National Leadership Training a Success!

Early in 2011, the National Task Force on Trilingual Interpreting (English/Spanish/ASL) articulated the need for leadership training. On July 21 – 23, 2011 in Atlanta GA, eleven trilingual interpreters and two Deaf Latinos came together for three days of leadership skill building. The participants kicked off the training with a group dinner at the RID Conference. The following day, they moved to the campus of Emory University where they spent the next two days in an intensive training provided by the Georgia Association of Latino Elected Officials (GALEO). Throughout the two-day training, participants were exposed to the elements of leadership, learned how to develop plans and strategies for implementing trilingual community betterment projects and initiatives and shared their ideas and concerns. Topics for discussion included understanding trilingual community leadership, effective communication, valuing community diversity, group dynamics, conducting successful meetings, group problem solving and decision making, managing conflict, building communities through partnerships and collaboration.  Thank you, National Task Force member Edwin Cancel, for coordinating this event.