Center for Language Justice

What We Offer

Services built on trust and deep expertise

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Interpretation

Simultaneous and consecutive interpretation for community meetings, government hearings, medical appointments, legal proceedings, school conferences, and more — in-person and remote. We center the community's language: English speakers wear the headset.

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Translation

Culturally adapted translation — not word-for-word, but meaning-for-meaning. Documents, websites, forms, educational materials, and outreach content. Specializing in languages of limited diffusion where commercial vendors fall short.

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Language Justice Training

Workshops on language justice principles, interpreter training rooted in popular education, multilingual space design, organizational language justice assessments, and language access plan development for institutions.

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Cultural Brokering

Relationship-based, holistic support for engaging with linguistically diverse communities. Cultural navigation, intake support, and institutional bridging — going beyond words into full cultural understanding.

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Multilingual Facilitation

Meeting and event facilitation across languages and cultures. We guide conversations so every participant can engage meaningfully — regardless of the language they speak — from community forums to institutional convenings.

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ASL & Disability Communication Access

Language justice is disability justice. We integrate ASL interpretation and disability communication access — including AAC, tactile communication, and other modalities — as a core practice, not an accommodation.

Our Pricing Model

Rates built on values, not just the market

We use a tiered pricing structure — clients with greater resources subsidize access for communities with the least. Revenue from institutional and corporate clients directly funds grassroots and community work.

Tier 1

Grassroots Rate

Community orgs · Mutual aid groups · Unfunded coalitions · Individuals

Sliding scale or deeply discounted. Some pro bono work built into our annual budget. This is where our mission lives most visibly.

Tier 2

Nonprofit Rate

Nonprofits · Foundations · Universities · Health systems · Schools

Standard professional rates — competitive with commercial vendors, with higher quality, community-rooted service, and language justice expertise.

Tier 3

Government Rate

City-County · State agencies · Courts · Federal grantees

Full professional rates. These clients have budgets for language services and should pay accordingly. Revenue here subsidizes grassroots work.

Tier 4

Corporate Rate

For-profit businesses · Developers · Corporations

Premium rates reflecting both the market value of our services and our commitment to redistributive economics. Private sector pays the most.

Language Justice Community Fund: A set-aside from annual revenue (target: 5–10%) is dedicated to pro bono services for grassroots organizations, community interpreter training, and language justice movement-building across Indianapolis.

Our Model

A cooperative owned by language workers

CLJ is a worker-owned cooperative — our interpreters, translators, and language justice professionals are the owners. Every decision, every service rate, and every value is shaped collectively by the people who do the work. No outside investors. No executive salaries. Collective power.

Marion County has over 143,000 residents who speak a language other than English at home. Yet most commercial vendors offer nothing for languages of limited diffusion — and none for many Indigenous Latin American languages. We exist to fill that gap, rooted in the communities we serve.

"To transform language culture and practice takes time, courage, humility, and commitment."

— tilde Language Justice Cooperative

Language is Power

When we express ourselves in the languages that make us who we are, we access the full depth of our thoughts, our histories, and our possibilities. Language justice disrupts the dominance of English.

Nothing About Us Without Us

The cooperative is owned and governed by language workers themselves. Decisions about direction, pricing, services, and values are made collectively by the people who do the work.

Languages of Limited Diffusion First

Communities with the fewest existing language services receive our deepest investment. Chin, Karen, Kinyarwanda, Somali, Haitian Creole, and Indigenous Latin American languages are centered, not added on.

Language Justice is Racial Justice

Language oppression is racial oppression. English-only policies and the exploitation of bilingual labor are tools of white supremacy. Our work names these systems and works to dismantle them.

Language Justice is Disability Justice

People communicate through spoken language, movement, signs, electronics, writing, and silence. All forms of communication are valid. We honor this breadth and refuse to reduce language to spoken words alone.

Fair Compensation for Language Labor

Bilingual people — especially women of color, immigrants, and refugees — have been expected to provide language labor for free. We reject this. Language work is skilled, emotionally demanding, and essential.

Impact

Our work moves institutions toward equity

When language barriers fall, communities thrive. Our members have delivered thousands of hours of services that transform how Indianapolis institutions serve multilingual residents.

From hospital waiting rooms to school intake offices, CLJ members ensure that language is never a barrier to access, dignity, or safety.

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Case Study

Medical Interpretation Program — Hospital Partner

CLJ built and staffed an on-call Spanish interpretation program. Qualified member interpreters were placed across departments, reducing miscommunication incidents and improving patient trust scores.

25%Reduced Wait

4.8★Satisfaction

600+Sessions / yr

Cooperative Structure

How we govern ourselves

Governance Bodies

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General Assembly

All worker-owners meet quarterly to make major decisions, set strategic direction, approve budgets, and admit new members. Meetings are multilingual with simultaneous interpretation.

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Coordinating Committee

A rotating committee of 3–5 worker-owners handles day-to-day operations, scheduling, client relationships, and financial management between General Assembly meetings.

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Finance Committee

Manages bookkeeping, invoicing, pricing, and financial reporting. Following tilde's lesson: having people passionate about operations is as important as being passionate about language justice.

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Training & Quality Committee

Manages interpreter and translator skill development, peer mentorship, quality assurance, and onboarding of provisional members.

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Community Advisory Circle

LEP community members, partner organizations, and allies hold the cooperative accountable to its community mission. This circle does not govern the cooperative — it holds it.

Membership

Full Member

Worker-Owner

Full members who have completed a provisional period (minimum 6 months), demonstrated competence, committed to the cooperative's values, and been approved by the membership.

Voting rights in the General Assembly
Share in governance and decision-making
Profit-sharing (patronage dividends)
Full voice in pricing, services, and strategic direction

In Trial Period

Provisional Member

New language workers in their trial period. They participate in work and training but do not yet have voting rights or profit-sharing. This is mutual assessment — the cooperative evaluates fit, and the provisional member evaluates whether the cooperative is right for them.

Project-Based

Contract Worker

Language workers who take on specific projects but are not cooperative members. The cooperative maintains relationships with a broader network for languages and specializations beyond current membership capacity.

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Bylaws in Development

Following the example of tilde, which found that taking time with bylaws allowed them to "clarify their values and codify what it looked like to live those values as a cooperative," CLJ is investing significant time in thorough bylaws before launch. Technical assistance is being sought from the Indiana Cooperative Development Center, the Democracy at Work Institute, and sibling language justice cooperatives.

The bylaws will address:

Membership requirements & processes Decision-making procedures Profit distribution Conflict resolution Member departure & removal Community relationship

Our Lineage

Who we learn from

The cooperative does not view other language justice organizations as competitors. It views them as siblings and allies. We have been shaped by the work of these organizations and remain in active relationship with them.

tilde Language Justice Cooperative

Durham, NC · Founded 2017

A majority Latine-owned, worker-owned cooperative providing interpretation, translation, training, and consulting. Includes a sibling organization, the tilde Education Fund, for training.

"Taking time with bylaws allowed us to clarify our values and codify what it looks like to live those values as a cooperative."

Community Language Cooperative

Denver, CO · Founded 2014

Worker-owned cooperative founded from community organizing in Southwest Denver's Westwood neighborhood. Pioneered the practice of centering the community's language — English speakers wear the headset.

"We want every community to have their own interpreters." — CLC co-founder Indira Guzman

Cenzontle Language Justice Cooperative

Asheville, NC · Founded 2017

Formed from CPC's interpreter training ecosystem. A sister cooperative to tilde, rooted in Western North Carolina's language justice movement.

San Luis Valley Language Justice Cooperative

Southern Colorado

Two women who attended a CLC training formed their own cooperative in a rural region. Taught us that the model scales to small communities, and that cooperatives can start with just two people who care.

Language Justice Collaborative

New York, NY

Trains speakers of languages of limited diffusion as interpreters and supports worker cooperative formation. Taught us how to center LLD communities and build from community language needs surveys.

Antena / Antena Aire

Los Angeles / Houston

Language justice and language experimentation collaborative. Their guide How to Build Language Justice is foundational — the clearest articulation of what a multilingual space looks like and how to build one.

Language justice is about "a world with room for multiple languages to operate at all levels of society: from the kitchen table to the community meeting to the art museum to the City Council."

Center for Participatory Change

Asheville, NC

Their Language Justice Curriculum is the model for our interpreter training — ten chapters grounded in popular education covering recovery techniques, queering language, race and ethnic identity in interpretation, and more.

Sins Invalid

Disability Justice Framework

Their statement that language justice is disability justice transformed our understanding. People communicate through spoken language, movement, signs, electronics, and silence — all are valid. This is a core principle, not an add-on.

Development Timeline

Building this right, together

Aug – Dec 2026

Bilingual Connectors Active

Bilingual Connectors Cohort 1 active in community. Connectors interested in the cooperative track self-identify. OEBI begins cooperative development support. Initial conversations with cooperative development advisors and sibling cooperatives.

Jan – Mar 2027

Cooperative Formation Study

Interested connectors and community language workers meet monthly to study cooperative models, visit (virtually) with tilde, CLC, and Cenzontle, and assess feasibility. Business plan development begins.

Apr – Jun 2027

Bylaw Development & Legal Incorporation

Bylaw development. Legal incorporation under Indiana law. Business infrastructure setup. Advanced interpreter and translator training. Equipment acquisition. First provisional members identified.

Jul – Sep 2027

Soft Launch

First paid interpretation and translation projects. First training and consulting engagements. Website live. Community Advisory Circle convened.

Oct – Dec 2027

First General Assembly

Provisional member evaluations. First General Assembly. First community interpreter training cohort open to the public. Government and institutional client outreach intensifies.

2028

Full Operations

Worker-owner cohort stabilizes at 8–12 members across 6+ languages. First patronage dividends distributed. Community Language Justice Fund distributes first pro bono grants. Evaluation of Year 1. Strategic planning for growth.

2029 +

Growth & Movement-Building

Expand language coverage. Deepen institutional contracts. Mentor emerging language justice cooperatives in other Indiana communities. Host first Indy Language Justice Convening. Advocate for language access ordinance provisions supporting cooperative contracting.

Language Justice, Worker‑Owned