Last year more than $47,000 million was returned to Bay Area tax payers

When Earn It! Keep It! Save It! said they needed translators fluent in Spanish, Cantonese, Mandarin, and Vietnamese, United Way Community Project MatchBridge was more than happy to respond.

Earn It! Keep It! Save It!, a community project of United Way of the Bay Area, is a free, tax-preparing service offered to qualifying individuals and families. Earn It! Keep It! Save It! (EKS) operates more than 180 free tax sites across the Bay Area,  where volunteer tax preparers help individuals and families claim their maximum tax refund.

With so many sites across the ethnically dense Bay Area, the need for translators was high. With all the talented young adults at MatchBridge looking for part-time work, the partnership made perfect sense.

Twenty-seven of MatchBridge‘s youth members came into the orientation to potentially offer their services as translators. EKS, United Way, and MatchBridge staff held interviews and fluency tests that many of the members passed with ease. Earn It! Keep It! Save It! partners with hundreds of community organizations and free tax preparation providers, such as Tax-Aid, to process almost 50,000 tax returns each year. They also provide low- to moderate-income households with access to public benefits, low- or no-cost bank accounts and financial education. Most importantly they make sure that eligible taxpayers claim the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) which can amount to as much as $5,600 per family.

Due to the complex nature of the free financial services that Earn It! Keep It! Save It! offers, translators play an essential role in serving the families and individuals who have limited English fluency.

If you are a Spanish speaker and you’re interested in being a translator, MatchBridge and Earn It! Keep It! Save It! are still recruiting.  Leave a comment with your email.