April 2007 Redmond Business

Cultural Navigators are here to help immigrants
by Pam Mauk

Imagine having this talk with a stranger: “My mother is losing her sense of reality. She gets very angry. We need some help, but we don’t know where to start.”

This would be a difficult conversation for any of us.

Now, picture trying to have this conversation in a foreign language. Imagine trying to convey the specifics of this delicate situation and then to understand the response, follow directions to other agencies, and perhaps map out how to use the public transportation system to get there. You begin to get the idea of how difficult it is for many Eastside immigrants and refugees when, like the rest of us, they need some help.

Their dilemma has been an issue for human services staff for numbers of years. A coalition of interested groups launched ERIC, the Eastside Refugee and Immigrant Coalition, to develop strategies to assist. A directory in five languages and English, Helpful Connections, was first distributed to help.

Now ERIC has launched an exciting pilot project call the Eastside Cultural Navigator Program. Family Resource Center is one of four Eastside locations to host “cultural navigators” who will assist limited and non-English speaking individuals and families in accessing appropriate services and navigating through those service systems. Bilingual and bicultural staff is now assisting in Chinese (Mandarin and Cantonese), Spanish, Vietnamese, and Russian.

Navigators, who are coordinated by the Chinese Information and Resource Center, are found in the Family Resource Center’s administrative offices (Suite A-5 at 16225 NE 87th St.). They can be reached at 425-883-8024.


Pam Mauk is executive director of Family Resource Center. For information on the Center, call 869-6699 or visit www.familyresourcecenter.org (For information and referral to community services, call 211.)

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