MCIS’ Social Purpose

To uphold the human right to be informed, heard and understood.

MCIS’ Social Benefit Initiatives Fund

MCIS’ Social Benefits Initiative (SBI) Fund was created in 2016 with the objective to provide free language services to individuals and small organizations without the relevant funding for the purpose of creating intentional social impact. Social impact, a significant, positive change that addresses pressing social challenges, is a deliberate commitment to an identified set of actions and activities (e.g. programs, services or advocacy) that create positive social outcomes by reducing inequalities. Our commitment and strategies around advocating for improved access to critical information and services inclusive of health, employment, civic, legal and political rights, focus on two key areas:

  • With language advocacy programs and initiatives, we promote language rights as human rights and are primarily interested in:
    • Growing the seed of the provincial celebration of Language Advocacy Day we helped to get off the ground with the Language Access Coalition of Canada (LACC) locally, coast to coast to coast, and
    • Collaborating on language access research and information sharing globally as one of the proud co-founders of the Global Coalition for Language Rights contributing to and shaping the language justice movement worldwide.
  • With the provision of free or subsidized language services we learn about the systemic issues and language access gaps while creating innovative and more equitable language solutions. For example, whenever we notice large incoming migration movements to Canada or anticipate surges of non-funded requests, we respond by opening designated and targeted reach out through our free Humanitarian Help channels (please open a new page by copying the top text on this page https://www.mcislanguages.com/advocacy) to capture them by creating Interpreter cohorts (e.g. Syrian, Rohingya and Afghani Community Interpreters cohorts) and connect with language professionals on the ground.

Here are additional examples of projects initiated or supported by the MCIS Social Benefits Fund 2016 – 2022:

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Projects initiated or supported by the MCIS Social Benefit Initiative Fund:

October – Homelessness Connect: The event was held to provide human services, such as dental care, eye care, foot care, and haircuts, amongst over 30 other types of services, free of charge to those experiencing or at risk of homelessness. MCIS’s role at the event was to connect native speakers of other languages with English-speaking service providers and eliminate language barriers.

July – unConference: Hacking the Future of Canadian Language Industry: The Future of Language Services (Un) conference was held for participants to learn and discuss some of the challenges faced in Canada and around the globe as we increasingly communicate engage across the world’s hundreds of languages.

November – MigrahackTO: Migrahack aimed to break the barriers between academia, tech developers, journalists, government, and non-profits and their datasets. Events nurture connections, and connections motivate us to work together.

October – Homelessness Connect: The event was held to provide human services, such as dental care, eye care, foot care and haircuts, amongst over 30 other types of services, free of charge to those experiencing or at risk of homelessness. MCIS’s role at the event was to connect native speakers of other languages with English-speaking service providers and eliminate language barriers.

April – Supporting language rights Ontario migrant workers: Justicia for Migrant Workers (J4MW) marked the year with the Harvesting Freedom Campaign, a call on the Canadian government to finally allow migrant farm workers in Canada to access Permanent Immigration Status.

September –  Language Justice Series– The very first event of MCIS’ Language Justice SeriesLocalization Sprint (Psiphon for Translators and Language Justice Activists). The objective is to highlight the impact of localization, translation, and interpretation services on human rights and Internet freedom while connecting professional communities who work tirelessly to adapt technology to ensure people always have secure access to information and communications.

September – Language Policy Hackathon: This report presents recommendations for policymakers working to improve language access to follow as members of a rather informal citizens’ coalition of practitioners, non-profits, academia, government and policy professionals, as well as other interested groups and individuals.

October – Homelessness Connect: The event was held to provide human services, such as dental care, eye care, foot care, and haircuts, amongst over 30 other types of services, free of charge to those experiencing or at risk of homelessness. MCIS’s role at the event was to connect native speakers of other languages with English-speaking service providers and eliminate language barriers.

February – Pop-up Translation Clinic: MCIS hosted a free Translation Pop-Up Clinic at The 519, a city organization located in the heart of Toronto’s gay village that serves the LGBTQ+ communities. For people who can’t afford to translate their documents using a professional translator, this was an opportunity to get the official translations they need.

February – Supporting language rights of LGBTQ asylum seekers: MCIS’ Social Impact Fund has been supporting individuals and agencies in need of language access since 2015. This blog explores the journey of one of MCIS’ clients who was brave to share their story.

COVID Series: MCIS’ SBI fund supports free/subsidized interpretation and translation services, such as a direct telephone line for COVID-19-related conversations and the translation of COVID-19-related information. We also interviewed these community organizations, wrote blogs, and posted them on our website as “COVID Stories

February – 2021: Our Language Rights Conference/ Language Advocacy Day 2021: The first conference will provide opportunities to meet, share, learn from each other and collaborate on projects promoting language rights advocacy.

Language Advocacy on the PeripherySeries: In a series of virtual panel discussions, LANGUAGE ADVOCACY ON THE PERIPHERY, organized to explore less visible segments of language service provisions.

COVID Series – The Impact on Language Professionals: The COVID series continued but from a different perspective, from our language professionals who are heroes in their own right.

COVID-19 Response Page: Updated resources for customers and language professionals during the pandemic.

February – Our Language Rights Canada Conference/ Language Advocacy Day 2022: The second conference will provide opportunities to meet, share, learn from each other and collaborate on projects that promote language rights advocacy.

June – Interpreters in Times of War: The panel feature the war interpreter stories from various angles and geographic locations, provide a voice to those who are unintentionally left behind, and feature language professionals who have worked in war and crisis situations discuss the challenges they have faced and the importance of staying connected to one another in times of crisis.