Translation Support, 15 West

15 West Media is working to make local journalism more accessible to the communities we serve across Chicago’s West Side and nearby western suburbs.

As we expand our multilingual reporting, we’re building a network of volunteer translators who can help make news, public information, community resources, and occasional special projects available in more languages.

We’re especially interested in translators working from English into Spanish, Arabic, Urdu, Bangla, Portuguese, and other languages spoken throughout our communities.

You do not need an extensive professional translation history to get involved. We welcome multilingual students, community members, writers, journalists, educators, and others with strong written-language skills and an interest in accessible, community-centered journalism.

This is a volunteer opportunity. Translation assignments are offered as projects become available, and volunteers can decide whether they have the availability and interest to take on a particular assignment.

Projects You Might Help With

• Translating news stories and community-centered reporting from English into another language
• Translating short explainers, guides, zines, resource materials, and other public-information projects
• Ensuring translations sound natural and meaningful to readers rather than relying on word-for-word translation
• Preserving the meaning, tone, context, and intent of the original reporting
• Helping identify language, terminology, cultural references, or phrasing that may need additional context for readers
• Reviewing translated materials for accuracy, grammar, clarity, consistency, and readability
• Helping us think more intentionally about how multilingual readers experience 15 West’s journalism
• Suggesting other language-access projects you’d be excited to support

What We’re Looking For

• Strong reading and writing skills in at least one language other than English
• An ability to translate meaning and context, not simply individual words
• Attention to detail and a willingness to proofread your work carefully
• Thoughtfulness around cultural and linguistic nuance
• An interest in community-centered journalism, public information, and language access
• Comfort working independently while communicating questions or uncertainties with an editor
• A commitment to representing communities respectfully and avoiding assumptions, stereotypes, or unnecessarily complicated language

Formal translation credentials are not required. Previous translation, journalism, academic, communications, community, or professional writing experience is welcome, but we’re also interested in people who have developed strong language skills through their families, communities, education, or lived experience.

Language Access at 15 West

We believe translation should do more than reproduce English-language journalism in another language. Our goal is to make information useful, understandable, and culturally meaningful for the people reading it.

That means translators are encouraged to flag terminology, context, phrasing, or references that may not translate cleanly and to work with our editorial team when a story requires additional judgment.

• If you’re interested, we’d love to learn which language(s) you translate from English into, your experience reading and writing in those languages, and what kinds of translation projects interest you most.