Our information bulletins are in both English and Spanish. I (as the PTO president) know who is bi-lingual and use them to make phone calls or return my calls when someone who speaks Spanish needs info. Our membership form has a box for this information. Three members of my executive board are bi-lingual. We are currently being faced with an influx of Chinese-speaking families coming in on a project and I located a Chinese-English speaker to do the same thing. Having a liason that speaks their language helps to include families who may not otherwise be involved. I have also found that things like a "silent auction" and "Yankee gift exchange" usually needs explaining. I am glad to see you recognize your "audience" and are making a way for them to be a part of your group! :cool:
I am a PTO volunteer (for our PreK-8 school) that makes phone calls to solict volunteers for various school activites. How do other schools, especially schools that have ESL (English as a Second Language) programs, handle the communication situation with non-English speaking households? We welcome and want to encourage their participation too.
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