Immigrant Outreach Program / Community Facilitators Volunteer Program, Austin, Texas

This initiative has been identified as a good immigrant integration practice by the NLC. Click here to find all about the other programs!

Austin is the fourth largest city in Texas with a population of 785,850. Nineteen percent of this population is composed of foreign- born individuals.

The Austin Police Department’s Office of the Community Liaison has established several programs to increase and facilitate communication between law enforcement and recent immigrants.

In 2001, the Community Liaison office kicked off its Immigrant Outreach Program geared toward Spanish-speaking immigrants in response to the high rates of robberies reported against foreign born residents. To address this problem, the department recognized it was essential to improve communication between police and recent immigrants. One way to do this was through a hotline, “Tu Voz,” which receives calls and serves as a referral line for the Spanish-speaking immigrant community. Although the Immigrant Outreach Program managed to achieve many goals, it was eventually canceled in 2004. However, the “Tu Voz” program remains in place.

Many of the duties associated with the Immigrant Outreach Program were reassigned to the Community Facilitators Volunteer Program (CFs). The CFs’ objective focuses on removing the Spanish language barrier between Austin police officers and the Spanish-speaking community. The CFs have become a valuable resource to all Austin police officers who do not speak Spanish, as well as to members of the Spanish-speaking public who want to communicate with these officers. Community facilitators are capable of removing communication barriers such as language, behavior, and attitude resulting from cultural differences.

Although the Latino community makes up the majority of all immigrants in Austin, the police department also recognizes that the Asian population represents a fast growing minority group in the city. In 1999, the department hired a Vietnamese employee as a liaison and began outreach efforts to all of Austin’s Asian residents. Similar to the Immigrant Outreach Program geared toward Latinos, this partnership between the Asian immigrant community and the Austin Police Department resulted in bringing together the Asian immigrant community and the city’s police officers. Organized events allow the Asian community to interact with police officers in a non-threatening environment and discuss the issues and challenges relevant to these communities. Additionally, a cultural diversity panel composed of representatives from several Asian groups was formed to present diversity training to all new Austin Police Department Cadets.

For more information about the Community Facilitators Volunteer Program, please contact Patricia Urdiales, community facilitator coordinator, at (512) 974-4461 or patricia.urdiales@ci.austin.tx.us.

For more information about the Asian Outreach Program, please contact Lai Tran, Asian Outreach Program liaison, at (512) 974-4737 or lai.tran@ci.austin.tx.us.