Found in Translation Inc.
Programs and results
What we aim to solve
Found in Translation creates opportunity at the intersection of two critical problems: Women with valuable linguistic talent, especially minorities, face systemic barriers to meaningful employment such as limited ability to pay for education and lack of childcare. According to a 2018 report, 49% of all families in Boston with children under 18 were headed by a single female householder. Of these families, 48% were living in poverty. At the same time, hospitals in Boston struggle to find the bilingual talent to meet the growing demand for interpreters, leading to costly and fatal medical errors. In 2017, almost 20% of Boston's population over the age of 5 said they spoke English “less than very well” and an estimated 97% of physicians see patients with difficulties understanding English. Found in Translation is the only organization lifting bilingual women in the Boston area out of poverty while providing personnel for equitable healthcare of Limited English Proficient (LEP) patients.
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
Language Access Fellowship
Our Language Access Fellowship seamlessly combines Medical Interpreter Certificate training, job placement, wrap-around supportive services, and ongoing professional development to enable low-income bilingual women to achieve professional success and economic security.
The program is offered at no charge and includes:
- 100+ hours of medical interpreting instruction based on a curriculum developed at the Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Foundation
- Anatomy & Physiology taught by professional clinicians
- Advanced interpreting skills taught by local leaders in the interpreting field
- 30 hours of Language Coaching in small, language-specifc groups under the guidance of an experienced medical interpreter
- Job skills and financial literacy education
- On-site childcare, transportation assistance, and mentoring
- Apprenticeship and supportive job placement with wages from $25 to $45/hour
- Continuing education opportunities both in-house and through scholarships to external trainings
Where we work
Awards
Kip Tiernan Social Justice Fellowship 2011
Rosie's Place
Advancement Award 2013
Boston Club
Echoing Green Global Fellowship 2013
Echoing Green
Innovation Award 2013
Small Business Association of New England
World's Top 25 Educational Initiatives for Women & Girls 2012
Women Deliver
World's Top 25 Social Enterprises for Women & Girls 2013
Women Deliver
Finalist 2014
MassChallenge
Innovator for Social Justice Prize 2015
Grinnell College
Richard Cornuelle Social Entrepreneurship Award 2015
Manhattan Institute
Emerging Leaders Fund 2015
Claneil Foundation
30 Under 30 Social Entrepreneurs 2016
Forbes
40 Under 40 2016
Chronicles of Philanthropy
Fellowship 2017
Vital Voices
Women's Accelerator 2017
New Profit
Community Advocacy Award 2017
Eastern Bank
Fellowship for New Americans 2017
Paul and Daisy Soros
Roslyn S. Jaffe Award 2017
Ascena Foundation
Nonprofit Creator Award 2018
WeWork
Bridgebuilder Challenge Top Idea 2018
OpenIDEO/GHR Foundation
People's Voice Award Finalist 2019
DVF Family Foundation
Excellence in Innovation Award Finalist 2019
Massachusetts Nonprofit Network
Project Innovation Award 2020
NBCUniversal
Catalyst Program 2021
Stand Together Foundation
Excellence in Innovation Award 2021
Massachusetts Nonprofit Network
Essential Agent of Change Award 2021
MA Essentials of Childhood
Language Access Champion 2022
National Council on Interpreting in Healthcare
Videos
Our results
How does this organization measure their results? It's a hard question but an important one.
Average hourly wage of clients who became employed after job skills training
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Adults, Women and girls, Economically disadvantaged people, Immigrants and migrants, Unemployed people
Related Program
Language Access Fellowship
Type of Metric
Outcome - describing the effects on people or issues
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
This data covers average hourly wages for each Class one year after our training. 2022 data represents 3month data from our Spring Class of 2022. (There was no class of 2020.)
Number of clients who complete job skills training
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Adults, Women and girls, Economically disadvantaged people, Immigrants and migrants, Unemployed people
Related Program
Language Access Fellowship
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Holding steady
Context Notes
Not included are alumnae from previous years returning to retake the training, or accepted students who started but did not finish in that year. 2022 data reflects both the spring and fall classes.
Our Sustainable Development Goals
Learn more about Sustainable Development Goals.
Goals & Strategy
Learn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.
Charting impact
Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.
What is the organization aiming to accomplish?
Our organizational goal is to tip the scales of opportunity across gender and ethnicity by creating an economic mobility portal that permanently upgrades the employment and earning capacity of bilingual women through a strength-based approach. In doing so, we will empower immigrant women to transform their most stigmatized characteristics—their linguistic and cultural background—from a barrier to their greatest asset in the workforce. In partnership with the women we serve, we have upgraded and improved our model every year since our launch, resulting in a best-in-class workforce development program that is high-impact, replicable, and scalable.
The health and economic devastation of the COVID-19 pandemic created unprecedented and urgent need for both trained medical interpreters and workforce development opportunities for immigrant communities. These effects will be felt for many years to come. The adaptation we are making to current conditions, both programmatically and operationally, will position us to meet the needs of the coming decade as a stronger, more efficient and scalable organization. Our ten-year plan starts with converting our award-winning Medical Interpreter Certificate Training program to a fully virtual format and helping alumnae navigate the changing interpreting job market. We will then leverage our adapted, technology-enabled program model for growth, providing training and job placement to more interpreters, and life-saving language access services to more patients in Boston and beyond.
The structural changes we are making for our mission and impact to survive will fast-track us toward growth and bigger impact. As a technology-enabled organization, we offer more flexible and accessible programming, our operations are more agile and replicable, and we are no longer bound by the geographic constraints of our original in-person model. Over the next decade, this will enable us to expand to additional sites locally, regionally and nationally, and to collaborate more effectively with partner nonprofits to offer our training and job placement to specific populations, e.g. Indigenous language interpreters.
Approximately 20% of the US population is bilingual, and 8% is Limited English-Proficient. Found in Translation has found a way to simultaneously serve these two growing and interdependent populations. At scale, we have the potential to make a significant and permanent shift in the way economic opportunity and health equity are distributed across race, gender, and ethnicity.
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
Our innovative and award-winning approach represents a paradigm-shift in thinking about workforce development: we see that some of the most highly-demanded skills exist in a population that is often overlooked (poor and homeless immigrant women) because of prejudice and systemic barriers. By training low-income and homeless bilingual women as professional medical interpreters, we tilt the scales of economic opportunity across race, ethnicity, and gender. As medical interpreters our graduates advance equality in healthcare access, improve patient outcomes, and save lives in their communities. Further, they reduce healthcare costs and save taxpayer dollars by preventing medical errors and inefficiencies.
Found in Translation’s flagship Language Access Fellowship Medical Interpreter Certificate Training and Job Placement program integrates Medical Interpreter Certificate training, professional development, job placement, and holistic support, enabling women to succeed in the program and in the interpreting profession. The Fellowship program includes:
Medical Interpreter Certificate Training: Designed for low-income women, the course includes common-sense support (on-site childcare and transportation assistance) 140+ hours of medical interpreting instruction, tech literacy, job readiness training, mentoring, and a commitment to each participant to address any barrier in the way of her success.
Career Advancement: Provides all alumnae with year-round support job searching,
advanced skill building, and accessing next-level credentials in the interpreting industry. Our Alumnae Association meets monthly to engage with and provide professional development
to our graduates. Graduates share job-hunting knowledge known only to insiders of the field,
and recommend each other to their own employers.
Interpreter services: Employs graduates to fulfill interpreter requests from community partners, providing high quality language access to communities across Boston. Alumnae earn high wages quickly, and improve their career prospects by developing the experience needed to access stable hospital jobs. Interpreters are paid $25 - $45 per hour.
Teacher Training Track: Supports graduates with ambitions to teach interpreting, and works to anticipate our need for more instructors in the future. 90% of current faculty are our own graduates. To our knowledge, we are the only interpreter training program that has formalized this process.
Our Language Access Fellowship program transforms participants into agents of change, helping them to move from the margins of society into positions that enable them to increase their quality of life, achieve economic security and give back to their own communities.
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
Each year we harness the strength of 10 FT employees, ~25 contractors and part-time employees, and over 50 volunteers. Our curriculum is taught by professionals in the medical and interpreting fields - the majority of whom are now our own alumnae. In 2021, 90% of our faculty were our own graduates. These instructors guide our students through lessons on interpreter skills, anatomy & physiology, and language-specific coaching.
We have created a self-nourishing community where new interpreters enter our program seeing living examples of where their career might take them. Volunteers support the success of our participants through career coaching and professional development, childcare, and guest lecturing. Our alumnae are our greatest resource in guiding participants at the beginning of their interpreting journeys - serving as mentors, role models, and living examples for new graduates of where their careers will take them in 1, 3, 5 or 8+ years.
Found in Translation's board of directors brings technical expertise in program design, evaluation and impact measurement and cultural competency. Our work collaborates with the local medical and business communities, as well as the nonprofit and social service sectors. Partners include: Boston Medical Center, Cambridge Health Alliance, Cross Cultural Communications, Tech Goes Home, and more.
Found in Translation measures changes collects data on graduates’ economic and professional position at intake, 3 months, 6 months, and annually post-graduation. Performance indicators include per-hour and per-month earnings, total household income, housing stability, and utilization of public assistance. We track details about employment status-- whether graduates are employed full-time, part-time, freelance, or per-diem; whether they are working as interpreters, in a related field, or in an unrelated job; whether they are building their careers via internships, volunteering, and networking, etc. To assess the number of patients served by interpreters, we evaluate survey data provided by working alumnae and data from our own in-house interpreting services. We also invite participants to give feedback on their experience, and adjust programming accordingly. Our program as it is today is a co-creation in partnership with the women we serve.
Found in Translation's proven record of success has earned us recognition as one of the most promising emerging economic mobility organizations in the country.
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
Found in Translation is the only organization that bridges economic mobility for low-income bilingual women with healthcare access for LEP patients serving the Boston area, and our results show that we are the best organization to carry out this work. Found in Translation has issued certificates in 37 different languages, with 62% working as interpreters or in a related field within one year of earning their certificates. Of those who were unemployed during the training, 70% found work after one year. Today, each Found in Translation alumna earns, on average, $13,000 more per year than she did before our program. Over ten years of our program, this translates to $15 million in additional income for the communities we serve. Found in Translation alumnae are currently providing language access to an estimated 35,000 patients annually through their work at Boston hospitals and as freelance or staff interpreters.
By maintaining an ongoing relationship with our graduates, and inviting their valuable input in our program design, we have co-created a workforce development program that addresses the complex needs of the women we serve. Our model of long term engagement with and among our alumnae network nurtures a growing pool of quality interpreters in the Boston area—professionals demonstrably dedicated to continuing education, with a long term commitment to the field.
Our impact also reaches beyond the individual to their families and communities. As a vibrant, highly-skilled and engaged community, our interpreters accelerate and amplify each other’s success. Our graduates are now interpreting at all of the state’s finest hospitals, including Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Mass General, and Tufts Medical Center. Some have managerial and hiring power, and open new doors for their peers. Many are working at interpreting agencies, which provide the flexibility of freelance/per-diem work. Employment with remote interpreting has allowed our graduates to work from home and maintain financial security through life changes such as a new baby, taking care of a relative, or experiencing disability or illness. Some have branched out into legal interpreting, while others have used their training to advance to non-interpreting positions in medical settings that require bilingual skills.
How we listen
Seeking feedback from people served makes programs more responsive and effective. Here’s how this organization is listening.
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How is your organization using feedback from the people you serve?
To identify and remedy poor client service experiences, To identify bright spots and enhance positive service experiences, To make fundamental changes to our programs and/or operations, To inform the development of new programs/projects, To identify where we are less inclusive or equitable across demographic groups, To strengthen relationships with the people we serve, To understand people's needs and how we can help them achieve their goals
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Which of the following feedback practices does your organization routinely carry out?
We collect feedback from the people we serve at least annually, We aim to collect feedback from as many people we serve as possible, We take steps to ensure people feel comfortable being honest with us, We look for patterns in feedback based on demographics (e.g., race, age, gender, etc.), We look for patterns in feedback based on people’s interactions with us (e.g., site, frequency of service, etc.), We engage the people who provide feedback in looking for ways we can improve in response, We act on the feedback we receive, We tell the people who gave us feedback how we acted on their feedback, We ask the people who gave us feedback how well they think we responded
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What challenges does the organization face when collecting feedback?
It is difficult to get the people we serve to respond to requests for feedback, The people we serve tell us they find data collection burdensome, Staff find it hard to prioritize feedback collection and review due to lack of time
Financials
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Operations
The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.
Connect with nonprofit leaders
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- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
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Connect with nonprofit leaders
SubscribeBuild relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Try a low commitment monthly plan today.
- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.
Found in Translation Inc.
Board of directorsas of 10/16/2024
Renee Cammarata Hamilton
Dr. Eric Hardt
Boston Medical Center (retired)
Gaye Gentes
CCCS/Embracing Culture
Renee Cammarata Hamilton
Cambridge Health Alliance
Sarah Lukas
Edelstein & Co., LLP (retired)
Mark Stewart
Board leadership practices
GuideStar worked with BoardSource, the national leader in nonprofit board leadership and governance, to create this section.
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Board orientation and education
Does the board conduct a formal orientation for new board members and require all board members to sign a written agreement regarding their roles, responsibilities, and expectations? Yes -
CEO oversight
Has the board conducted a formal, written assessment of the chief executive within the past year ? Yes -
Board composition
Does the board ensure an inclusive board member recruitment process that results in diversity of thought and leadership? Yes
Organizational demographics
Who works and leads organizations that serve our diverse communities? Candid partnered with CHANGE Philanthropy on this demographic section.
Leadership
No data
Race & ethnicity
Gender identity
Transgender Identity
Sexual orientation
Disability
We do not display disability information for organizations with fewer than 15 staff.