Mayor Vincent C. Gray is calling all youth to participate and share their concerns in a town hall format. Everyone is welcome! Interpretation and translation will be provided. 

October 13, 2012
11:30 am- 2 pm

GALA Theater
3333 14th Street NW,
Washington, DC 20010

If you have questions, please contact the Office on Latino Affairs at
(202) 671-2825 or email ingrid.gutierrez@dc.gov.

You may also contact the DC Youth Advisory Council at (202) 727-7966
or email dcyac@dc.gov.

On Saturday, September 29th, MLOV joined many government agencies and community-based organizations for the 3rd Annual DC African Festival, sponsored by Mayor Gray and the DC Office on African Affairs (OAA). It was a great celebration of DC's culturally vibrant and linguistically diverse African community. In the earlier part of the day, we talked to community members about language access and conducted surveys for our new Rx Health Access Campaign. But to make it a true community-building event, even SMART youth got on their dancin' shoes and joined the crowd...

On Sunday, October 7th, MLOV will be hosting a Guest Talk and Teach-in with Leonila Romero González, as part of a Witness for Peace 2012 Roots of Migration Mid-Atlantic Tour speaking tour. 

Leonila, of the Dimension Pastoral de la Movilidad Humana (Catholic Migrant Ministry) for Mexico and of Las Patronas, works monitoring immigration through Mexico, advocating for migrants, and providing them with humanitarian aid as they make their harrowing travels North. Join us for:

Migrants' Passage and Their Hopes on Their Journey: 
Guest Talk and Teach-in with Leonila Romero

Time: 7:00 - 9:00pm
Date: October 7th 
Location: MLOV Office at La Casa Community Center 
3166 Mount Pleasant Street          
Washington, DC

About the speaker: Leonila Romero González is the Assistant at the Dimensión Pastoral de la Movilidad Humana (i.e. Catholic Migrant Ministry) for Mexico, and a member of the humanitarian organization Las Patronas. For over 15 years, Las Patronas, an organization of women based in Veracruz, Mexico, has provided much-needed sustenance to mostly Central American migrants making the harrowing journey North through Mexico. With the Pastoral (based in Mexico City), Romero works on matters of securing documentation for Central American migrants in Mexico, monitoring activity at migrant shelters in different parts of Mexico, and various aspects of workshops on migration. 

To see "Las Patronas in action," check out the video featured below. 

On Friday, June 15th from 6pm onward, Many Languages One Voice is hosting cross-teach-in with HEARD DC. HEARD DC works to ensure that the deaf are able to access the justice system, with a particular focus on deaf wrongful conviction. They'll inform us of some laws that work to protect the deaf in DC, as well as share anecdotes from their community. 

We'll also share our knowledge of the DC Language Access Act, our struggles with government compliance and some anecdotes from our community. We're hoping that this will demonstrate that equitable access to government systems is not an immigrant issue nor a differently-abled issue, but a social justice issue for all. Get ready to be inspired!

HEARD’s mission is to identify and remove barriers that prevent the deaf from participating in and having equal access to the justice system by enhancing the competence, capacity, and capability of justice professionals to manage language access and ability rights issues; and empowering the Deaf Community through education and advocacy.