Going to driver and vehicle services is one of those nearly universal human experiences—in most cases, it’s inevitable. Whether changing your name, getting a driver’s license or ID card, or changing the title on a car, we find ourselves heading to our nearest location and hoping we aren’t there for long.
One thing that needs to be in place for the visits to go well is something English speakers might take for granted—access to forms and instructions in our primary language.
The Minnesota Department of Public Safety’s Driver and Vehicle Services (DVS) division takes language access seriously. DVS operates over 90 driver and identification card service locations. It also partners with more than 200private and public officesin Minnesotato provide vehicle, driver, and identification services. As an entity that provides written materials to all locations, DVS has focused on expanding language access for years. Recently, state lawmakers asked DVS to find out just how many people who visit DVS locations speak languages other than English.
Helping a busy state entity meet a legislative requirement
DVS processes more than 10 million customer transactions annually. That fact, coupled with the tight legislative deadline, made DVS recognize they needed help. They turned to The Improve Group for a solution. After meeting with DVS leaders, we crafted a plan: a survey, some interviews, and analysis to identify the greatest needs for materials in non-English languages.
A few key Improve Group strategies helped us get this project done well and on time.
Our collaborative Inception Phase. With just about 2 months to complete the study, we needed to set the stage for this work efficiently. In a few meetings with DVS staff, we clarified big-picture and detailed questions about the project, from study questions to how to access DVS contact information. We referred back to those insights from then on, minimizing information needs from DVS. Importantly, we used this time to make sure we understood the legislative request and would collect data that helped fulfill it.
Productive project management with busy state staff. Even after the Inception Phase, project updates were an important part of the ongoing work. We met weekly with DVS leaders. Between meetings, we used what DVS told us to keep things moving. We made meaningful collaboration possible for busy state staff.
Expert statewide data collection on how the state can meet people’s needs. We drew on our research and evaluation chops to design and share a survey with more than 300 locations, collect quality data, analyze it, and deliver a report. We complemented survey data with Census estimates of languages spoken.
Getting the state the data it needs
Findings were fascinating—we learned, for example, that 35 languages other than English are spoken by users of driver and vehicle services in Minnesota. These findings deepened our understanding of Minnesota’s diversity, while giving DVS the data it needs to continue increasing language access.
What might have felt insurmountable at the beginning of the project was possible with our phased approach, project management, and evaluation expertise: DVS had a report to help them meet the legislative mandate.