Encouragement to participate in the census gets creative during COVID-19 mandates by Suzanne Hanney
LOTERIA
THIS PAGE: Examples of the Loteria cards made by Latino Policy Forum. OPPOSITE PAGE: Social Media poster promoting the dance party that encouraged Census participation.
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7
FOOD PANTRIES
PARTICIPATION
SPECIAL NEEDS
15
11
17
CENSUS
IMMIGRANTS 24
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TELL YOUR FRIENDS
CENSUS DATES
REPRESENTATION
As of May 7, Illinois was 7th in the nation for self-response, with 62.4 percent of its population counted, compared to the 57.3 percent national average, Illinois census officials said. Because of the pandemic, the self-response phase has been extended from July 31 to October 31; the nonresponse follow-up period, originally set for May 13-July 31, is now August 31-October 31. Immigrant neighborhoods remain some of the hardest to count, with one reason being the fear of a citizenship status question sought by the Trump administration but struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court. Still, census officials say that they’ve seen some significant improvements. State Senate District 11, which includes Little Village, Brighton Park and Garfield Ridge, was at 35 percent in early April and is now at 49 percent. SGA Youth & Family Services, which works with Latino communities in Pilsen, Back of the Yards, Brighton Park and Little Village and with African Americans in Roseland, switched to social media for outreach when its offices closed in March. On Fridays since then, SGA has partnered with Pilsen Wellness and Pilsen Neighbors Community Council for the caravans, targeted to streets that have been low in census participation. “Everyone was social distancing, in their closed cars, wearing a mask, creative in decorating their own cars,” said SGA Census Coordinator Diana Perez of a recent Friday that drew 40 vehicles. “We were making a lot of noise so people would be curious and would go to their windows. The point is to remind everyone to fill out the census.” A Wednesday night dance party on May 6 featured two DJs spinning cumbia and ranchera music, with appearances by state
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GROWTH
CONSTITUTION
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CENSUS FORM 1
SCHOOL
MENTAL HEALTH
1
14
AFTER-SCHOOL ACTIVITIES
YOUNG CHILDREN
20
13
LIBRARY
TABLA 3 6
16
DOCTOR
FAMILY
ELDERS
3
FUNDING
LOTERIA 19
12
5
16
9
Auto caravans, online dance parties and drag shows are creative responses Illinois nonprofits are using to urge people to fill out the 2020 U.S. Census in the wake of COVID-19 mandates against face-to-face contact.
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2
25
SCHOOL
HOW TO RESPOND
CENSUS FORM 8
COMMUNITY
10
2
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CLASSROOM SIZE
FOOD PANTRIES
CONFIDENTIALITY
Rep. Karina Villa (D-Batavia) and Oswaldo Alvarez, Illinois census director. Former U.S. Congressman Luis Gutierrez (DChicago) spoke on another Facebook Live segment. “He emphasized people have to submit the census,” Perez said. “It goes back to the way the community is funded. If we want a better community, we have to do the census.” Latinos are 17 percent of the state’s population, but they are also highly represented among typically undercounted people: immigrants, low-income, renters, children under 5, according to the Latino Policy Forum. Since the census determines representation in Congress and spending on federal programs, if Latinos are undercounted, they are also underfunded and underrepresented, according to the Forum. In an e-blast, the Latino Policy Forum assured its 200 partner organizations about census confidentiality. It has also developed a variation of the Mexican card game Loteria, in which participants match riddle answers to pictures on their game boards. The census Loteria discusses confidentiality, Illinois’s potential loss of a seat in Congress in the wake of an undercount, the census impact on federal spending for education and seniors’ programs and more; it has also been used for Facebook Live events, said communications coordinator Steven Arroyo. Rather than risk losing more of its Blue State representation in Congress, the state of Illinois is spending $29 million – more per capita than any other state – on education and outreach about census importance. The hub-and-spoke system uses “regional intermediaries” (RIs), or trusted messengers, to reach hard-tocount populations. The YWCA Metropolitan Chicago is one of the grantees and SGA is a subgrantee. Howard Brown Health Center, another YWCA subgrantee for the LGBTQ+ population, is planning a drag show on Facebook Live with census information during the “commercial breaks,” said Regan Sonnabend, vice president of marketing and com-
