Welcome! ¡Bienvenidos! Witamy!

	Multicultural Resource Office History			Interpreters
	Mission			2008 Annual Report
	Advisory Board			Cora Information Booklet
	Supporting Immigrant & Refugee Family Initiative			Gunnison County Resource Guide (In English and Spanish)

Mission

---

• Focus on providing an excellent resource for the Gunnison Valley where education, communication and networking can take place in order to aid in the integration of families into the community.
  
• Provide interpreters as needed for client and community.
  
• Develop, provide, and translate materials.
  
• Provide community with culturally appropriate materials and services.
  
• Provide statistical information for community planning.
  
• Work with community providers to promote culturally diverse, sensitive and affordable health services.
  

We develop, provide and translate materials:
14-24 cents per word, excellent quality. Contact the Multicultural Resource Office for arrangements. Materials we have translated: About the Community/Acerca la comunidad

We provide community with culturally appropriate materials and services:
We work with the community to address and needs that come up. We want to ensure a healthy community where understanding of the laws of the United States as well as cultural norms can be provided. As part of The Colorado Trust Supporting Immigrant and Refugee Initiative(SIRFI) on Immigrant Integration, we hold workshops on Living in America.

Our next Workshop will be on Workers Rights on March 18 in the Family Services Building Conference Room at 6:00 pm. This is a free workshop with Spanish Interpretation provided. Contact Mary Burt at 209-5476 or Candace Sparks at 641-3023.

We provide statistical information for community planning:

• The Office is primarily grant funded with in-kind support from Gunnison county.
  
• We keep excellent statistics for grant reporting here is an example of what we do:

The Multicultural Resource Office, which is part of the Public Health department, is a single entry point for non-English speakers in the community to get information, education, referrals and any type of assistance that is culturally and linguistically appropriate to facilitate a smooth transition in our county.  The Multicultural Resource Office opened its doors in December 2001 and has served over 340 families.  In 2006 we helped 196 families (Table 1), which involve 523 family members of which 215 are children.  In 2006, 65 new families registered with the Multicultural Resource Office and the remaining 131 families had used the office at least once since we opened. 

The monthly number of families ranged between 80 (in January and February) and 107 families (in October and December), with a mean of 94 families/month seeking help (Table 2). 

Statistics: 
The great majority (83.8%) of clients visiting the Multicultural Resource Office in 2007 were from Mexico.  Of those, 30.8% were Cora Indians and 1% Huichol Indians from Nayarit, in the mountains of Western Mexico, and 60.7% were Mexicans (non-Cora or Huichol) from several states.  South and Central American countries were represented by people from Peru, Guatemala, Argentina, and El Salvador (6.3%) and Europe/Asia (0.5%) includes clients from Russia and England.   

For more statistics please look at our most recent newsletter or contact us for more information.

We work with community providers to promote culturally diverse, sensitive and affordable health services:

• Gunnison Valley Hospital has been the pioneer in Gunnison Valley in providing culturally competent services. Before the Office was established in 2001, they were using Interpreters to assist providers of care. They have continually worked with the Community to meet the growing needs and have established their own system of working with Interpreters. This includes requiring Interpreters to be trained at minimum through the Multicultural Resource Office but also encouraging Interpreters to go through the "Bridging the Gap" Medical Interpreter program that is forty hours of training and taught by the Spring Institute of Intercultural Learning of Denver.  This program was brought to Gunnison by a joint effort between Western State College Extended Studies and the SIRFI Immigrant Integration grant. Medical Interpreters must pass a tuberculosis test before going through the Hospital training.
  
• Gunnison Police Department is currently training their own group of Interpreters to be specific to their needs. The Multicultural Resource Office is working with them to provide a group of trained Interpreters who will be available on call. These Interpreters are trained in safety and the workings of the Police Department and are paid for their services.
  
• Public Health provides many services to all people in Gunnison Valley.
  

• The Wee Gatherings group at the Community Center provides Multicultural Interaction, bilingual songs and games. It is offered 4 times a year.
  
• An Education Liaison/Administrative assistant is used as needed at the Community school as an Interpreter and serves as a beneficial mediator between the schools and Multicultural Resource Office.
  
• Family Literacy classes had increased success, since implementation in 2005, a total of 33 adult students and 42 children have gone through the classes with a total of 499 hours.
  
• The first ever Bilingual Resource Guide was created and is going into its second revision. This was collaboration with the School District, the Department of Human Services and the Preschool and funded mostly by the SIRFI grant.  Please see the pdf on this page.
  
• A Cora Informational Booklet was created to help increase understanding of this Indigenous culture; many of whom reside in Gunnison County. Please see the pdf on this page.
  
• The Living in America Workshops are offered four times a year with topics on The Law, Rights and Responsibilities, Financial Systems, Community Resources and Law Enforcement. Colorado Legal Services is a partner in this and has received another grant to increase the number of these workshops and expand the topics to such areas as Domestic Violence and Parental Rights. Due to the success of “The Law and You” workshop (see video clip on this page) a regular “Talk with an Law Enforcement Officer” night every other month is in the works.
  
• The Light Program is a Low Income Sliding Fee scale Voucher that provides the uninsured access to Healthcare. All primary care physicians and practitioners in the Valley are participating in this pilot program. Qualifying clients who meet the Federal Poverty Level guidelines will pay $20-$35 for an Office visit. The goal of this program is to provide access to healthcare without duplicating services offered elsewhere in the Valley. If a client can receive services or financial support from another program, they will be referred to that program first. The Light Program is funded by the Community Services Block grant and private donations. A coordinator of the Program is paid by SIRFI funds and is available every day, Monday thru Friday. Call Public Health at (970) 641-7999 for more information on qualifying. A limited number of vouchers is available.
  

Interpreters

---

We provide interpreters as needed for clients and community. The Office would not be able to exist without the help of our 33 volunteers who collectively speak 12 languages (Cora, Czech, Danish, English, French, German, Hebrew, Portuguese, Slovak, Spanish, and Sign (ASL / PSE)). Our volunteers are trained each year and many are trained in Medical Interpreting. There are opportunities for some contract work with different agencies in town. The Gunnison Valley Hospital and Gunnison Police Department have their own lists of interpreters who are specific to these areas. We help any agency setup, train and maintain a list of qualified Interpreters. For information on working with Interpreters and our Code of Ethics click here.

Selenia Rascón Education Liaison

Thank you to the following volunteers: Elba Alarcón, Rossana Alarcón, Jose  Alarcón, Arden Anderson, Tim Bakken, Monica Billow, Sylvia Bonham, Mary Burt, Cecilia Carreras, Elisa Celestino, Luke Danielson, Xavier Fane, Rolando Fernandez, Ivonne Guzman, Karen Immerso, Stevie Kremer, Kelsey McDonald, Veronica Mendez, Kathryn Merritt, Angelica Mora, Kate Osborne, Marisol  Paniagua, Ellen Pedersen, Laura Rascon, Selenia Rascon, Daniela  Runge, Cynthia Saenz, Marilyn Sandoval, Susan Searles, Alana Solimeo, Kendra Stuckey, Alicia Taggart, Janet Welsh Crossley, and Marketa Zubkova.

Monday

9:00 am - 12:00 noon

Tuesday

1:00 pm - 4:30 pm
Selenia: at Gunnison Community School - 1:00 - 5:00 pm (641-7710)

Wednesday

9:00 am - 12:00 noon
1:00 pm - 4:30 pm
Selenia - 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm

Thursday

1:00 pm - 4:30 pm
Selenia: at Gunnison Community School - 1:00 - 5:00 pm (641-7710)

Friday

By Appointment

Phone:  (970) 641-7999
Fax: (970) 641-8346