Social Services by Sandra Rosenstiel
If you volunteer at a social service agency in your community, it is likely that you will use Spanish more for meeting critical needs than social ones. Nevertheless, don't underestimate the importance of a friendly greeting and general chit-chat as you help clients. Your knowledge of Spanish will enable you to be even more effective in understanding and resolving problems of Spanish-speaking applicants for social services.
As a Spanish speaker, you can make a significant difference in evaluating and meeting the needs of Hispanic clients for social services.
One of the primary resources you might wish to have in Spanish is a comprehensive list of emergency numbers as well as contact information for all your community services. You can adapt the following as you make up your own list of resources:
emergencias: 911 (911 emergency)
la policía (police)
los bomberos (fire department)
el refugio (shelter)
el centro de ancianos (senior center)
el centro juvenil (youth center)
el centro de beneficencia (charity center)
el comedor de beneficencia (charity kitchen)
el centro de apoyo económico (economic aid)
el centro de apoyo familiar (family aid)
You can also list a variety of services under the heading Agencia, for example:
La Agencia de Servicios Legales (Legal Aid)
La Agencia para Vivienda Asequible (Affordable Housing)
La Agencia para Servicios Infantiles (Child Services)
La Agencia de Salud Pública (Public Health)
La Agencia de Salud Mental (Mental Health)
La Agencia para Planificación Familiar (Family Planning)
It's important that you investigate and practice explaining in Spanish where each agency is located, its hours, what services are available, what documents are required, and what limitations there may be so you can direct your clients to the organization most suited to their specific needs.
Keep in mind that undocumented residents, in particular, may be very reluctant to take advantage of services designed to help them. Ease their fears by explaining that their residency status will not be questioned when they apply for many of these social services.
Another problematic area for newcomers is managing money. You might start by explaining the various names for bills (billetes) and coins (monedas), which can be quite confusing. For example:
un centavo: one cent, a penny
cinco centavos: five cents, a nickle
diez centavos: ten cents, a dime
veinticinco centavos: twenty-five cents, a quarter
cincuenta centavos: fifty cents, a half dollar
un dólar: a dollar, a buck
cinco dólares: five dollars, five bucks, a fiver
diez dólares: ten dollars, ten bucks, a ten
veinte dólares: twenty dollars, twenty bucks, a twenty
cincuenta dólares: fifty dollars, fifty bucks, a fifty
cien dólares: a hundred dollars, one hundred dollars, a hundred bucks, a hundred
Role-play with newcomers how prices are written and stated so when they hear something like “That's a buck twenty,” they will understand that it means: un dólar y veinte centavos. Additionally, someone accustomed to a cash economy might be overwhelmed by the payment options available in the United States For example, you can pay:
en efectivo (by cash)
con tarjeta de crédito (with a credit card)
con tarjeta de débito (with a debit card)
con cheque personal (with a personal check)
con un cheque certificado (with a certified, cashier's check)
con giro postal (with a postal money order)
en línea, electrónicamente (online, electronically)
You'll want to investigate and practice explaining the details for each form of payment, including information about additional costs (costos adicionales), special fees (cargos especiales), and scheduling and recording payments. You might also want to provide information about loans (présta-mos) and how to get them, especially if your organization offers emergency loans (préstamos de emergencia).
