We’re celebrating Hispanic Heritage month by outlining a few ideas that will help ensure that the entire Hispanic community is counted in the 2020 Census. Governments, community-based organizations, and individuals can remind the Hispanic community that they are valued, and deserve to be counted. ‍

Last month we blogged about the importance of creating your strategic plan for Census outreach. This month, let’s focus on your volunteers. From your strategic plan, you should have an idea about how many people you plan to help complete the Census in your community.

From petitions to save the environment to driving awareness of politics and voting, campaigns commonly include “pledging” as a tactic to drive support of their cause. But does publicly pledging to something really change behavior? Research indicates that it does, which is why we’re helping governments and CBOs drive their constituents to Pledge to be Counted in the 2020 Census.

“If you participating in the Census wasn’t that important, why are they trying to take it away from you?” asked Alex Padilla as he spoke at the Joint Informational Hearing on Aug. 21, 2019. As part of the state of California’s commitment to stewarding state taxpayer funds that have been allocated for Census outreach, this hearing was convened to discuss statewide outreach strategies for the 2020 Census, as well as inform the public about how these efforts will reach hard-to-count communities in California. It also provided stakeholders the opportunity to comment and ask questions of the parties responsible for executing these efforts.

In order to avoid losing political representation and federal funds, many counties within California are developing outreach and communication campaigns so that an undercount does not occur. San Francisco, one of the hardest to count counties nationwide, has committed itself to minimizing barriers of participation and to making sure that everyone is counted.

Census Day 2020 is still months away, but the time to start ramping up Census outreach is now. With kids heading back to school and the holiday season just around the corner, there are numerous opportunities to get your community engaged and activated.

As we get closer to Census Day on April 1, 2020, we’ll be counting down the months with a timeline of outreach recommendations for governments, community-based organizations, and individuals. CCL staff attend many of the Complete Count Committee meetings that are happening all over the nation, and we thought it would be helpful to share some of the insights that we’ve collected to better help your outreach efforts.

It’s a challenge for government and civic engagement organizations to move constituents from thinking about civic participation to action. This challenge is particularly pronounced in Get Out the Count (GOTC) efforts for the 2020 Census.

On June 29, 2019 the Supreme Court announced their decision to stop the citizenship question from appearing on the 2020 Census. So, does this mean that Census outreach efforts are done? No. Instead, this is a crucial time for outreach efforts to be implemented.

States will play an important role in helping to promote an accurate 2020 Census, but they can’t do it alone. Achieving a fair and accurate 2020 Census will require states to invest in community-based organizations (CBOs) as partners to ensure that trusted voices in local communities reach skeptical people about why it is important to fill out the census form.

We asked census veterans working across the country — from New York City to Minnesota to the Silicon Valley — on how to put together a great Complete Count Committee. Complete Count Committees (CCCs) are volunteer bodies assembled at the city, county, and state level that help with census local outreach and ensuring everyone is counted. Below are some words-of-wisdom for setting your committee up for success!

Community-sourced data and use of technology by local governments has helped make the Local Update of Census Addresses (LUCA) a success in California. A recently-released study reviewing California’s Local Update of Census Addresses (LUCA) shows how canvassing by community-based organizations helped protect $455 million in federal funding that would otherwise have been lost in an undercount.

The State of California just released its RFP for CBOs to apply to become regional ACBOs for the 2020 Census! ACBOs will be responsible for regranting over $30 million in state funding to community partners in their region. Read our summary to learn how your organization can apply to become an ACBO.

The Census Bureau uses a Master Address File (MAF) to distribute self-response forms and identify which residences require enumerator follow-up for the decennial census. If an address is left off the Census’ MAF, residents within that unit will go undercounted. In hard-to-count communities, as many as ​2-3% ​addresses may be missing from the Census’ MAF. Due to budget cuts, the US Census Bureau will have fewer resources and staff to perform on-the-ground, address canvassing, which helps ensure the accuracy of its MAF. Cities and counties had the opportunity to contribute to an accurate MAF earlier this year by performing their own, local address canvassing, a process known as the Local Update of Census Addresses (LUCA).

Sourcing and recruiting high-quality field staff is a strategic way to use precious grant dollars to ensure an accurate count. Door-to-door enumeration will account for up to 40 percent of America’s households in the 2020 Census, nearly 50 percent more than in 2010. The Census needs to hire, train and deploy nearly half a million enumerators — about the same number as the entire US retail sector hires during the holiday season — to knock on doors across the country. The Census Bureau is asking local nonprofits and community-based organizations for help in sourcing those candidates, especially from hard-to-count areas.