Language Access

United Way of Southern Nevada’s Language Access Plan

During the pandemic, many organizations in Nevada came together to offer mutual support to community members. However, individuals with limited English proficiency (LEP) faced unique barriers to receiving equitable access to financial support, resources, and information offered by many nonprofit organizations due to their language barriers. To address this issue, the United Way of Southern Nevada (UWSN) has launched Unidos Por Nevada – our Language Access Plan (LAP) project.

The program aims to support historically marginalized and under-resourced communities in Southern Nevada by providing a pathway for nonprofit organizations to develop language access plans intended to provide links to social services in multiple languages. This federally funded project, administered by UWSN, is designed to identify service gaps in our community and ensure that individuals with limited English proficiency are empowered to successfully navigate the diverse network of necessary resources, support, and information.

Through a 2022 Congressional Appropriation, sponsored by Congresswoman Dina Titus, UWSN was awarded $1M for our community-based proposal for nonprofits located in Clark County to develop language access plans that provide access to social services in multiple languages.

UWSN’s Cross-sector Steering Committee will review all applications and develop an Asset Map of the twelve nonprofit organizations who will receive technical support and training to develop and implement their individual language access plans. Under UWSN leadership, this cohort of twelve nonprofits will collaborate to ensure residents’ access to emergency services and emerging issues are provided in our community’s nine most often spoken languages besides English. Based on reliable government data and census sources, the project includes, but is not limited to, the following languages:

• American Sign Language (ASL)
• Amharic/Ethiopian
• Arabic
• Chinese
• Farsi/Dari
• Korean
• Spanish
• Tagalog
• Vietnamese

The project cultivates and promotes diversity, equity, and inclusion in all aspects of our community-based programming. Through this Language Access Plan project, nonprofit organizations will gain greater understanding of cultural and subcultural norms through monthly educational workshops, focus groups with residents sharing their “lived experiences” of limited access due to language barriers, and increased sensitivity training through subject matter experts in legalities and positive impact this project will create in the lives of individuals, families and children who may need assistance in securing shelter, acquiring food, accessing healthcare, and emergency crisis services to ensure their basic daily needs are met. This project will provide strategies to support agency programs as they assist people in crisis in building their individual pathway(s) out of poverty, medical crises, and emergency situations. We proudly connect people to resources to increase their self-sufficiency and self-esteem, and we respectfully acknowledge the challenges associated with accessing short and long-term safe housing, daily nutritional food and financial stability.

Objectives

The program’s objectives are:

• To allocate funds to the selected 12 nonprofits to develop a language access plan.
• To create a reliable, realistic, and applicable Language Access Plans.
• To promote diversity, equity, and inclusion.
• To give fair access to services to our limited English proficiency (LEP) community members.
• To train, educate, and teach individuals and organizations about other cultures, ethnicities, and traditions.

Eligibility Requirements for Organizational Applicants

• Organizations with Nonprofit 501c3 Status
• Organizations with a SAM and UEI registration
• Currently providing services in at least one of the identified languages