Looking Back
Looking Back on 2020
The Office of Civic Engagement & Immigrant Affairs ( OCEIA ) works with language access liaisons from every department to coordinate services and assistance . Liaisons receive resources , tools and special training on language access laws , data collection , tailoring implementation and service provisioning to clients , and planning .
The 2020 Census , one of the most politically charged and confusing in history , required increased resources and staff time from OCEIA to produce multilingual , multicultural information and inclusive materials that reflected San Francisco ' s diverse populations and languages . Department liaisons played an important role in ensuring that the public was informed and motivated to participate , despite insufficient support and direction from the U . S . Census Bureau .
The COVID-19 pandemic significantly changed the way City departments provided services to the public , and one of the biggest impacts can be seen in language access . From the creation of the COVID-19 Command Center to the pivot to remote Board and Commission meetings , departments had to rethink the way they did business . During this reporting period , language access liaisons played a crucial role as City departments shifted their service models to meet additional needs due to the pandemic . Liaisons worked to ensure that Limited English Proficient ( LEP ) residents and workers continued to have equal access to timely information and opportunities for civic engagement in their languages .
San Francisco Digital Services and Department of Public Health When the Shelter-in-Place order took effect on March 17 , 2020 , one of the biggest challenges was how to keep COVID-19-related translations updated on the SF . gov website . San Francisco Digital Services worked to ensure that online information was written in clear , plain language . The Department of Public Health provided essential COVID-19 information with translations in threshold and other languages .
San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency ( SFMTA ) recognized that the challenges brought on by the pandemic could disproportionately impact LEP community members , including those who may be more reliant on public transportation . To enhance accessibility , SFMTA partnered with ethnic media , expanded multilingual content on its website , and distributed multilingual mailers to inform residents about service change updates and how to take public transportation according to COVID-19 protocols .
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