PROBLEM IDENTIFICATION
Los Angeles County, California is a diverse area of the country, with large numbers of non-English speaking residents (over 150 languages are spoken in Los Angeles County). Many of these residents are parents who drive with infants and small children as passengers. However, the county did not have information on the proper use of occupant protection devicesparticularly devices for the benefit of infants and small childrenwritten in the various languages spoken by a large percentage of county residents.

GOALS AND OBJECTIVES
The goal of the "Lifesaving in Any Language" program was to educate non-English speaking residents of Los Angeles County about the proper use of occupant protection devices for infants and small children. The primary objective in reaching this goal was the development of infant and child passenger safety information in languages other than English.

STRATEGIES AND ACTIVITIES
"Lifesaving in Any Language" was developed by the Glendale Police Department in 1994 to address the cultural and language needs of county non-English speaking residents who drive. Using the results of traffic surveys and in cooperation with the Los Angeles County Police Officers Association, program developers approached community organizations within each of several of the ethnically-diverse groups in the county. These community groups were asked to join with the Police Officers Association and Glendale Police Department in developing ten culturally sensitive brochures in several languages other than English.

Efforts to translate documents in the past had shown that straight translation of words did not always work to convey the intended meaning. Even color and graphics carried different meanings among the various groupsred might be an acceptable color for most ethnic groups but not acceptable for some.

Working within the community groups, the ten brochures were developed using art work, colors, graphics, and language that was responsive to the unique ethnic groups. Safety brochures were developed for the following groups:

Native American	African American
Armenian	Korean
Chinese	Tagalog
Farsi	Russian
Khmer	Vietnamese

RESULTS Over 20 thousand culturally sensitive brochures in eight foreign languages were printed and distributed within a six-month time period in 1996 by the Los Angeles County Police Officers Association, the Glendale Police Department, and the various community organizations that had participated in the "Lifesaving in Any Language" project. Officials for this highly-popular program make camera-ready copy of the brochures available to any community that would like to replicate the program.

FUNDING   Section 402: $64,000 CONTACT     Lieutenant Don Shade Glendale Police Department 140 North Isabel Street Glendale, CA 91206-4382 (818) 914-8250