Writing in plain language is an essential part of ODI’s mission to work to achieve exceptional, equitable, outcomes for all Californians. Plain language is text your audience can understand the first time they read it. It can especially help people in a time of crisis, including the loss of a loved one.
CalAcademy is ODI’s training arm. We train state workers on innovative skills and tools, like plain language. In fact, by the end of 2024, CalAcademy trained more than 3,000 state workers. This enables them to provide better services to all Californians.
CalAcademy offered its Introduction to plain language for the public sector training at the 39th annual meeting of the North American Death Care Regulators Association conference in October 2024. The conference was hosted by the Department of Consumer Affairs’ Cemetery and Funeral Bureau. Frontline death care regulators from the U.S. and Canada learned how to use plain language in consumer-facing communication to better serve people experiencing grief and loss.
“When people are stressed or grieving, it’s even more important to make the information they need easy to understand,” said Annie Crew-Renzo, Head of CalAcademy, ODI’s training arm. “As part of Governor Newsom’s executive order on equity, ODI was tasked with developing standards to increase equity in service delivery. Plain language is the first of these. We were really excited to work with our partners at the Cemetery and Funeral Bureau for this conference.”
California’s plain language standard suggests providing information to the public at an 8th grade reading level or lower. The standard also suggests
- Using smaller, more common words
- Avoiding technical jargon
- Keeping sentences short and simple
Reflecting on her experience, Cemetery and Funeral Bureau Chief Gina Sanchez emphasized how impactful CalAcademy’s Introduction to plain language for the public sector training has been for her department: “It wasn’t until the CalAcademy plain language training that I thought that this really needs to be incorporated into my consumer guide. We really need to reach every community in California.”
We want to thank all the death care workers who participated in the CalAcademy plain language training.
If you want to learn more about CalAcademy’s offerings, including group training for your state department, fill out our interest form.
Watch our highlight video on the training.