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Beyond Translation...
Cultivating Hispanic Community Involvement

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The EPA Region 6 office in Dallas, Texas, began the Beyond Translation effort to proactively seek new opportunities to effectively engage the Hispanic community in becoming environmental stewards. EPA realized that, in addition to translating documents into Spanish for outreach and education of the Hispanic community, it was important to improve the quality and availability of environmental and public health information (in English and Spanish) in a manner that is relevant to them. Despite continuing population growth, the Hispanic community is largely under represented in shaping EPA’s national and regional agendas. The Forums were created in order to address the need the Agency has to improve communication and create regional collaborations with the Hispanic community.

On October 17-18, 2006, EPA Region 6 hosted the first Beyond Translation Forum in San Antonio, Texas. It brought together a cross-section of more than 100 Hispanic leaders. Discussions focused on addressing environmental challenges and opportunities, exploring ideas for improving the Agency's service to Hispanics, and enhancing partnerships and networks. As a result of the Forum, five workgroups were formed to address issues that emerged from the discussions as being priority areas in the Hispanic community. These workgroups topics are:

The second forum was held on October 10-12, 2007, in Houston, TX. An additional 100 community leaders and partners were invited to participate to continue the momentum started in 2006. Key goals of this forum included: sharing/transferring best practices addressing environmental health issues; focusing attention on the education and recruitment challenge in the science, technology, engineering and math fields; providing effective mechanisms for the Hispanic community to gain access to contracts, grants and other community resources; and exploring how EPA and other agencies may better serve Hispanic communities. A continuation strategy is being developed and will be posted soon.

Our goal is to continue to serve as a catalyst to foster greater involvement of the Hispanic community in our effort to protect human health and the environment en nuestras comunidades.

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