What is Ottawa Language Access?
Ottawa Language Access (OLA) was established in 2015 to bridge the language gap that exists between health care providers and their service recipients. OLA provides interpretation and non-specialized translation to programs and entities in Ottawa whose clients require services in a language other than English.
Initially, OLA was fully funded by the Champlain Local Health Integration Network (LHIN). However, we soon experienced a greater demand than our funds could handle. We had to think creatively about how to sustain this invaluable service. We connected with the Centre for Social Enterprise Development (CSED) who supported us in developing a feasible business plan to remodel OLA as a social enterprise. We needed to establish a model to help us grow and scale services while maintaining the high quality of interpretation service we provided in the community. Thus, OLA Social Enterprise was born in January 2019, offering services to numerous organizations across the Ottawa region and its surrounding area ever since.
What does OLA offer?
OLA offers pre-scheduled and on-demand language interpretation services, as well as non-specialized document translation. We know language barriers affect many newcomers in different areas of life. However, these barriers in the healthcare sector can lead to safety and compliance issues. Therefore, our primary aim has been to offer OLA interpretation services to health care agencies and programs so that they can provide linguistically appropriate services to their clients. By providing access to professionally trained interpreters, we aim to facilitate accessible and equitable mental and physical health care services in the Champlain region.
OLA is in a unique position because we are already embedded within the healthcare sector–our parent organization is Somerset West Community Health Centre (SWCHC). Therefore, we understand and can foresee the needs and challenges that may come up for service providers and recipients. OLA believes in a client-centered approach and offers support to agencies to ensure that we make a positive impact in the community.
What is the inspiration behind OLA?
We hear on a daily basis the stories of things gone wrong when individuals could not communicate: people prescribed wrong medications, treatment plans, or diagnosed with the wrong illness. These can have a serious impact on one’s health. Our team at OLA is driven to avoid such issues by providing the aid of professional language interpretation.
Our ethos is founded on the belief that “prevention is better than cure.” To this end, language interpreters play an integral role in bridging the communication gap, enabling access to culturally appropriate services.
What is OLA’s mission?
OLA’s mission is to increase access to equitable linguistic support across the health sector in and around the Ottawa region. OLA has already proven its ability to influence all community health centers in Ottawa to commit to using only professionally trained interpreters. We hope to continue to influence other health care practitioners to do the same.
“If you talk to a man in a language he understands,
that goes to his head.
If you talk to him in his language,
that goes to his heart.”
– Nelson Mandela –
What is OLA most proud of?
We are proud of the support that we have been able to extend to our end service recipients: individuals and families in the Champlain region who require interpretation to communicate with their mental and physical health care providers.
We are also proud of our ability to hire and employ health interpreters, many of whom are newcomers themselves and who have a background in health care. Our interpreters come from various medical backgrounds (physicians, surgeons, neurologists, speech pathologists, etc.) who because of licensing and certification barriers have taken a new career path upon arriving in Ottawa. These interpreters play a vital role and are part of the health care team in a different capacity than what they may have practiced in their countries of origin. Our interpreters are passionate about what they do and have expressed how rewarding it is for them to work with OLA.
How can I or my agency sign up for OLA services?
If you provide services to individuals who require interpretation support, please email ola@swchc.on.ca to learn more about OLA’s interpretation services.
Want to join our team as a professional interpreter? Click here to learn more on how to apply.
OLA’s story was profiled by the Centre for Social Enterprise Development (CSED) in September 2019 and can also be found here. We are also featured on CSED’s Social Enterprise directory, which you can access by clicking here.
