Inspired by Natural Disasters and Families In Need of Resources
Witnessing the chaos of natural disasters and the information gap it creates, especially for families with children navigating complex federal programs in a foreign language, inspired our app to put clear, multilingual communication at the forefront.
Benito (Software Engineer) and Angelica (Interpreter) led initial brainstorming and sketching solutions for the indigenous community of Greenfield, CA.
First lines of code start as a side project. Full dedication started by December 2023. Due to the many varients of indigenous languages, our backend service was built to scale to any number of languages.
Nurbli's very first informational announcement was the City of Greenfield's 77 anniversary celebration.
Nurbli received a total of 11 students from the computer science department. Nurbli participated with CSUMB during Spring of 2024 mentoring students while they built a digital dictionary for indigenous languages.
Equipped with an early prototype, Nurbli presented the idea at a Greenfield Union School District Collaborative meeting. The presentation generated positive feedback and yielded valuable new ideas that are reflected in today's mobile app.
Rob Gelphman joins as a business advisor and has been instrumental in providing advice on all business-related matters. His insights have significantly shaped Nurbli, offering valuable feedback on business positioning and the business plan.
In collaboration with the Greenfield Unified School District (GUSD), Arroyo Seco Academy hosted a parent café featuring Nurbli. The mobile app was installed by 17 parents, marking the start of its use within the community. By the end of the month, Nurbli had achieved over 400 downloads.
GUSD officially pilots the Nurbli mobile app across the district — the seed that was planted begins to grow. Thanks to the pilot, parents begin accessing audio translations for events and workshops, leading to increased participation as families now understand what flyers say and what events are about.
GUSD votes to invest in Nurbli's on-demand interpretation. The district needs indigenous language interpreters on a low budget. Nurbli builds a custom app that meets the liaisons where they're at. Together we launch a pilot that allows front desk staff to request an indigenous language interpreter through Nurbli's mobile app, available on Google and Apple stores. The app is safeguarded and enabled only for GUSD staff.
Upon success and positive feedback from liaisons and parents, GUSD votes to launch a district-wide expansion of on-demand interpretation. This means more interpreter capacity, and the functionality is now available to all GUSD staff.
Nurbli launches a new DIAL method allowing GUSD staff to request an interpreter using a school phone line. Staff now have two methods of requesting an interpreter on demand: the Nurbli mobile app and the school phone line.
GUSD votes to bring in-person interpretation services to all school sites with Nurbli. This program enables Nurbli to position interpreters at all school sites on a rotating basis. Parents are made aware of the times interpreters are in person at their school site should they want to raise a concern or ask a question to the front desk staff.
Nurbli partners with Hartnell College and CLP-CYLC to bring college students on as interns for indigenous language training. Interns learn under Nurbli's mentorship and guidance while getting real on-site experience at school sites — from audio translations, recording, and editing, to helping parents with 1:1 interpretation. Some interns even venture on to do simultaneous interpretation for large workshop events.
Sometimes a school needs to call a parent to notify them of a child's behavior or an incident — but they need an interpreter on the line. Nurbli launches the three-way call system, enabling GUSD staff to conference in an interpreter while keeping everything confidential.
Nurbli's system has grown to deliver interpretation services over the phone, video call, large workshops, audio translations, and more. Need interpretation services? Contact us now!
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