Our goal is to convene a cohort of regional communications and engagement professionals with a shared desire to improve processes for working with non-English speaking language communities.
A community of practice (CP) is a group of people who share a common concern, a set of problems, or an interest in a topic, and who come together to fulfill both individual and group goals. CP’s meet regularly over an extended period of time to share knowledge and experiences, provide feedback and sound-boarding space, and work together towards common learning goals.
Goals and outcomes
Communities of practice are most effective when there is buy-in and ownership from all members of the group. Rather than prescribing exact learning goals, we enter into this space with the following high-level objectives as a framework:
Intangibles
- Exploring, piloting, and collaboratively troubleshooting processes for equitable communications and engagement
- Collecting success stories and normalizing change and support for language access principles and policies
- Building connections and networks with organizers and community groups to mobilize and activate language access work
- Developing a culture of mentorship to support colleagues in navigating bureaucracy
Tangibles
- A set of shared principles for working together
- A regional shared vocabulary / database of frequently translated phrases
- Infrastructure and network for ongoing support and sharing of resources, and to build and maintain momentum for this work to continue
Ultimately, what we’ll explore is up to you. Our hope is to create an opportunity for like-minded communications and engagement professionals to step forward into a new community of support, to find inspiration from each other, and to allow our time together to shape a new way forward in how we practice language accessibility.
Structure
For our first year together, our core focus will be on knowledge mobilization. This will consist of regular programming, such as panel discussions, keynotes, workshops, and other engagements to bring our community together in discussions about language accessibility. We are currently exploring opportunities to provide professional development credits for relevant membership programs (e.g. CIP, IAP2, PIBC).
We recognize that everyone’s capacity to participate in and contribute to a community of practice varies, whether based on department approval or personal capacity. At this time, we are offering the following options for engagement.
External
The External membership is for those who have limited capacity for longer-term commitment to the program. Members of this group will receive regular communications about upcoming events, including both virtual and in-person opportunities to learn and network with other communications and engagement practitioners.
Core
The CP Core will consist of up to 15 members, and is for those who are interested in opportunities for closer workshopping and active involvement in the development of CP topics and themes. Core members will have first access to registration for in-person events, and will work towards building regional tools and resources for championing language accessibility.
Interested in joining the LAP Community of Practice? Email us at languageaccess@huafoundation.org.