A WORD FROM THE NEW YORK STATE CENSUS EQUITY FUND
The continual challenges confronting Census 2020 have required groups focused on achieving a complete count to constantly pivot and find new ways to do their work. Since the middle of March, when the country was asked to shelter in place and census operations and Get Out the Count (GOTC) efforts slowed almost to a halt, the New York State Census Equity Fund was in the middle of its third grant round. The third round of funding was focused on providing small grants to nonprofits outside in regions outside of Long Island and New York City poised to lead local GOTC efforts as the Census Bureau was preparing to launch the online census questionnaire form on March 12. The third round of funding, which closed on March 31
st
, supported 36 groups all of which were forced to re-imagine how they could convert neighborhood and community in-person events to promote the importance of participating in the 2020 Census through digital organizing, texting, phone banking, and Zoom town halls.
With the country sheltering in place, the Census Bureau was forced to halt all field operations until mid-May, and to extend the self-response deadline to October 31
from July 31. After reflecting on what these changes mean for New York State’s census count, the NYSCEF Steering Committee has agreed to participate in a two-day retreat in mid-June to develop a new strategy for how to use its remaining resources to assist with GOTC efforts, using real-time data from the Census Bureau, to increase self-response in the hardest to count tracts in the State. We look forward to sharing more about the Fund’s grantmaking plans in future updates, as well as how the Fund will support fair redistricting.
The New York State Census Equity Fund Steering Committee
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NEWS FROM THE CENSUS BUREAU
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- For an updated timeline regarding Census operations and deadlines due to the impacts of COVID-19, click here.
- The Census Bureau has announced that 13 states will restart the Update/Leave operation that was suspended back in early March; New York is not included on the list. Update/Leave is the Bureau's method of hand-delivering census packets to homes that have non-traditional addresses, seasonal homes, or other areas where hand-delivery is preferred over mail (leaving the packet at the door & updating the address in the Bureau's master list). The operation was intended to cover 5 million housing units in 2020 stateside, but most of these homes (about 95%) never received packets because the Bureau suspended the operation due to COVID-19 restrictions.
- Some states and communities have substantial concentrations of homes covered by Update/Leave, which has resulted in low response rates in these areas because households have not received any direct communication from the Bureau about how to respond. New York is among one of the states with a substantial concentration of homes covered by Update/Leave. The NYSCEF continues to monitor the counts in those regions along with the NYS Regional Census Bureau, New York Counts 2020, and the New York Civic Engagement Table.
- To review the 2020 Census Response Rate Map, click here.
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NEW YORK STATE
Read some of the latest headlines, resources, and news stories impacting our State's Census count
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The
New York State Census Equity Fund (NYSCEF)
helped support the following projects and resources that can assist communities with their local Census efforts. We encourage you to share these tool-kits with your grantee partners and local CCCs:
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AN UPDATE ABOUT
CUNY HARD TO COUNT MAPS
CUNY has been producing a weekly analysis of self-response rates. For those looking for a high-level overview of the weekly analysis, see the links below:
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Self-Response: Responding without an ID
Census Counts 2020 and New America have created this
resource
to help individuals without an ID to respond to the Census.
Census Protection Hotlines
The Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law (888-COUNT20), in partnership and coordination with the Arab American Institute (833-3DDOUNI), Asian Americans Advancing Justice | AAJC (844-2020-API), and NALEO Educational Fund (877-EL-CENSO), are operating census hotlines in English, Spanish, Arabic, and eight Asian languages. The hotlines are live and ready to serve as a resource for individuals and organizations who have questions or concerns about the 2020 Census. Additional details and resources are available in the
Census Protection Hotline Partner Toolkit
.
Census Disinformation Resources
Disinformation is false or misleading information that has been intentionally designed to confuse and manipulate the public. The best way to inoculate against disinformation around the 2020 Census is to uplift positive messages about the importance of census participation. This
recent webinar
explains how to track, assess, report and respond to census mis/disinformation. Additional resources:
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WEEKLY-SELF RESPONSE ANALYSIS
Date/Time: Fridays at 1:00 pm ET
FCI, in coordination with Census Counts and the CUNY Mapping Service, will host a weekly briefing for funders and practitioners during the 2020 Census self-response phase. During these briefings, Steven Romalewski, Director of the CUNY Mapping Service, and Terri Ann Lowenthal, FCI Consultant, will offer an analysis of the daily household self-response rates from the US Census Bureau and answer questions.
Their written analysis will be distributed weekly in advance of the briefings and will cover both national trends and comparative analysis (e.g. urban vs. rural, patterns by race/ethnicity, tracts that received different types of mailings, etc.). Funders and practitioners can also track self-response rates through the
CUNY
Hard-to-Count Map
. See also:
Tracking 2020 Census Progress
Factsheet
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FUNDER MEETINGS
Date/Time: Fridays at 2:00 pm ET; March 20 - TBD*
FCI, in collaboration with the Democracy Funders Collaborative Census Subgroup and United Philanthropy Forum, will host regular meetings for philanthropic institutions during the 2020 Census self-response phase. The meetings will be an opportunity to review key census trends and messages, highlight best practices and challenges, identify operational issues, share funding strategies, and inform grantmaking.
These meetings are open only to philanthropic institutions, including funders, philanthropy serving organizations, donor advisors, etc.
*
Note:
These calls are scheduled weekly. Based on participation and emerging needs, the organizers may decide to reduce the frequency of the calls or convene philanthropic institutions only on an ad-hoc basis.
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RESOURCES FROM THE
NY CIVIC ENGAGEMENT TABLE
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The NY Civic Engagement Table has released a resources folder for nonprofits to access information and materials to help them implement their get out the count (GOTC) programming. You are encouraged to share this resource with your nonprofit partners and CCCs preparing and interested in implementing GOTC programming.
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For grantees looking to engage in census-related activities, refer them to
NY Counts 2020
.
NY Counts 2020 is a coalition of nearly 100 diverse nonprofits/groups from across New York State developing a state-strategy focused on advocacy efforts, and providing information, resources and technical assistance as it relates to 'get out the count' measures to community-based organizations.
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To receive emails with tips, events, and resources from NY Counts 2020 click on this
link
and add a name and email address. Each week, NY Counts 2020 is sending out
Mobilize Monday, Take Two Tuesday,
and
We Count Wednesday
so foundation leaders and nonprofits are encouraged to sign up.
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This email was generated by
Engage New York
in support of the NYS Census Equity Fund; a pooled fund focused on supporting and mobilizing get out the count efforts to ensure every New Yorker is counted in Census 2020.
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