The Los Angeles Post

EDD awarded $9.1 million in federal equity funding for unemployment insurance language access improvements

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Grants will strengthen multilingual services across California

SACRAMENTO (September 12, 2022) —Furthering the Employment Development Department’s effort to strengthen services for California’s diverse communities, the U.S. Department of Labor awarded a $9.1 million grant to continue boosting multilingual accessibility to unemployment insurance benefit programs.

“One in five Californians speak languages other than English and this grant will help us further support these diverse communities,” said EDD Director Nancy Farias. “We will continue to knock down language barriers and help every Californian who needs access to vital benefits.”

The new grant will help fund a major multilingual expansion of EDD’s Unemployment Insurance Online portal (currently available English and Spanish) to add Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean, Tagalog and Armenian.

Grant funding will also help launch three more dedicated UI language phone lines in Armenian, Korean, and Tagalog. Dedicated phone lines are currently available in Spanish, Cantonese, Mandarin, Vietnamese, Teletypewriter, and no cost language interpreters are available in over a hundred other languages.

The expanded dedicated language lines will directly connect more customers to EDD agents who speaks their language. EDD will also add customer satisfaction surveys to these lines to continue finding ways to improve services and supports for multilingual customers.

EDD has been heavily investing in improving language accessibility in its programs and services. The Department launched its Language Access Office in July, and announced a new Language Access Officer. The Department also previously announced it increased its website’s translated content including program information, forms and publications, contact information, and access to interpreters in over 100 languages.

This $9 million grant also supports key multilingual access initiatives EDD is undertaking in alignment with California Governor Gavin Newsom’s directive to improve equity in government services.