can participate meaningfully in Judicial Branch programs and services using qualified interpreters at no personal cost.

By September 2019, Verhein had shared numerous interpreter training resources, arranged for coaching by certified Nebraska court interpreters, and devised flexible test schedule options. In addition, she collaborated with Julie Clark of Northeast Community College in the development of course syllabi, co-hosted informational sessions, generated local and statewide media coverage, and provided a two-day Court Interpreter Orientation workshop with the active participation of Nebraska’s Court Interpreter Coordinators on site at Northeast Community College. This is a first-ever partnership in the nation to offer tuition-free preparation courses to English language students at no cost using Northeast Community College Adult Education grant programs. The class helps students prepare for the 135-question Written Interpreter Exam, which covers English vocabulary related to the court system as well as protocol for interpreters. Interpreters must develop native-like proficiency in English and a second language using everyday terms as well as informal, casual language and slang. At the same time, they need to be able to communicate in the higher-level vocabulary of the law.   

“Jennifer has been an enviable champion for our students in this venture and we are so grateful for her passion for adult learners,” said Julie Clark, Adult Education Coordinator at Northeast Community College.

The State of Nebraska Statewide Language Access program will receive the 2020 Outstanding State Innovation of the Year Award during the Coalition on Adult Basic Education’s national conference, held April 5 to April 8 at the Baltimore Marriott Waterfront in Baltimore, MD.

The Coalition on Adult Basic Education (COABE) represents the field of 55,000 adult educators and provides a variety of services, including professional development through annual, state-of-the-art national conferences, more than 50 webinars annually, and publication of the COABE Journal. COABE also launched an award-winning national public awareness campaign and an advocacy campaign that has mobilized the field to more than 100,000 connections with legislators since inception in April 2017.  Each year, COABE highlights excellence in the field of adult education by providing competitive, national-level awards and special recognition awards, incentive grants to encourage and promote best practices in the field, and scholarship opportunities.

To learn more about the Judicial Branch Language Access Program, contact jennifer.verhein@nebraska.gov.