11:30AM-1:30PM on April 18, 2024
Risser’s Historic Schoolhouse, Elizabethtown PA
In 2023, Safe Communities, with the support of the Lancaster Law Foundation and the Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts (AOPC), developed a program to assist native Pennsylvania Dutch speakers from the Plain Communities to become certified court interpreters.
History was made when ten members of the Plain community passed the certification examination after participating in the preparatory study group we designed so that women, who often have no more than an eighth-grade education, could pass a college-level exam. Before this, the court system in Pennsylvania did not have a single native speaker of PA Dutch to interpret for young Amish children alleged to have been sexually abused, or Amish adults moving through the system for whom English was a second language and and not always well understood. We found this unacceptable because Pennsylvania is home to the nations’ largest concentration of Amish at 89,765. Nearly half (44,315) live in the Lancaster settlement. (Source: Amish Studies, the Young Center, Elizabethtown College).
Now, young Amish children who are alleged to have been abused can have a culturally competent native PA Dutch speaker interpret for them at a Child Advocacy Clinic. Many children do not learn English until around third grade. It also means that adults who come into contact with the court system now have the opportunity to have an interpreter fluent in their mother tongue, which is the primary spoken language in Lancaster County’s Amish and Old Order Mennonite homes.
History was made when ten members of the Plain community passed the certification examination after participating in the preparatory study group we designed so that women, who often have no more than an eighth-grade education, could pass a college-level exam. Before this, the court system in Pennsylvania did not have a single native speaker of PA Dutch to interpret for young Amish children alleged to have been sexually abused, or Amish adults moving through the system for whom English was a second language and and not always well understood. We found this unacceptable because Pennsylvania is home to the nations’ largest concentration of Amish at 89,765. Nearly half (44,315) live in the Lancaster settlement. (Source: Amish Studies, the Young Center, Elizabethtown College).
Now, young Amish children who are alleged to have been abused can have a culturally competent native PA Dutch speaker interpret for them at a Child Advocacy Clinic. Many children do not learn English until around third grade. It also means that adults who come into contact with the court system now have the opportunity to have an interpreter fluent in their mother tongue, which is the primary spoken language in Lancaster County’s Amish and Old Order Mennonite homes.
join us on APril 18th at 11:30AM-1:30PM
Safe Communities will offer the study circles again for those who want to take the exam in 2024, which will increase the number of certified interpreters, many of which will also interpret for non-court related agencies that accept court certifications as credentials,
The 2024 kickoff will be an Introductory Workshop on April 18 at the Historic Schoolhouse at Rissers Mennonite Church, 8360 Elizabethtown Road, Elizabethtown PA 17022 from 11:30 AM to 1:30 PM. A light lunch will be served. A representative from the Administrative Office of PA Courts (AOPC) will explain what it means to be a certified court interpreter, what the steps are in the process, and how study circles will help you prepare for the written exam.
If you are a native speaker interested in learning how to become a certified interpreter, please register for the workshop by calling Safe Communities at 717-560-9989 and leave a message with your name/address/phone number to say you will intend the Introductory Workshop or email your contact information to info@safecommunitiespa.org with “Interpreter Workshop” in the subject line.
If you have questions about the certification, feel free to email Mary Provencal-Fogarty at AOPC at interpreterprogram@pacourts.us or call 215-560-6300 ex. 6268.
The 2024 kickoff will be an Introductory Workshop on April 18 at the Historic Schoolhouse at Rissers Mennonite Church, 8360 Elizabethtown Road, Elizabethtown PA 17022 from 11:30 AM to 1:30 PM. A light lunch will be served. A representative from the Administrative Office of PA Courts (AOPC) will explain what it means to be a certified court interpreter, what the steps are in the process, and how study circles will help you prepare for the written exam.
If you are a native speaker interested in learning how to become a certified interpreter, please register for the workshop by calling Safe Communities at 717-560-9989 and leave a message with your name/address/phone number to say you will intend the Introductory Workshop or email your contact information to info@safecommunitiespa.org with “Interpreter Workshop” in the subject line.
If you have questions about the certification, feel free to email Mary Provencal-Fogarty at AOPC at interpreterprogram@pacourts.us or call 215-560-6300 ex. 6268.