Bilingual Web site bridges community language barrier

The city of Bloomington is one step closer to bridging the language gap between English and Spanish citizens with the development of the Indiana's first official bilingual Web site, bloomingtonlatino.net . \nThis site will be maintained by the City of Bloomington's Community and Family Resources Department and will be available to all organizations with access to the Internet. The SBC Foundation sponsored the community resource site through an Indiana Community Technology Program grant awarded to the city last June for $16,870 dollars. \nThe goal of this venture among the city, SBC Ameritech and local community organizations is to address the information needs of the developing Spanish speaking population of Bloomington, as well as the state as a whole. Penni Sims, city communications coordinator, said the site is truly bilingual and not just for community members who speak Spanish. \nThe mission statement of the site is "to create a network of government, community groups, and individuals who can work together to provide support and resources to the Spanish-speaking members of the Bloomington community," according to the site. \nInformation on this site switches from English to Spanish with the click of a mouse. It will allow the resources of the city to be available to the public service offices that work with a community of residents that only understand Spanish. This service will reduce, but not eliminate, the need for interpreters and bilingual staff members in all social Bloomington service offices and organizations, Lillian Cassilas, director of La Casa Latino Cultural Center at IU said.\nSite visitors will find links to information on social, legal, educational and community issues though a navigation bar that controls the content, as well as the language, the person reads on the screen. The opening page gives visitors a chance to learn more about the opportunities to become involved in the various facets of the multicultural community of Bloomington.\n"Mujeres en Conexion," an organization providing support to Spanish-speaking women in the community, is currently featured through an image of the children's camp they hold each year. Hannias Burke-Aguero, one of the organization's founders, recognizes the need for social service and community access to a bilingual information resource.\n"People treat you differently when you don't speak well," Burke-Aguero said. "It is a good step to be paying attention to the needs of the Spanish speaking community." \nMike Marker of SBC Ameritech said he is proud to sponsor the online venture with the Bloomington community. \n"The city of Bloomington took a thoughtful approach and thought about how a person will use this Web site on a daily basis," said Marker. "I think what they are doing will be a model for other communities with growing Hispanic populations." \nSocial service offices in the Bloomington community will use the bilingual site to provide crucial information that was previously unavailable to new Spanish-speaking Bloomington residents. These new residents will now be able to search for jobs, obtain legal advice or enroll their children in school without being hindered by a social service's lack of bilingual staff members. \nCommunity organizations that focus on issues in the Spanish-speaking community of Bloomington now have a unified forum to post information in English and Spanish for service offices and Bloomington community at large. Events, meetings and contact information are now available in a form that links these smaller groups into a large collective of links.\n"We are not only empowering agencies with information and support," said Cassilas, "but Latinos that tap into it are empowering themselves to make decisions."\nCassilas intends to be active through the site and create a link between the campus-based organization and the entire Bloomington community. She believes the goal of bloomingtonlatino.net. is to bring together the Spanish and English speaking communities of Bloomington.\n"This isn't a race issue, this is a social class issue," Cassilas said about the limitations caused by Bloomington's language barrier. \nCassilas said the site will allow new Bloomington residents of all backgrounds to become more independent.\n"You want people to be self-sufficient," she explained, "and we want to give them the comfort level they need to become empowered"