{"id":11738,"date":"2025-06-24T21:20:15","date_gmt":"2025-06-24T21:20:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/11738\/"},"modified":"2025-06-24T21:20:15","modified_gmt":"2025-06-24T21:20:15","slug":"philly-launches-spanish-chinese-civic-info-guides","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/11738\/","title":{"rendered":"Philly launches Spanish, Chinese civic info guides"},"content":{"rendered":"

Under Tuesday\u2019s blazing sun, Philadelphia officials stood firm in unveiling new civic guides in Spanish and Chinese, aiming to better connect non-English speakers with city government.<\/p>\n

According to the most recent U.S. Census, over 300,000 Philly residents<\/a> speak a language other than English, with Spanish and Chinese as the two most commonly spoken foreign languages here.<\/p>\n

For those Spanish- and Chinese-speaking groups, which represent roughly 12% of Philadelphia\u2019s population<\/a>, language can present a significant hurdle to understanding how city government works and being an informed voter.<\/p>\n

Now, new Spanish and Chinese versions of the \u201cHow Philly Works\u201d<\/a> guide can make civic life more accessible for tens of thousands of residents.<\/p>\n

The Committee of Seventy is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that advocates for improvements in local and state government. Its English version of the guide has been around for years.<\/p>\n

The new guides were introduced by Committee of Seventy and Welcoming Center executives along with City Council members at a sweltering outdoor press conference held outside City Hall, next to the Octavius V. Catto Memorial<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The location was symbolic, if the hottest day in 13 years<\/a> made it uncomfortable. On Oct. 10, 1871, Catto was killed on election day after working to educate and organize local groups to vote.<\/p>\n

Now, the Committee of Seventy hopes to continue Catto\u2019s mission with its guides, which educate residents on how local government connects to the city\u2019s inner workings.<\/p>\n

\u201cWho\u2019s my Council member, and how do I get in touch with them? Who makes the final decision on the budget or what gets built in my neighborhood?\u201d said Lauren Cristella, president and CEO of the Committee of Seventy. \u201cThese are sometimes complicated questions, but if you can\u2019t access the issues, the answers in the language that you understand, our entire system of government becomes a locked door.\u201d<\/p>\n

For those facing this locked door, the Committee of Seventy\u2019s new guides act as the key, featuring explanatory sections on the City Council and budget, Philadelphia\u2019s school district, and other elected officials.<\/p>\n

\"\"Stacks of the Committee of Seventy\u2019s new Spanish and Chinese guides were given out at the press conference and are set to be distributed through local communities in the coming months. (Davis Cuffe\/Billy Penn)<\/p>\n

Aiding Cristella in unveiling these guides were Philadelphia City Councilmembers Isaiah Thomas and Seth Bluestein; Anuj Gupta, president and CEO of The Welcoming Center<\/a>; City Commissioner Chair Omar Sabir and community partner Maria del Pilar Rodriguez. All gave brief speeches in support of the guides to the crowd of around 20 City Council members and organizers at the press conference.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I first became a commissioner three years ago, I made it one of my top priorities to improve the language access for our elections in Philadelphia,\u201d Bluestein said. \u201cOur democracy works better when everybody has the opportunity to participate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cristella said she has already seen participation rise as a result of the English versions of the guides. She shared that City Councilmember Jeffery Young, Jr., who represents the 5th Council District, often picks up thousands at a time to give to his constituents. Similarly, Cristella said City Council Minority Leader Kendra Brooks has picked up stacks of the guides to deliver to local schools.<\/p>\n

Looking forward, Cristella acknowledges that the Committee of Seventy\u2019s work is far from done and plans to release a French edition of the guide, as well as create informational social media graphics and videos for those who prefer not to flip through 24 pages of information.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not going to stop until every person has access to [the guide] and makes as much use of it as they\u2019d like to,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Under Tuesday\u2019s blazing sun, Philadelphia officials stood firm in unveiling new civic guides in Spanish and Chinese, aiming…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":11739,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5132],"tags":[5229,12512,5310,12513,12514,407,12515,12516,12517,12518,1448,2830,1311,80,12519,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,333,12520],"class_list":{"0":"post-11738","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-anuj-gupta","10":"tag-city-council","11":"tag-committee-of-seventy","12":"tag-diversity","13":"tag-education","14":"tag-isaiah-thomas","15":"tag-jeffery-young","16":"tag-kendra-brooks","17":"tag-lauren-cristella","18":"tag-pa","19":"tag-pennsylvania","20":"tag-philadelphia","21":"tag-politics","22":"tag-seth-bluestein","23":"tag-united-states","24":"tag-united-states-of-america","25":"tag-unitedstates","26":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","27":"tag-us","28":"tag-usa","29":"tag-voting","30":"tag-welcoming-center-for-new-pennsylvanians"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114740436973493566","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11738","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11738"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11738\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11739"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11738"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11738"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11738"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}