PITTSFIELD, Mass. — 1Berkshire announced that it has begun a several month long project to collect materials and resources in the region focused on entrepreneurial resources and guidance, to then have them translated into Spanish.

 

This effort, in partnership with the Berkshire Immigrant Center and Berkshire Language Management, aims to help increase the accessibility of key information, resources, and marketing materials for Spanish speaking businesses and entrepreneurs in the region. 1Berkshire has been actively working with the Berkshire Immigrant Center for over 2 years to navigate opportunities and resources to support the needs of this critical group in our region.

 

"It is exciting for us to be able to directly invest resources into supporting our immigrant entrepreneurs, and immigrant owned and operated business community in this very tangible way, and we are so glad to be working with two incredible partner organizations right here in the region to do so," Ben Lamb, Director of Economic Development at 1Berkshire said.

 

Over the next few months, 1Berkshire will work with its collaborative partners and fellow entrepreneurial support programs in the Berkshires to pull together the most critical resources to be translated. From there, translation experts from the Berkshire Immigrant Center and Berkshire Language Management will help to get the documents and audio translated into at least Spanish, and potentially additional languages as capacity allows. 

 

"We were humbled to be asked along with Berkshire Language Management to be a part of this transformative and necessary program to increase access for immigrant-owned businesses and entrepreneurs whose native language isn't English. 1Berkshire is helping to pave the way for change in how the Berkshires welcomes and supports all types of businesses," Michelle Lopez, Director of the Berkshire Immigrant Center said.

 

This work is mad possible through Berkshire Language Management. 

 

"We are honored to partner and collaborate in this project with 1Berkshire and Berkshire Immigrant Center," Silvana Kirby, Managing Director of Berkshire Language Management said. "Both organizations are always supporting our community, local growth and assisting immigrant entrepreneurs. Language is key to communication, for meaning and understanding. We are excited about being part of this project and community development process."