Public Involvement for Populations with Limited English Proficiency

1
Public Involvement for Populations with Limited
English Proficiency

• Cathy Kendall, AICP
• Environmental Specialist

2
A Growing Need As Part of Effective Outreach

• Our Communities are becoming more culturally
  diverse
• No where more so than in Florida
• (Creole for Biscayne Boulevard Construction
  Project from the FDOT Project website)

3
Floridas Diverse Population

• Miami-Dade County is the only county in the U.S.
  where more than half the residents are
  foreign-born.
• Immigrant population one of the key factors
  driving the Floridas population growth
• Even more rural, traditionally non-diverse areas
  such as Pasco County have seen growth rate of
  foreign-born residents increase at nearly twice
  the rate of the overall growth
• (St. Pete Times 9/3/03 on U.S. Census Bureau
  survey)

4
Floridas Immigrant Population

• Largest groups come from Cuba, Mexico, Columbia,
  Haiti, Nicaragua and Jamaica
• Pocket populations include
• ? Large vietnamese population in Orlando area
• ? Estimated 40,000 Mayans from Guatemala in
  Palm Beach County

5
ETHNIC AND CULTURAL ISSUES

• Non-English speaking populations
• Low-literacy populations
• Visually or Physically impaired (particularly
  from large elderly population)
• Fear of Government due to legal status or from
  past experiences

6
Our Role in Transportation

• Executive Order 13166 Improving Access to
  Services for Persons with Limited English
  Proficiency
• Requires outreach to people of limited English
  Proficiency

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How Do We Do This?

• Know your area
• Target your Public Involvement Program to the
  Unique Needs of the area

8
v Highly RecommendedPublication No.
FHWA-HEP-06-009

9
Know Your Area

• Discover the ethnic cultural issues of the area

• DEFINITIONS FOR SNOWBIRDS
• Yall Contraction for You All. Used as
  a polite term of inclusion for everyone in a
  group.
• Sweet Tea Iced Tea that is sweetened while it
  is still warm so the sugar dissolves.

10
Good Sources

• U.S. Census provides minority population and
  education statistics (http//www.census.gov)
• National Institute for Literacys, The State of
  Literacy in America... (http//www.nces.ed.gov/na
  al)
• Modern Language Association top 30 languages by
  area (http//www.mla.org)

11
Floridas Environmental Screening Tool

• Part of our ETDM Streamlining process
• Allows online review of resources in a project
  area
• Includes GIS analysis of census information
  (www.fla-etat.org)

12
Social Screen for I-395, Miami
13
Target Your Public Involvement Program to the Area

• Type of Outreach
• Location
• Time of Day
• Methods/strategies
• Enticements

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Type of Outreach

• Meetings many types
• Interviews door-to-door, kiosk in mall or at
  community events
• Media seek local or ethnic newspaper or
  programs/ stations on TV, radio also use of
  call-in shows
• Televise MPO meetings and have call-in segment on
  the agenda (Collier MPO)

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Location

• Make it convenient to local area perhaps at a
  community center
• Consider transit availability
• Nonthreatening to that group
• Churches denominational issues
• Schools now restricted in Florida

16
Methods/Strategies

• Limit written materials
• Bilingual Materials
• Use Interpreters Big benefit to having a
  diverse staff!
• Hire locals to interview residents
• Trusted Local Authority announces public
  involvement program for project

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Enticements

• Food purchase from local food establishments
• Childcare
• Free parking stamp ticket of participants or
  bag nearby meters

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Caution!

• Do not rely on surnames for language assumptions
• Segment outreach needed when groups are
  adversarial
• Use professionals to proof translations words
  have different meanings in different dialects
• Cultural preferences in how meetings proceed

19
For Effective Outreach to PLEPs

• Know your area
• Target your public involvement program to the
  unique needs of that particular area

20

Thank You!

• Cathy Kendall, AICP
• Environmental Specialist
• Special thanks to FDOTs Rusty Ennemoser Gwen
  Pipkin Cathy Owen Elizabeth Perez and
• Alicia Gonzalez, Media Relations Group, LLC