The NotifySTL system is for residents, businesses and visitors of the City of St. Louis.
Gilberto Pinela, director of St. Louis City’s Office of New Americans, has led an effort to amplify the reach of multilingual public service announcements (PSAs) for the NotifySTL emergency alert system. The PSAs, now available in Spanish, Vietnamese, Hindi, Swahili, Bosnian and Dari/Patscho, urge residents to sign up for the system to be better prepared for emergencies.
“Our goal is to work with partners like the City Emergency Management Agency, STLTV, St. Louis Mosaic Project, STL Juntos, the International Institute of St. Louis, and other community organizations to ensure our New American residents have access to life-saving information during sudden emergencies,” said Pinela. “Our priority on language access is key for our linguistically diverse communities to thrive and know they belong here.”
“Partnering with the City’s Office of New Americans on this initial project has realized a long-standing goal for the City Emergency Management Agency,” said Sarah Russell, commissioner of City Emergency Management Agency. “Increasing community preparedness is one of our most important jobs and providing critical information to those in St. Louis during an incident, no matter what language they use, is vital.”
To help find native speakers for the PSAs, Gilberto enlisted the help of the St. Louis Mosaic Project to find and recruit speakers for each language.
“Making sure that emergency alerts are communicated in multiple languages isn’t just a matter of inclusion; it’s a lifeline of safety, bridging language barriers to protect every member of our foreign-born community, regardless of country of origin or background,” said Suzanne Sierra, assistant executive director of the St. Louis Mosaic Project.
See the six new PSAs below. Sign up for Notify STL here.
Spanish – https://youtu.be/FRpf36NLock
Vietnamese – https://youtu.be/pP0Q_EG1C8k
Hindi – https://youtu.be/T8n6puy-IuA
Swahili – https://youtu.be/wm1S628crmI
Dari/Patscho – https://youtu.be/n5KZCn99SEY
Bosnian – https://youtu.be/-WrcaAM2nnw
