ABQ Times

Working with Valley Community Interpreters and with the help of a $45,000 grant from the W. K. Kellogg Foundation, Albuquerque is making city services more accessible to non English-speaking residents as a way to encourage everyone to participate in community life.

Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller says every police officer is now equipped with a cell phone and has access to an over-the-phone interpreter. City departments that do not currently have interpreters will be equipped, as well as trained on how to use interpreters in person and over the phone.

Valley Community Interpreters is a nonprofit that trains community and medical interpreters. They provide language services for meetings, conferences and public hearings, and provide written translations by professional interpreters with the goal of increasing language access in health, social and educational systems in New Mexico.