Organizations push to complete count as 2020 census operations resume

Field operators are stepping up efforts to contact hard-to-find community members in Sacramento following the resumption of census counting that was stalled during the coronavirus pandemic.

The federal field operations will focus on 150,000 households in the Sacramento Valley that do not get regular mail. The operation is a part of the phase known as “update leave” in which census employees deliver a census questionnaire to homes in person, leaving it behind for a resident to fill out.

The efforts were suspended on March 18 amid surging positive cases of COVID-19. Rural pockets of the state, including Isleton in Sacramento County, have been lagging in responses to the census survey.

Field operators will receive safety training, comply with social distancing protocols and be provided with personal protective equipment, according to the Census Bureau.

The average response rate of California households is at 62 percent, just above the national average of 61 percent, according to a press release by the Sacramento Region Community Foundation, the lead organization coordinating on-the-ground efforts in Region One, which includes Sacramento and 16 other counties. Region One’s average stands at 65 percent.

Aside from people who could not receive mail, the hard-to-count population includes young children, communities of color, seniors, low-income residents and renters, among others.

“The counties in Region One are extremely diverse in population and geography, and we are committed to supporting a complete count in each of them,” said Linda Beech Cutler, chief executive officer of the Sacramento Region Community Foundation.

Harjit Singh, director of personnel for the Jakara Movement, a Californian Sikh community organization, said his organization has been conducting outreach in Sutter, Placer, Sacramento and Yuba counties to help reach the hard-to-count communities. While door-to-door canvassing had been effective in outreach before March, Singh said the organization had to re-strategize with statewide stay-home orders in place during March.

With limited interactions, the Jakara Movement has taken its outreach to radio.

“Through various radio programs, we have provided important census information and updates, and we have also shared a census hotline number for listeners from hard-to-count populations,” Singh said.

Singh noted the hotline has helped address misconceptions, especially for community members with English as a second language.

Among the misconceptions: that April 1 was the deadline for filling out the census. Singh said community members have been heartened to learn that April 1 was simply the launch date for the census questionnaire.

“Through our hotline, we have connected with thousands of ... community members who need help completing the census,” he said, adding that the Jakara Movement will resume phone-banking as census outreach this month.

Gabby Trejo, co-chair of the Sacramento Complete Count Committee and executive director of Sacramento ACT, a community-building and advocacy organization, said the group has worked with clergy and faith leaders across the region to ensure that they are educating their congregations about the importance of completing the census.

Community leaders in other counties also shared their strategies amid COVID-19. Michelle O’Gorman from the Siskiyou Community Resource Collaborative, said her group worked closely with the food donation task forces to put census flyers in every bag of food.

Heidi Hall, chair of the Nevada County Board of Supervisors, said the focus there has been on phone banking, adding census information to the 211 helpline, placing advertisements in local media and posting regularly on social media.

“We created strategies that make sense to our community members,” Hall said.

Secretary of State Alex Padilla, who also serves as chairman of the California Complete Count Committee, reiterated the importance of filling in the census. As an increasingly diverse and most populous state in the nation, Padilla said California has the highest stake when it comes to ensuring a complete count.

“It is our population count, in proportion to the rest of the nation’s population, that determines our representation in congress,” Padilla said. “Receiving adequate federal funding for public health, public safety, education and infrastructure will be crucial to help our state move forward in the next decade.”

The deadline for online self-response and field data collection has been extended to Oct. 31.

This story was originally published June 10, 2020 at 4:23 PM.