Fellows mentioned in this story: Josie Howard, Cohort VIII

From Civil Beat:

When the pandemic hit in 2020, the Hawai‘i unemployment office was flooded with calls from thousands of workers who suddenly found themselves without a paycheck. People had to wait hours for a representative to help with their claim. But workers who didn’t speak English well or at all faced another hurdle: communicating with staffers who finally answered their calls.

Honolulu resident and Chuukese interpreter Philios Uruman recalled volunteering countless hours on the phone to help his fellow Micronesian workers access much-needed unemployment payments.

It was frustrating and, he later learned, should have been avoidable. As a state agency, the unemployment office is required to provide meaningful access to services for non-English speaking communities that it serves. The office’s failure to do so in 2020 resulted in five federal civil rights complaints and a 2021 settlement agreement.

Now, the state auditor found the Office of Language Access, which is tasked with ensuring non-English people get access to state services, has largely failed to fulfill the vision the Legislature set out for it when creating the office in 2006.

Continue reading at civilbeat.org.