Immigrant Outreach and Language Access During First Year of the COVID-19 Pandemic.

This article examines language access and cultural translation challenges faced by immigrant-serving organizations during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic in a small Midwestern metropolitan area in the USA. Drawing on interviews with directors and staff from two long-established organizations—the Newcomer Bridge Alliance and Midwest Refugee Services—it highlights how shifts from in-person to remote communication, limited interpretation resources for indigenous Central American and African languages, and digital divides complicated outreach efforts. The study reveals how these organizations adapted through community liaisons and varied digital platforms to address misinformation, build trust, and meet evolving needs despite structural inequalities. The findings underscore the importance of culturally responsive, linguistically inclusive communication in crisis contexts and call for further applied linguistics research on language access and interpreter experiences within immigrant and refugee communities.