Opportunities and challenges for Latino victims of domestic violence in Humboldt County

With the growing Latino population in the rural Humboldt County, there is a pressing need for more bilingual services. The purpose of my community project is to find out which service providers in Humboldt County provide bilingual services to monolingual Spanish-speaking clients, and what some of the challenges are for service providers when working with the Latino population in regard to domestic violence issues. My project consisted of distributing questionnaires to service providers to find out about which services are available in the community, the barriers faced by service providers, and what service providers feel they need so they can better met the needs of the Latino Community. The results showed that the major barriers faced by service providers were lack of resources, language, immigration status, and cultural norms. What many of the participants believe is needed within the community is more bilingual services, relevant trainings and education, and culturally appropriate services.