From Translation to Trust: Strengthening Language Access for Survivors
Two individuals having a conversation
Dallas is one of the most diverse cities in the United States, shaped by a wide range of cultures, languages, and migration histories. Across the Dallas–Fort Worth area, people come from all over the world, bringing resilience, strength, and deep community ties with them. This diversity is one of our region’s greatest assets. It also creates real challenges when it comes to accessing critical services, especially for survivors of sexual violence.
According to the Vera Institute of Justice (2020), approximately 1.3 million immigrants live in Dallas, representing about 18 percent of the city’s population. Many have lived in the United States for more than ten years. Across the broader DFW metroplex, immigrants and refugees make up a significant portion of the workforce, often employed in essential industries that keep our communities running.
These realities matter. A large portion of our community speaks a language other than English at home, faces barriers tied to immigration status, or is navigating systems that may feel confusing, intimidating, or unsafe. All of this shapes whether survivors feel able to reach out for help in the first place.
For the Dallas Area Rape Crisis Center (DARCC), this diversity shows up in our work every day. Survivors from immigrant and refugee backgrounds may carry fear related to language barriers, uncertainty about how medical or legal systems work, or concern that seeking help could affect their immigration status or family stability. In these moments, language access is not a “nice to have.” It is central to safety, choice, and access to care.
Language is not just about comfort. It is about safety, autonomy, and dignity.
Why Language Is Safety, Not Just Comfort
The National Sexual Violence Resource Center identifies language access as a core part of survivor-centered services. Language justice recognizes that survivors have the right to communicate in the language that feels most natural and accessible to them, especially during moments of crisis.
In a region like North Texas, where immigrants make up nearly one in four workers in Dallas and participate in the labor force at high rates, language access shapes whether survivors can:
Share what happened without fear of being misunderstood
Understand medical, legal, and advocacy information
Make informed choices about reporting, care, and next steps
Engage with services without experiencing additional harm
When we say services are “for everyone,” but survivors cannot fully access them in their own language, access does not truly exist.
Beyond Translating Brochures
Translated flyers, websites, and materials matter. For many survivors, they are the first sign that help might be available at all. But translation alone is not a complete language access strategy.
Latine-led organizations working in domestic and sexual violence prevention consistently remind us that language access is deeply connected to trust, culture, and relationships. Organizations such as Latinos in Virginia Empowerment Center and Esperanza United emphasize that survivors are more likely to seek support when advocates speak their language, understand cultural context, and show up consistently in community spaces, not just in offices, hospitals, or courtrooms.
This is not limited to Spanish or to Latine communities. Refugee and immigrant survivors across languages may be navigating unfamiliar systems, limited literacy in any language, or fear tied to immigration status or family separation. For these survivors, language access must be flexible, proactive, and survivor-led.
Moving beyond the brochure means asking ourselves harder, more practical questions, such as:
Will someone answer the hotline in a survivor’s preferred language, even late at night?
Do we have reliable access to certified interpreters for hospital exams, police reports, and court accompaniment?
Are interpreters trained in confidentiality and trauma-informed care?
Are partnerships with culturally specific and refugee-serving organizations ongoing and reciprocal, rather than one-time outreach efforts?
These questions help determine whether systems truly support survivors or unintentionally create additional barriers.
Small Shifts You Can Start Today
Whether you are an advocate, community partner, or survivor-serving professional, there are steps you can take right now to strengthen language access.
Review your materials
Look closely at your website, intake forms, and outreach materials in every language you offer. Are they clear and human, or filled with legal or clinical jargon? Do they reflect how people in your community actually talk about safety, harm, and support?
Map your relationships
Identify immigrant-, refugee-, and Latine-led organizations, faith communities, clinics, schools, and mutual aid groups in your area. Where are you already connected? Where could trust be built over time through consistent presence and partnership?
Create a language access plan
Decide before a survivor needs support how interpretation will be provided. If no one on staff speaks a survivor’s language, is there a clear, trauma-informed plan for securing certified interpreters quickly and confidentially?
Listen to survivors and advocates
Ask what has helped, what has caused harm, and what needs to change. Then let those insights guide policy, practice, and outreach. Language access is strongest when it is shaped by lived experience, not assumptions.
A Question for Systems to Hold
If a survivor reaches out to your organization through a hotline, hospital, or advocacy appointment and no one on your team speaks their language, what happens next? Is there a plan in place, or does access depend on chance?
Join Us January 28
On January 28, DARCC will host a Lunch and Learn with Patricia B. Emmanuelli of Esperanza United, Senior Manager of Community Health and Violence Prevention. Her presentation will build on the themes in this article by exploring:
The role of community outreach in supporting survivors across languages and cultures
How to learn about community customs and values without stereotyping
Practical tools for improving language access during forensic exams and other critical interactions, including the use of certified interpreters and appropriate accompaniment
If these reflections resonate with what you see in your own work or community, we invite you to join us. Together, we can build a North Texas where language is part of safety, not a barrier to it.
Click here to register.
Sources
Vera Institute of Justice. (2020). Profile of the foreign-born population in Dallas, Texas.
National Sexual Violence Resource Center. (2020). Language access and survivor-centered services.
Latinos in Virginia Empowerment Center. (2023). Culturally responsive advocacy and language access.
Esperanza United. (n.d.). Community-centered approaches to supporting survivors.