HomeMy WebLinkAboutCensus 2020 Overview. Nantucket CountsNantucket Counts!
Census 2020
September 11, 2019
Massachusetts
Immigrant and
Refugee
Advocacy Coalition
Secretary of the
Commonwealth
Agenda
•Census 2020 Overview
•What’s at Stake?
•Challenges
•Messaging
•Action Steps
•Resources
April 1st is Census Day!
Mandated by the U.S.
Constitution every 10 years
What's the
2020 Census?
equal representation and
fair allocation of
resources to communities
Count every person where
they live and sleep most of
the year
Why does the 2020 Census Matter?
$22 Billion in Federal
Funds for Massachusetts in
FY16*
*Prepared by Andrew Reamer, the George Washington Institute of Public Policy, the George Washington University. Spending data
analysis provided by Sean Moulton, Open Government Program Manager, Project on Government Oversight. | January 30, 2019
Equal Representation
at the national, state, and local levels
Impacts Communities
$238 million for Title I Public Schools
$75 million for childcare
$535 million for Children’s Health Insurance
Program (CHIP)
$9.7 billion for Medicaid
Critical programs
that support education,housing,
healthcare, and transportation services in
our communities
What’s at Stake for Nantucket
Funds
An undercount of the population can have
negative, compounding effects on funding
for the island
Political Representation
Representation is determined by census
numbers, at the federal, state, and local
levels
Affects communities
Undercounting residents will stretch thin
the resources people depend on everyday
Critical programs
Census numbers determine the planning
and funding of infrastructure and
transportation needs for communities
Massachusetts
Census Ecosystem
Partnerships are key to
getting a fair and accurate
count
We must work together to engage
people, important stakeholders and
trusted leaders, especially in the hard to
count communities.
Federal
Census
Bureau
Nonprofits,
Advocacy, Faith
& Community
Groups
Complete
Count
Committees
Sponsors
Elected
Officials
March 12
Census Bureau sends letters to households for self-
response
Bureau conducts Update Leave
Census
Operations: Key
Dates 2020 March 30 -April 1
Service-Based Enumeration (Count of the Homeless)
April 1: Census Day!
April 9-May 4
Early Non-Response Follow-Up Begins
May 13
Non-Response Follow-Up begins
Late August
Non-Response Follow Up ends
Sample of Census 2020 Questionnaire
*Available on census.gov
•How many people are living in this house,
apartment, or mobile home on April 1, 2020?
•Does this person usually live or stay elsewhere?
•Is this house, apartment, or mobile home --(owned,
rented, occupied without payment of rent)?
•What is your phone number?
•For each resident: What is their
•Age
•Sex
•Race
•Ethnicity
Questions on
the 2020
Census
Safe and Confidential
Title 13 of the U.S. Code
•This law protects the confidentiality of individual responses to the Census.
•Private information (ex: names, addresses, phone numbers) is not published
until 72 years after collection.
•Your census responses cannot be used against you in any court of law or by law
enforcement. No agency can access your individual responses.
•Census staff take a lifetime oath and if violated the penalty is up to $250,000
and/or up to 5 years in prison.
https://www.census.gov/data.html
You can visit this website to see how data is depersonalized and aggregated, protecting your
data at all costs.
How to
Respond?
Online
phone
by mail
Census Bureau will begin
sending out field staff
(called enumerators) –Mid-
May
12 languages
Identifying Census Bureau Staff
•ID Badge (name, photo, Department of Commerce watermark, and expiration date)
•Carry a bag with the Census Bureau logo or a laptop
•Provide you a letter on Census Bureau letterhead
•9AM –9PM
•Upon request, provide their supervisor’s phone number
•Check on
•Online: “Census Bureau Staff Search”
•Call: Census Bureau Regional Office at 1-800-991-2520
•People of color (especially men, ages (18−49)
•Low income households (renters), urban & rural
•Young children (ages 0−4), especially Black & Latinx
children
•Limited English Proficiency and Foreign-Born Households
•Single, female-headed households
•Mobile Young Adults
Perennial
Challenges
Historically Undercounted Groups (under 20% return rate) include:
Unique
Challenges in
2020
•First digital census and disparities in
access to broadband
•Fear among immigrant communities
•Lack of public facing Census offices
•No stationary Questionnaire Assistant
Centers
Unique Challenges in Nantucket
•Low response rates
•Access to internet
•Immigrants
•Seasonal workers
•Renters
•Snowbirds
Tool Navigator
The UMass Donahue Institute
and the Secretary of the
Commonwealth’s Office
developed an interactive map
that can show every hard-to-
count geography in the state.
This information is very useful
for planning census events and
where to concentrate resources
for census outreach.
What can we do?
Share the
message
with friends, groups
and communities
about the importance
of responding to the
2020 Census
Inform residents
on what the survey
letter and online form
will look like, and how
to avoid scams
Coordinate with
partners
Secretary of the
Commonwealth;
Statewide and local
Complete Count
Committees; and
advocacy, faith, and
community groups.
Develop and
implement
strategies
to raise awareness,
engage stakeholders
and trusted
messengers, and
encourage
collaboration.
to ensure your community gets its fair share of resources and representation for the next
decade
Contact
Statewide Complete Count
Committee Coordinator, MIRA
vsivongxay@miracoalition.org
Resources
Commit to Count!
Be heard, seen and counted.
•MassCounts
•Mass Equity Fund
•Secretary of the Commonwealth
•Complete Count Committees
•NALEO Educational Fund
•Asian American Advancing Justice
Secretary of the Commonwealth
ma2020census@sec.state.ma
1-833-MA1-2020
ma2020census.org