Census self-response opened on March 12. The next day, “we were in the full throttles of the health pandemic,” Anita Banerji of Forefront, a civic organization that coordinates grantmakers and community nonprofits, recounts.
At Pilsen’s Mujeres Latinas en Acción, plans for census outreach were well underway when the virus hit: weekly education efforts that regularly reached hundreds at the Mexican consulate, Saturday morning canvassing trips where promotoras (census outreach workers) and volunteers regularly knocked on over 700 doors in a single morning, and one-on-one conversations with community members. These have all been put on hold indefinitely.
Disaster response in the decades to come isn’t the only thing that could potentially be significantly impacted by a lower response rate on the 2020 census. So could our representation in Congress. Illinois is one of four states which has seen its population decline since the 2010 census and is one of ten states that is projected to lose at least one seat in congressional representation as a result of the 2020 census. “And if we don’t bring it, if we don’t get all of our historically undercounted populations counted in the next few months, there’s a very real fear that we could lose that second seat and the federal dollars we rely on,” says Banerji.
Others like Forefront and the Pilsen Neighbors Community Council are also choosing to distribute literature in lieu of face-to-face contact and are turning to virtual public forums like Facebook Live, digital town halls, and webinars. “There are a lot of people that are watching TV more now than they ever have before. So how do we get national ads? How do we get local ads onto streaming sites? How do we do more videos that we can share with our family and friends via texting?” asks Banerji.
Phone banking volunteers have also increased, as callers may have more flexibility with their own time as employers turn to work-from-home arrangements. The fact that callers can canvass from the comfort of their homes rather than having to travel to distant areas to knock on doors in the cold doesn’t hurt either. Many volunteers feel calling about the census helps them feel proactive in the face of ever-increasing uncertainty about the future and the inaccessibility of many other volunteer opportunities in times of social distancing.
Even for those at home, it may not be possible to set the time aside to fill out the census when taking care of children who are home due to school cancellations, trying to keep food on the table while practicing social distancing, and adjusting to a new onslaught of webinars and conference calls throughout the day.
