The State of Illinois census marketing campaign proves worthwhile with a 55.4% of the state counted so far; StreetWise joins the census task force to reach those facing homelessness

The State of Illinois census marketing campaign proves worthwhile with a 55.4% of the state counted so far; StreetWise joins the census task force to reach those facing homelessness

by Suzanne Hanney

The state of Illinois allocated $29 million to outreach and education on the importance of completing the 2020 U.S. census, which appears to be money well spent, since more than half the state’s population had been counted by April 20, in spite of coronavirus shelter-in-place mandates that pushed all outreach efforts online.

According to Marishonta Wilkerson, co-director for the Illinois census office, 55.4 percent of the state’s population had been counted, whereas in 2010, only 70 percent of Illinoisans were counted by the end of the census. Illinois has been among the top 10 response states in the U.S., where the national rate is 50.7 percent. The self-response deadline has been extended from June through October 31.

“Things are just coming to fruition, although everyone had to rework their plans and pivot a bit” from direct engagement to digital, said Regan Sonnabend, vice president of marketing and communication and census project director for the YWCA Metropolitan Chicago. The YWCA received a portion of the $29 million as one of the “regional intermediaries” (RIs) in the state’s hub-and-spoke program to blanket the state with “trusted messengers” who will get the word to their communities. The YWCA in turn subcontracted with 13 agencies, including South Asian American Policy & Research Institute (SAAPRI), Howard Brown Health Center and StreetWise.

Online marketing turned out to be more personable than one would have imagined, Sonnabend said. “Zoom integration allows you to have guests like on a radio show, who appear on a grid like the introduction of [1970s TV show] The Brady Bunch. You can display up to 50 people at a time.” Howard Brown Health Center, for example, had a “watch party” with DJs and has continued to integrate census outreach with its essential services in health care, as well as extra programs on the impact of being isolated during the pandemic and the importance of social-emotional health. Similarly, a food pantry stickered some of its items with information about the census website, and that the form was easy enough to complete by smartphone, “from the safety of your home.”

SAAPRI reached out proactively to Facebook interest groups targeted to both parents (because the 2010 census undercounted children by 10 percent) and seniors, said Executive Director Shobhana Verma. The census is not being offered in any South Asian language such as Hindi, Gujarati, Urdu or Bangla, but there is support on its website in 59 languages, so SAAPRI provided that link.

Following a merger with the YWCA Metropolitan Chicago, StreetWise will be taking a lead role in coordinating the street count of homeless individuals, which will mean a stipend for more than 20 vendors or participants in the StreetWise Transitional Employment Program (STEP). The team will be distributing census branded items such as baseball hats, water bottles or bags, along with information and awareness about the census.

“This is such a timely opportunity for those vendors and jobseekers who are looking for short-term, targeted opportunities to make money,” said StreetWise Executive Director Julie Youngquist.

The state’s target for the $29 million campaign was “hard to count” populations, which can be people with low-income, who tend to move around so that they might miss the census form in their mailboxes. College students are also hard to count, because they are mobile, attached to their phones more than to a place; they expect their parents to fill out the form for them when the reality is, everyone’s census “home” is wherever they are on April 1.

“Trust” is also a major issue across the board, from immigrants threatened by a citizenship question that didn’t materialize on the census to people concerned about privacy. However, according to the Census Bureau website, by law the information can be used only for confidential, statistical profiles; individual data is released only after 72 years.

Mandated by the U.S. Constitution, the census determines how many seats each state receives in the House of Representatives, which is a major reason for the Illinois effort. Census population numbers also determine federal money returned to the states for 50+ programs, Sonnabend said; from schools to infrastructure, to health care, said SAAPRI’s Verma.