Voices in Refuge
Interpreting services
Our Story
Why we began
Before Voices in Refuge, Nottingham and Nottinghamshire Refugee Forum spent thousands of pounds a month on untrained, low paid telephone interpreters.
Recognising the need for a solution on three fronts, VIR was formed to benefit the interpreter, the facilitator and the non-English speaker.
-The interpreter would be fully trained, fairly paid and treated as a skilled worker.
-The facilitator would be given a better, more consistent standard of interpreting and expect more from the profession.
- The client would be told what to expect from an interpreter and receive a more professional all round experience.
With the expertise of Alice Johnson from the Cairo Community Interpreter Project we trained our initial intake of 45 interpreters. Gaining experience while interpreting at NNRF, our group grew quickly, and we have now employed many of them. We continue to train and support bilingual individuals who are interested in becoming community interpreters.
Sharing the Benefits
Through various programmes at NNRF our interpreters have quickly become in demand outside of the Forum and Voices in Refuge has now become a separate community interest company where all profits generated go to supporting NNRF’s vital work.
We hope to promote the benefit of quality interpretation and see more organisations recognising the skill of professionally trained interpreters.
Everyone deserves the right to be understood. Let us make your voice heard.
Instead of spending thousands of pounds a month on poor quality telephone interpreters, we utilised our human resources - volunteers who speak over 50 different languages. Now we have our own professional interpreters trained to our standards, and a service everyone benefits from.
-Nottingham & Notts Refugee Forum
