FYI: Group Hopes Its Glossary Can Decipher Acronyms ASAP
A suburban Detroit community coalition is trying to make sense of the legal jargon that can snarl its work.
Jim Jones, executive director of the Downriver Community Conference, has put together a list of 250 acronyms to help members tell their BABES from their TOES, and their JOBS from their JARS.
“It gets to be doublespeak,” said Romulus Mayor Beverly McAnally, the conference chairwoman. “Every other word is an acronym or a contraction. If you don’t have a glossary you don’t know what they’re talking about.”
The glossary will help representatives from 15 communities identify A2C2 as the Ann Arbor Community Center, or FAMILY as Fathers and Mothers in League with Youth.
“It’s governmentese,” said Jones, whose agency oversees programs in economic development, affordable housing, employment and training and substance abuse.
“My staff talks in those terms all the time. I didn’t realize we were dealing in that many terms but there’s 10 times that many. Attorneys have them, doctors have them, accountants have them.
(BABES, by the way, stands for Beginning Alcohol and Addictions Basic Education Series; TOES, Treatment Outcome Evaluation System; JOBS, Job Opportunities and Basic Skills Training Program; and JARS, Justice, Administration, Research and Statistics.)
Start your day right
Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
