You Still Count! The sta by Suzanne Hanney
Completing the census is radical resistance, spoken word artist Bella Bahhs told 35,000 Chicago youth attending the We Gon’ Be Alright virtual concert that followed a May 23 youth summit hosted by Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s first-ever youth commission. “Ain’t I a woman, don’t I count? Ain’t it about time I get what’s mine?...Proactive care means calling on our community to fill out the 2020 census. I never would have thought of it as radical resistance if the Women’s Justice Institute hadn’t had it make sense. The U.S. census determines how many seats your state gets in the House of Representatives. That’s the branch of Congress that actually approved Donald Trump’s impeachment. “The U.S. census determines how billions of dollars in federal funding get distributed and spent,” Bahhs continued. “We need schools, jobs, offices, homes, shelters, community shelters, money to fund our businesses. I am here on behalf of all from whom I am descended. This is a head count. I have been present. They have been counting us out. Look at the resilience. I will not let you discount our experience.” Illinois was in 8th place nationally in U.S. census response in early June, which Cook County, the State of Illinois, the City of Chicago and Forefront have termed “Census Awareness Month.” As of June 15, Illinois had a self-response rate of 66.2 percent -- almost at its 70.5 percent finish in 2010. The Illinois returns are also ahead of the nation’s 60.8 percent average. But officials say we could be doing better. “We want a complete and accurate count,” says Marishonta Wilkerson, director at the Illinois 2020 Census office. Chicago’s self-response rate, meanwhile, was just 53.5 percent, with some tracts reporting only in the 30s. The lowestreporting neighborhoods include South Lawndale, North Lawndale, New City, Back of the Yards, Hermosa, West Englewood, Englewood, Pilsen, Austin and Belmont-Cragin. Throughout June, messages from the city, county and state will target hard-to-count communities: those who are underserved, those with limited English proficiency, seniors and those under age 5, homeless people, returning residents, LGBTQIA and those with a mistrust of government. The urgency is that census results determine not only seats in the U.S. House of Representatives, but as much as $675 billion annually in federal money distributed to states for programs ranging from Medicaid to food stamps, TANF and
Section 8 (see sidebar on page 11). The U.S. Constitution requires the census every 10 years and reallocates congressional seats as population shifts. Illinois could lose one seat relative to states that have gained population and a second seat if 2020's undercount is as high 2010's. Given those high stakes, the state of Illinois spent $29 million on U.S. census outreach and education – more per capita than any other state in the U.S. – for a hub-and-spoke system of Regional Intermediaries (RIs), or “trusted messengers.” At Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s request, the Illinois General Assembly allocated an additional $14.5 million to continue this work for the current fiscal year through October 31, when census reporting closes. The COVID-19 crisis made outreach difficult by eliminating face-to-face contact, so the RIs got creative with social media, from Zoom meetings to platforms such as WhatsApp and Facebook. Car caravans, with autos decorated with the census message and honking their horns, have snaked through undercounted neighborhoods to get attention so community groups can do phone bank or social media follow-up. Awareness Month events include car caravans in immigrant neighborhoods planned for June 17 and for the LGBTQ community on June 29. The Illinois Black Legislative Caucus was charged with events for June 19, or Juneteenth.
