Hispanic/Latino Affairs

Who are we?

  • The Office of Hispanic/Latino Affairs (OHLA) reports directly to the Secretary of the Illinois Department of Human Services (DHS).
  • OHLA serves as the Special Assistant for Hispanic/Latino Affairs and immigrant communities to the DHS Executive members of the agency and Program staff throughout the agency.
  • OHLA maintains and updates a current English and Spanish glossary of DHS terminology to facilitate and maintain uniformity in the translations/interpretations.

Partnerships

  • OHLA serves as the primary liaison to government officials and community organizations to develop partnerships and eliminate barriers in the delivery of programs and services to the Hispanic/Latino communities.

Outreach

  • OHLA maintains a statewide database of community and faith based organizations which service the communities throughout the state.
  • OHLA provides community presentations, workshops, seminars. To see current and future events, please see the DHS Event Calendar.

Interpreters

  • OHLA services the entire agency with interpretation services. Many of our DHS community offices have bilingual staff present to assist the Limited English Proficient clients, however, the offices and clients may call our office for a 3-way phone interpreter.
  • The OHLA staff can interpret English/Spanish, Spanish/English calls on the spot.
  • For all non-Spanish calls, OHLA will arrange/schedule an interpreter for the caller immediately or by appointment. Currently, DHS services over 40 languages.

Translation

  • OHLA translates, reviews and approves all translation documents before it goes public.

Recruitment Initiatives

  • Assist the DHS Office of Human Resources and Civil Affairs in the recruitment initiatives designed to provide employment information for Hispanic candidates.
  • Conduct and attend employment fairs with the DHS Human Resources Selection and Recruitment Division.

Annual Quinones Local Office Survey

  • The OHLA staff conducts annual survey/assessment of several of our state-wide DHS service delivery offices.

Migrant Farm workers and Counties

  • We collaborate with the Illinois Migrant Council (IMC) and with IAACOMA in servicing the needs of our migrant farm workers that visit our state year after year.
  • Our current Director is the Vice President of the IAACOMA board which consists of state agencies, community and faith based organizations.

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