Innovative Outreach and Hope Amid Virus: Ensuring Latinos Count in 2020 Census
Despite coronavirus closing down thousands of operations, South Central’s TortaMovil is still open and offering its customers more than Mexico City-style tortas. Your order may be served with a side of chiles, homemade salsa and the newest addition to the menu — a 2020 census reminder.
Identifying the hotspots of where Latinos are located and connecting with those places is crucial to continuing outreach on the census and spreading the important message.
More than ever, non-profit groups and community organizations must think outside the box if they want to reach “hard-to-count” Latinos with census time restraints and quarantine restrictions. Accounting for more than one of every six U.S. residents, and one of every four of the country’s population under 18, an inaccurate Latino count will feed the disparities that already exist due to lack of political representation and past racial discrimination.
“It is incredibly difficult to do this type of education in a virtual realm,” said Christian Arana, Director of Policy at the Latino Community Foundation.
Partnering with community health clinics and small Latino business owners is key to forming relationships that inspire change and have the power to inform the public. Naturally, these people have become leaders within their communities because of their regular interactions with local residents. They can serve as trusted census ambassadors by educating their patients and customers. The coronavirus has stripped this crucial person-to-person portion of the outreach.
The more educated people are on the census, the more likely they are to respond. The Latino Community Foundation invests in grassroots Latino-led organizations on the frontlines of social change to expand their reach and increase civic engagement. The Love Not Fear Fund is their newest contribution to funding and supporting trusted, Latino nonprofits in response to the COVID-19 crisis.
When asked if he was planning on filling out the 2020 census, Latino resident Brandon Medrano responded, “Do I have to?”
Medrano resides in Panorama City, where more than 70% of the population is Latino. Traditional field operations used to promote the census in lower turnout areas are no longer an option due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Prior to the coronavirus, a Census Bureau worker would’ve likely been sent door-to-door, including Medrano’s, informing and counting people who didn’t self respond.
Distrust and low participation tend to be highest among groups that have been historically undercounted. Lack of participation stems from a lack of trust and a lack of understanding the count’s impacts.
Vulnerable to an undercount, Latinos were already on a path of having low response rates. Rigorous outreach efforts were already in full-effect in order to combat the citizenship question proposed by President Trump. Despite being rejected, the damage had been done as Latinos remain discouraged and fearful of sharing their information.
The aggressive efforts implemented to combat obstacles already being faced are being tested even further as the coronavirus imposes debilitating circumstances.
“We’re not reaching everyone we had originally intended to reach,” said Director of Civic Engagement at NALEO Educational Fund Ely Flores.
Despite the new challenges, NALEO has adapted quickly to the crisis by creating targeted social media campaigns. Last week they hosted Latinx Census Week of Action with the help of partner organizations, collaborating on actively targetting a different section of the population each day. Staying connected and coordinating with partners is key to pushing outreach efforts forward Flores said.
NALEO has also formed an extra hotline for census questions and concerns.
Community leaders remain hopeful because there are more ways to complete the census today than there were a decade ago. For the first time ever, it can be completed through online, phone or by mail.
Knowing this census would be the first to be accessible online, the Latino Community Foundation had already been investing specifically in youth-serving organizations across the state. Considering younger people are more familiar with using technology, they have a higher potential to help their families fill out the census than in past years.
Choosing to focus on youth groups and virtual outreach is something many groups had already been doing that translates well into the current self-quarantine climate. Digital efforts are at the forefront of getting people to fill out the census, especially since the pandemic hit. The foundation’s social media pages had already been utilizing their platforms, and with more people on their devices during this stay at home period, engagement has increased.
Despite creating a nightmare for many organizations with eager door-to-door initiatives and events, many pre-implemented strategies can continue to thrive in the corona environment and other ones are emerging as outreach organizations quickly adapt to the “new normal.”
The foundation plans to run advertisements on Spotify and has also invested in billboards in the Central Valley, an area historically undercounted as well as historically Latino. Essential grocery store workers and farmworkers who are a part of populations at risk of being inaccurately counted are still on the roads and passing these signs during their daily commutes.
There are an estimated 15 million Latinos living in California. An accurate Latino count translates to a more accurate California count. Political representation and the allocation of $900 billion in federal funding are at stake, especially for Latino communities.
California’s 2010 participation rate was around 67%, and now has nearly five more months to raise its current 60% response rate.
Medrano felt encouraged to participate after learning how an accurate count could increase funding for Panorama’s transportation, health care and other public services.
According to Government Executive, the Census Bureau asked 50,000 Americans: “Which one of the following is the most important reason, to you personally, that you should fill out the census form?” Funding for public services in the community ranked most popular, with 30% of householders identifying it as their primary or most important reason for participation.
Nurses and doctors at the frontlines of the pandemic are being applauded. “We should actually do them a favor and make sure that they have the resources they need for the next 10 years. The only way they’re going to get that is by us filling out the census,” Arana said. “When you start to link the moment with why this is so important, people start to get it.”
