Councilwoman Julie Won and community advocates celebrated the passage of her legislation to greatly expand language access for immigrant New Yorkers.
Intro 136-B will create a resource guide of community-based organizations to provide translation and interpretation services that are culturally competent, in the correct language and dialect and specific to New York City, while Intro 700-A will require city agencies to translate written materials that they distribute when enforcing city laws or carrying out compliance actions.
Won began drafting the legislation just after she took office in January after lives were lost in her district when warnings about flooding from Hurricane Ida were distributed primarily in English. One day after her bills were passed in the City Council, Won was in Dutch Kills where a second migrant this year took their life at a shelter in Queens due to a lack of linguistically and culturally competent mental health services.
