Telephonic Interpretation Services

My item of interest is on a laminated sheet we received in a training at my placement at Evanston Township High School. The paper contains a list of all of the languages in which telephonic interpretation services are provided through a program called CCIS, or Cross Cultural Interpretation Services which is offered at Heartland Alliance. This service allows teachers, staff, and student service workers to be able to provide services to students and their families even if they do not speak English. All you have to do is call the number provided at the top of the paper and provide the access code and then request what language you need interpretation services in. I blocked out the access code because that one is specific to Evanston Township High School and cannot be shared but every school should have their own access code. I am not sure if all schools have this service but I do believe that it is a very helpful resource and many student service providers at ETHS have used it multiple times this year. I believe that the cross cultural interpretation services are relevant to school social work because if you work in a diverse school like I do you are going to need to collaborate with the family and they may not always speak English. Especially in a city like Chicago where there are so many different people it is important for there to be one than one way to communicate with families. The school social work model directly speaks to their being a school-family-community link as well as providing effective services. How can this be done if you cannot communicate with the family because neither you nor anyone speaks the same language? CCIS is also a good resource because it provides a variety of different language interpreters and not just some of the more predominant spoken languages and so it can be used with a multitude of populations.