Chinese Translator & Project Manager, Bureau of Communications

THIS IS A PART TIME POSITION FOR 25 HOURS PER WEEK

Established in 1805, the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (the NYC Health Department) is the oldest and largest health department in the country. Our mission is to protect and improve the health of all New Yorkers, in service of a vision of a city in which all New Yorkers can realize their full health potential, regardless of who they are, how old they are, where they are from, or where they live.

As a world-renowned public health agency with a history of building transformative public health programming and infrastructure, innovating in science and scholarship to advance public health knowledge, and responding to urgent public health crises — from New York City’s yellow fever outbreak in 1822, to the COVID-19 pandemic — we are a hub for public health innovation, expertise, and programs, and services. We serve as the population health strategist, and policy, and planning authority for the City of New York, while also having a vast impact on national and international public policy, including programs and services focused on food and nutrition, anti-tobacco support, chronic disease prevention, HIV/AIDS treatment, family and child health, environmental health, mental health, and racial and social justice work, among others.

Our Agency’s five strategic priorities, building off a recently-completed strategic planning process emerging from the COVID-19 emergency, are:
1) To re-envision how the Health Department prepares for and responds to health emergencies, with a focus on building a “response-ready” organization, with faster decision-making, transparent public communications, and stronger surveillance and bridges to healthcare systems 2) Address and prevent chronic and diet-related disease, including addressing rising rates of childhood obesity and the impact of diabetes, and transforming our food systems to improve nutrition and enhance access to healthy foods
3) Address the second pandemic of mental illness including: reducing overdose deaths, strengthening our youth mental health systems, and supporting people with serious mental illness
4) Reduce black maternal mortality and make New York a model city for women’s health
5) Mobilize against and combat the health impacts of climate change

Our 7,000-plus team members bring extraordinary diversity to the work of public health. True to our value of equity as a foundational element of all of our work, and a critical foundation to achieving population health impact in New York City, the NYC Health Department has been a leader in recognizing and dismantling racism’s impacts on the health of New Yorkers and beyond. In 2021, the NYC Board of Health declared racism as a public health crisis. With commitment to advance anti-racist public health practices that dismantle systems that perpetuate inequitable power, opportunity and access, the NYC Health Department continues to work in and with communities and community organizations to increase their access to health services and decrease avoidable health outcomes.

Program and Job Description:

The Office of External Affairs (OEA) manages many of the agency’s most critical interactions with the public, from raising awareness and promoting healthy behaviors to advancing policies and responding to health emergencies. Within this office, the Language Services Unit works to ensure that differences in language, culture, and literacy do not create barriers to health care access. The unit’s main mission is to coordinate language services for the agency. During the COVID-19 pandemic, our team has worked tirelessly to make sure all New Yorkers have all the information they need to be safe in more than 20 languages.

The Bureau of Communications Language Services Unit seeks to hire an Interpreter to serve as Chinese Translator & Project Manager.

DUTIES WILL INCLUDE BUT NOT BE LIMITED TO:

Report to the Language Services Assistant Director.

Support the Agency in its efforts to comply with Local Law 30: The Citywide Policy on Language Access to ensure the effective delivery of City Services and meaningful access to City Programs and activities for all City residents regardless of their proficiency in English.

Translate and proof-read the translation of a vast range of communication materials (booklets, fact sheets, press releases, press updates, social media posts and marketing campaigns) into Traditional Chinese and Simplified Chinese for distribution to community-based organizations and the city at large.

Provide input on cultural and linguistic issues related to the development of communications materials for diverse New York City audiences and for the outreach to community-based organizations, other City Agencies, and constituents.

Assist and contribute to the development of in-house resources like translation style guides and glossaries that aim to improve the effectiveness of the agency’s language services across New York City neighborhoods/communities.

Perform clerical work, such as review invoices, submit for payments, and assist the unit with special projects, when not engaged in translation duties.

Converse and write fluently in English and any two of the major Chinese dialects. In addition:
1. Two years of full-time experience in translating any two of the major Chinese dialects – conversational Cantonese, Mandarin, oR Taiwanese into English, and vice-versa in a practical setting; or

2. A satisfactory equivalent.