At the stage of developing a training programme, the core functions of the community interpreters who are to be trained ought to be clear: will the y simply interpret, or will advocacy also be involved? This article, written in the light of British and Flemish experience, favours advocacy on behalf of the client, but recognises that community interpreting practice (or intercultural mediation) often requires interpreters to play multiple roles. The first section of the article deals with standards for professional practice and training. The second section is methodological, showing how to train intercultural mediators by means of case-study discussions and role-play. The last section describes the Flemish experience with the training of intercultural mediators in health care within the scope of the “Project Intercultural Mediators in Health Care” as an illustration of a large-scale training project.