SANTA CLARA, CA – Never again be taken for granted, U.S. Census outreach workers are urging communities throughout the San Francisco Bay Area.

As the decennial event draws near, the U.S. Census is escalating visibility to ensure inclusion of historically undercounted populations in next year’s enumeration.

Some $400 million for the census comes from the federal government with states and local governments contributing to enhance outreach efforts.  This time the state of California reportedly has decreased allocation to $2 million from $25 million in 2000, posing greater challenge to workers.

“At this point the state hasn’t allocated and the U.S. Census is carrying the bulk of the funding,” U.S. Census Bureau spokesperson Sonny Le confirmed to ‘Philippine News.’  “Because of the financial situation, we are becoming more creative.  Now we have 160 workers in Northern California alone compared to the 18 we had 10 years ago.  The foundations have also stepped up because the state of California will not be playing a big role in this count.” 

‘CALL TO ACTION’

“This is a call to action,” U.S. Census presenter Vince Khanna reminded representatives of diverse organizations with addresses in this county south of San Francisco Bay who attended the breakfast meeting occurring in census partnership sites throughout the country.  “We need your leadership in organizing a neighborhood drive to state the importance of the census.”

Khanna reiterated the two reasons why accuracy is imperative.

 “Federal funding and congressional seats” for the state will be determined by the numbers collected, he said at the Santa Clara County Center replicated shortly after in San Francisco and other sites across the state.

The plan is for a neighborhood outreach involving “100 block parties to be promoted by local leaders assuring safety and confidentiality” of information turned in, he said. 

Outreach workers will be attending Sunday church service to mobilize congregants. All principals in county schools have received packets encouraging participation.  The lesbian-gay-bisexual-transgender community has a U.S. Census Bureau “partnership specialist” in Ray Mueller, who is organizing outreach events up and down the state.   

Despite the dramatic decrease in state funding, census workers hope to match if not surpass the 70 percent return of forms in the state in 2000.

“We will open about 70-80 of what we call the Questionnaire Assistance Centers where folks can go get help,” said Le.  “This is where we will have language assistance guides or informational forms in different languages that the public may use side by side with the English version.”

Unlike the last census, Tagalog questionnaires will not be available.

“Our race and ethnic advisory committee determined that Tagalog questionnaires were not used as much as the English questionnaires in 2000,” explained Le.  “People who have language questions would then be referred to centers where they might get help for Tagalog, Cebuano, Visaya and Ilocano assistance.”

Le assured, however, that posters and media announcements will come in Tagalog and other languages other than English widely spoken in California to keep its diverse population “well informed” of ongoing census activities.

‘HARD TO COUNT’

The Census 2010 is focusing on “hard to count” sectors, 10 of the largest 50 counties with said populations living in California.  Los Angeles is the California County with the highest “HTC” demographic that includes Alameda and San Francisco.  All three counties have high concentrations of Filipinos.

Following are the attributes identified by the census that make certain populations “hard to reach”:

Language isolation

Ethnic enclave

High density

Renters

Multiple families

Poverty status

Low education

Young males

Single parent

Recent immigrant

Family mobility     

These populations tend to be unfamiliar with or consider the process non-priority.  Those who came from countries in dictatorships may have been suspicious of the exercise. 

Workers hope to connect with communities of color, young adults, low-income families and immigrants and “educate” them on the benefits of completing and returning their census forms.  They hope that by word of mouth, community leaders may be able to raise awareness and trust in the census.