Harrison Epstein, Daily Herald file photo
Orem City Center is shown on Wednesday, April 13, 2022.Orem has begun the process of translating city websites, documents and forms into Spanish to be available for Spanish-speaking residents.
Council member Chris Killpack said the city has been increasing efforts to reach out to Hispanic and Latino community members through various outreach methods, with language translation being one of those tools.
He said the city’s outreach is “to help make everybody who comes to our city feel warm and welcome and that we’re neighborly and we care and we want to help them succeed in their homes as families, be safe and secure and successful as business owners.”
Dareli Villegas, a marketing and communications intern with the city, said she has been working on translating city materials, such as documents and social media posts, into Spanish since the beginning of this year.
“We’ve just been kind of trying to implement a lot of things, that way we’re able to connect more with the Latino community,” she said.
One of her projects has been translating the business licensing webpage and related documents to assist small-business owners who may not speak English as a first language.
Villegas, who is Latina and grew up in Orem, said she began seeing a need for more language assistance when she started spotlighting small businesses on the city’s social media pages. She said as she began working with Orem businesses, she saw the need to have city resources, especially for business owners, be available in Spanish.
“It just makes the community feel more comfortable to ask questions, and we, as a city, we just want to make sure that we’re providing these resources. And if Spanish is their preferred language, then I think it’s really, really useful for this community,” she said.
According to U.S. Census Bureau data, as of July 2023, about 17% of Orem’s population was Latino or Hispanic and about 20% of residents spoke a language other than English at home.
Some of the city’s social media posts also have started to have captions in both English and Spanish, such as a recent post on Instagram about spring cleanup.
Villegas said she has been working on translating the membership forms for the Orem Recreation Center and the city website as a whole. She said the end goal is to have all city-related websites and documents translated and possibly offer brochures and flyers in Spanish in the future.
Killpack said he and other council members have received feedback on the need for better outreach to Orem’s Latino community and the council has decided to make this a priority.
Killpack also said they are trying to work with other cities in Utah County to make it a more collaborative approach across the valley.
“We’ve also met with and (are) continuing to want to meet with other city councils so that we have more of a valley approach,” he said. “It’s not just one city, one group. All of us just want to become more connected with resources that can help everybody.”
He pointed to a recent town hall organized by Provo City that was conducted in Spanish and gave Spanish-speaking residents the opportunity to meet the mayor and City Council and ask questions or address concerns.
Killpack said he hopes that Orem can host events similar to Provo’s and he’s excited to see it continue in the neighboring city.
“We appreciate all of our great residents and those that are newer to our area and may not speak English as their primary language. We want to try and help them, support them and let them have opportunities to learn and try and meet them where they are,” he said.
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