With the 2020 Census around the corner, local governments have a very important job: to ensure that all of their constituents get counted! Engaging Local Government Leaders interviewed Perla Ni, CEO and founder of the Census Outreach Project, to discuss how local governments can get the job done.

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.