OC Partnership for Young Children report 1999

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respondents, who cited inadequate or inaccurate interpretation (50 %) and translation (54 %) services. From the perspective of agency representatives, by far the largest barrier experienced by Spanish speaking clients is a lack of knowledge of the agencies' services (67 %). Access to services also is perceived as a significant obstacle, with one -third of respondents citing lack of transportation as a problem for clients attempting to get services. Because some of the local Latino population are migrant workers, one -third of agencies surveyed felt that lack of a year -round residence inhibits continuous service provision. The confusion that surrounds service provision to illegal immigrants may affect parents accessing services for their children. One -third of agency respondents felt that clients believe that their legal status will affect their ability to receive services, while one -fourth (24 %) indicated that clients believe that they may be reported to INS if they use services. A further concern for agencies serving this population is that 29% of respondents indicated that clients have difficulty following through with referrals from their organization. A similar percentage felt that client families' social or economic circumstances hinders services provision. "There is need among the Latino families to know more about the system, how things work here, and being able to understand and use the services in an appropriate way. " - Dina Castro of Frank Porter Graham Child Development Center, Los Ninos Task Force Member Organizations' Responses to Serving Spanish Speaking Families Responding organizations have implemented a variety of changes to better serve Latino children and families. However, most of those who are t1ying new approaches to helping Spanish speaking families said that their responses were inadequate to meet families' needs . Agencies have attempted to address the language barriers for families by translating written materials into Spanish (65 %), translating signs and instructions (42 %), hiring bilingual staff members (56 %), using volunteer interpreters (48 %), and using a Spanish language telephone greeting (36 %). Yet in each of these areas, the majority of respondents felt the need to improve their efforts in order to adequately serve Latinos. Other significant ways that organizations are responding to new demands on services include conducting outreach to Spanish speaking clients (53 %), training agency staff in cultural competence (42 %) and in Spanish language (38 %), paying for interpretation services (27 %), and hiring native Spanish speaking staff (26 %). More than half of respondents said their agency has conducted outreach to Latino families. Fifteen listed.three or more different types of outreach. Orange County organizations favor promoting their services at community events (57 %), distributing flyers in public places (35 %), and using outreach workers (39 %) to spread the word about their services to the Latino community. Only four respondents had advertised in an English or Spanish language newspaper, and only two had used radio or television to get their message out. 16