[CTPP] CENSUS NEWS BRIEF
Ed Christopher
edc at berwyned.com
Tue Dec 22 08:38:54 CST 2009
In this issue
Census Bureau Operational Update
Stakeholders Gear Up for Promotional Push
Census Bureau Funding Set for 2010
Senators Urge "Hiring Priority" for Unemployed
New Resources for Census Partners
CENSUS BUREAU READIES LAUNCH OF AD CAMPAIGN; RECRUITMENT ON SCHEDULE
After printing hundreds of millions of census questionnaires,
"successfully opening" roughly 500 Local Census Offices, and readying
three massive processing centers (Phoenix, Baltimore, and
Jeffersonville, IN) to scan tens of thousands of forms an hour, the
Census Bureau is preparing to launch a $300 million advertising campaign
in mid-January and enumerate residents of remote Alaskan villages at the
end of that month. Ads will run during the Golden Globe Awards on
January 17, as well as during the Super Bowl, for what Census Director
Robert Groves called the "shortest census in our lifetimes." At his
second operational press briefing on December 14, Dr. Groves highlighted
135,000 official census partners, organizations like AARP, Black
Entertainment Television and Telemundo, the National Urban League,
Target Corporation, and thousands of local groups that "volunteer to get
the message out about the census" to their constituencies.
The Census Bureau has employed about 3,000 partnership specialists and
assistants for the 2010 census, five times the number it hired for the
2000 count. Thirty-seven states have formed Complete Count Committees,
bringing together representatives of a community's population and
sectors to promote the census, Dr. Groves reported.
The bureau, which has catalogued 9,100 such committees -- some formed by
local governments, some by communities of interest -- nationwide, is now
trying to "energize" these stakeholders, the director said. He
commended Complete Count Committees for their creative activities,
including census booths at block parties and community centers and
promotional messages on garbage trucks. The director said that the paid
media campaign will feature "tailored messages to very small areas,"
such as census tracts, targeting communities where mail response was
especially low in 2000. Advertising also will try to convince people
who hold anti-government views that the census can benefit their
communities and families, he added in response to a reporter's query,
saying that distrust of government is "part of the American spirit."
Regional promotion will start in early January, when 13 vehicles set off
on a road tour (one national; one for each of the 12 Census Bureau
regions), stopping at local events to drum up interest in the 2010 count.
Operational preparations continue: In a large canvassing operation last
spring, the Census Bureau checked 145 million addresses on its Master
Address File, as well as those submitted by cities, towns, and states
under the Local Update of Census Addresses (LUCA) program. The final
list contains 134 million addresses, about two percent more than the
most recent independent, annual housing unit estimate. Canvassers
couldn't find some addresses on their list; about 100,000 housing units
can't be placed in an appropriate census block, Dr. Groves noted. The
bureau will continue to update the address list through the LUCA appeals
program, local government submissions of newly constructed units, and a
final comparison with the Postal Service's Delivery Sequence File. Most
housing units added to the master list this close to the start of the
census will not receive a questionnaire by mail; census takers will
visit the homes during later field operations.
The bureau completed a new program to confirm the location of facilities
that house groups of people (called Group Quarters), such as college
dorms, military barracks, prisons, and long term nursing homes. Field
workers are building an address list, independent from the one used to
conduct the census, that will set the universe for the post-census
accuracy check survey (called Census Coverage Measurement).
The Census Bureau ran a "large load test" on key software that will help
it manage data collection and field operations. Dr. Groves said the
test revealed "some glitches" for which the bureau had solutions; a
follow-up test was scheduled for last week. The director acknowledged
that "not everything will work perfectly" once the census starts and
that "there will be bumps" along the way. The key to a successful
numeration, he said, is to "calmly, quickly, and wisely" fix problems at
they occur. The expertise and experience of Census Bureau staff
managing the census give him confidence, Dr. Groves said, that the
agency can meet the challenges of such a massive undertaking.
Recruitment campaign helped by recession: High unemployment in many
areas has made census jobs more "valued," Dr. Groves observed at the
press briefing, resulting in an applicant pool of "unprecedented"
quality and skill. The Census Bureau is recruiting 3.8 million
applicants to fill 1.2 to 1.4 million temporary positions in 2010, with
as many as 700,000 of those workers on board during peak operations from
May through early July, when enumerators visit households that didn't
mail back a census form. The Census Bureau tries to "hire locally,"
giving priority to applicants from the neighborhoods in which they will
work and bilingual applicants in areas where a language other than
English is primary. The safety of both the public and enumerators is
"paramount," the director said.
Candidates for census jobs must submit to an FBI background and
fingerprint check; any felony conviction disqualifies an applicant from
employment, and applicants must demonstrate they are not a danger to
others if their background check turns up a lesser crime. To help
ensure their safety while going door-to-door, census takers in
higher-crime neighborhoods will work in pairs or have escorts. The
agency is "acting aggressively to make sure enumerators and the American
public are safe,"Dr. Groves asserted.
Foreclosures, legal deadlines pose challenges: Most of the population
will receive their census forms in the mail in mid-March 2010. The
Census Bureau is still evaluating factors that could affect mail
response, Dr. Groves said, emphasizing that the national mail-back rate
is a "very fragile number" that could change due to unforeseen,
widely-reported events. The foreclosure crisis will likely contribute
to lower initial response rates because the numbers are calculated based
on all housing units on the address list, whether occupied or vacant.
Dr. Groves predicted that new initiatives for 2010, such as bilingual
(English-Spanish) forms and targeted replacement questionnaires in low
response areas, would help boost cooperation during the
"mail-out/mail-back" phase of the census. Census workers will
hand-deliver questionnaires to residents of rural and remote areas,
Indian reservations, and other areas that lack city-style addresses or
are undergoing significant housing upheaval, such as communities still
recovering from Hurricane Katrina. People should return their forms by
April 1, Census Day. (Census takers will collect information from
residents when they deliver the questionnaires in some very remote
areas, including Indian reservations, in an operation called
Update/Enumerate.) Door-to-door visits to unresponsive homes will take
place from May through early July. High vacancy rates add to the scope
and cost of the Nonresponse Follow-Up operation, the director warned, as
field workers try to confirm that no one lives in a unit. Those
displaced by foreclosures "went somewhere" and could be doubled-up with
relatives or friends, he added. The Census Bureau is under a "very hard
[legal] deadline," Dr. Groves emphasized, to report state population
totals to the President by December 31, 2010, for the purpose of
reapportioning the 435 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Correction: Based on an inadvertent misstatement at the last census
advisory committee meeting, the November 8, 2009 Census News Brief #81
incorrectly stated that 15,000 local governments would participate in
the Local Update of Census Addresses (LUCA) appeals process, which
allows them to challenge the final address lists resulting from last
spring's nationwide canvassing operation. There were only 7,600
governments eligible to take part in the final phase of LUCA. The
Census Bureau reported that roughly 15,000 local governments, out of
29,000 eligible jurisdictions, said they were interested in the New
Construction Program; just over 6,000 of those jurisdictions registered
to take part.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
PROMOTION CAMPAIGNS TO HIGHLIGHT 100-DAYS-OUT AND CHRISTMAS-CENSUS LINK
National advocacy groups and grassroots organizations are launching
campaigns targeting hard-to-reach populations, hoping to reverse the
persistent, disproportionate undercount of people of color, low income
households, and young children in the census. Using December 22 --
which marks 100 days from Census Day (April 1) -- and the Christmas
season to draw attention to the decennial count, the activities will
highlight the birth of Jesus while Mary and Joseph were traveling to
Bethlehem to be counted in the census and set the stage for the start of
the Census Bureau's massive paid media campaign in mid-January. The
Unity Diaspora Coalition (UDC), an alliance of organizations epresenting
the interests of Black Americans, met with Commerce Secretary Gary Locke
and Census Director Robert Groves last week and announced their plans to
encourage census participation in native-born and immigrant Black
communities. Meeting participants included Marc Morial, National Urban
League president and chair of the 2010 Census Advisory Committee;
Melanie Campbell, Executive Director/CEO, National Coalition on Black
Civic Participation; National Council of Negro Women chair Dorothy
Height; census subcommittee chairman and Congressional Black Caucus
member Rep. William Lacy Clay (D-MO); NAACP president Ben Jealous; the
Reverends Jesse Jackson Sr. (Rainbow PUSH Coalition) and Al Sharpton
(National Action Network); census subcommittee Chairman William Lacy
Clay; Danny Bakewell, Sr., National Newspaper Publishers Association
president; Benjamin Afrifa, African Federation Inc.; and Dr. Claire
Nelson, Institute on Caribbean Studies president.
The UDC leaders pledged to work closely with the Census Bureau to reduce
the undercount of Blacks in the census. The coalition will launch the I
count. You count. We count. campaign before the Martin Luther King Jr.
Holiday weekend in January. While nationwide in scope, the initiative
will focus on boosting census participation in eleven metropolitan areas
with high concentrations of Black residents, including Los Angeles,
Houston, Atlanta, New Orleans and Gary, IN. The coalition asked the
Census Bureau to increase advertising buys in Black-owned publications,
which the advocates said reach significant numbers of people at the
neighborhood level; the current plan devotes $2.5 million to this
component of the paid media campaign. The UDC's platform also includes
revising census residence rules to count prisoners in their home
communities, instead of at their places of incarceration; increasing
contracting opportunities for Black-owned businesses; and modifying the
census and American Community Survey race questions to gather more
detailed information on Black population subgroups. The Leadership
Conference on Civil Rights Education Fund (LCCREF) is distributing
posters that tie an accurate census to important community benefits,
such as grant money for schools, health centers, and public
transportation. The It's Time. Make Yourself Count. campaign is
encouraging faith leaders to discuss the importance of a complete count
through sermons and church bulletins.
The National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials
(NALEO) Educational Fund, part of the ya es hora! HAGASE CONTAR!
campaign to urge census participation among Latinos, created a poster
depicting the journey to Bethlehem for the census,in the hope of
appealing to evangelical immigrants. (LCCREF is producing the poster in
English, Korean, Vietnamese, and Creole.) The head of CONLAMIC, a group
of Latino evangelical clergy, has called on undocumented residents to
boycott the census unless Congress and the Administration enact
comprehensive immigration reform, and some sympathizers have threatened
to expand the boycott's reach to all Latinos. But in November, the two
largest Hispanic evangelical networks, Esperanza USA and the National
Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference (NHCLC), joined the ya es hora!
HAGASE CONTAR! effort. NHCLC president Rev. Samuel Rodriguez called
census participation "a moral imperative that the Faith community must
address without trepidation." Rev. Luis Cortes, Jr., head of Esperanza
USA, said Latinos "must be addressed as a legitimate and integrated part
of this great nation."
The Asian American Justice Center, a member of the 2010 Census Advisory
Committee, released four public service announcements urging Asian
Americans to mail back their census forms by April 1, 2010. The PSA's
feature Assistant Attorney General Thomas Perez, Congressional Asian
Pacific American Caucus Chairman Mike Honda (D-CA), and other prominent
community leaders. The PSA's are posted on the Internet at
http://www.youtube.com/advancingequality#p/u
[http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?et=1102814268503&s=12&e=001ovB2DYuem-1hzC8EA_7lj_dk3N804ja-969-LnKvNF4DFQxF4cuti9fbIY-lIjQQIw1zzDAAmdw5tv3OvwyvauQdjKnaLsU8lPO0_AsRASMSy3eb2A09X9AcQUHVFdZn7UhZena7z-X4rHLVEk-0HA==].
National and regional organizations representing Iranian Americans are
mobilizing their community to participate in the upcoming decennial
count through the Iranian American 2010 Census Coalition, whose goal is
"to reach every Iranian American household in the country," according to
a November 11 press advisory. Visit the web site of the National
Iranian American Council
http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?et=1102814268503&s=12&e=001ovB2DYuem-3BYHZUPg6rHFXa1q2w1IuGxgtsQ1S0u5sqoORCTUhXWNe9rY-jkQICLB-worS2Qvo9KULlzKWyFfXaQUECagIQfo3wKSWfaYmJRmzdyJcY9Sgw_EBLpZKytoVSDsLh_OJLt9RaR-6JHlKkzJL2_OIkMv7qaAFhjxgZDSrUe03LeO1vbL86_1yejzU3L3RCFjCuCRj-R1Gi3w==]
an official 2010 census partner, for more information on the campaign.
Organizations that advocate for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender
(LGBT) people, including the Human Rights Campaign and Gay and Lesbian
Alliance Against Defamation GLAAD), launched Our Families Count, a
"voluntary public education initiative promoting LGBT visibility and
participation in next year's U.S. census." The campaign's web site, Our
Families Count
http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?et=1102814268503&s=12&e=001ovB2DYuem-30SVK-MoBS9HT0JKbZs8DRvcKlE3S1XvPlVR21-AtqX31SLjRtEhVo0Bs-HlHJg3QJbeBOo6qlPTABdcJtVB6s_IQq5j_F5P5JeB_YjFl2XA==],
features Frequently Asked Questions about the census, downloadable
campaign logos, and materials in English and Spanish.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
CONGRESS FINALIZES CENSUS BUREAU FUNDING FOR 2010
Congress passed an omnibus appropriations bill covering most non-defense
agencies for Fiscal Year 2010, more than two months after the October 1
start to the budget year. The bill (H.R. 3288), which the President
signed last week, allocates $7.325 billion for the Census Bureau, close
to the amount the Administration requested.
More than a dozen diverse stakeholder organizations participating in The
Census Project had urged House and Senate negotiators to adopt the
Senate-approved funding level, saying in their November 17 letter that
the House's lower budget number "could compromise key [census]
operations." The larger of the bureau's two main accounts, Periodic
Censuses and Programs, received $7.066 billion, most of which will be
spent to conduct the 2010 census. Appropriators said the estimated
life-cycle cost of the 2010 decennial is now $14.7 billion. The
"Periodics" account also covers the Economic Census and Census of
Governments, both of which take place every five years; the next such
data collection efforts are slated for 2012.
In their conference report (H.Rept. 111-366), appropriators emphasized
the importance of the 2010 census communications campaign, urging hiring
diversity in the Partnership Program, "robust paid media efforts ...
with a specific focus on hard-to-reach populations,"and adequate funding
for Census in the Schools and adult education materials. The report
expressed concern about "flaws" in the fingerprinting process for
temporary census workers and directed the bureau to "improve employee
training and ensure the safety of the public." Conferees asked for
updates from the Census Bureau on language outreach for the 2010 census
and ongoing American Community Survey (ACS) and on efforts to improve
the reliability of ACS data on small population groups. They also told
the bureau to adopt recommendations issued by the Commerce Department's
Inspector General, aimed at improving oversight of fee awards to
contractors and compilation of an accurate address list.
The spending bill allocated $259 million for the bureau's second main
budget account, Salaries and Expenses, which covers ongoing demographic
and economic surveys and statistical programs, including the Survey on
Income and Program Participation.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
SENATORS PROPOSE HIRING PRIORITY FOR THE UNEMPLOYED
Four U.S. senators have proposed a "hiring preference" for people
collecting unemployment benefits, as the Census Bureau gears up for next
year's decennial count by recruiting millions of temporary workers in
communities across the country.
In a December 2 letter, Senators Charles Schumer (D-NY), Mark Begich
(D-AK), Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), and Jeff Merkley (D-OR) urged Commerce
Secretary Gary Locke "to target the long-term unemployed" for census
positions, noting that the roughly 1.4 million temporary positions the
Census Bureau hopes to fill "presents an interesting opportunity to help
a significant number of the long-term unemployed, thereby allowing them
to shore up their savings or earn a paycheck" before their unemployment
benefits run out. The lawmakers suggested recruitment activities at
unemployment centers, including distributing census job applications and
interviewing prospective hires on site. The Census Bureau abandoned
plans for a national recruitment campaign after an unexpectedly large
number of qualified candidates applied for address lister positions last
spring.
The senators suggested that the agency could use funds originally
earmarked for a hiring publicity drive to recruit people at unemployment
centers. At his December 14 press briefing in Washington, DC, Census
Director Groves said the bureau was advertising for 2010 census jobs at
unemployment agencies and was reaching out "disproportionately" to the
unemployed to help fill temporary jobs.
The Census Bureau must recruit almost four million applicants to sustain
its hiring goals during peak field operations from March through July.
The larger-than-projected number of people looking for work has reduced
the need to advertise census jobs in many areas. Instead, local office
managers are narrowly targeting recruitment efforts, to ensure that
census takers are indigenous to the neighborhoods they will canvass in
the nonresponse follow-up operation. All applicants take a test and,
after passing FBI background checks, are ranked according to their
scores (veterans preference applies). Local Census Offices establish
assignment areas and hire applicants based on their ranking and where
they live; language skills also might be a factor in some immigrant
communities.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
NEW RESOURCES FOR CENSUS ADVOCATES
New report examines undercount of children: A new report by the Annie E.
Casey Foundation concludes that the census misses children under the age
of five more than any other age group. Dr. William O'Hare, author of
Why Are Young Children Missed So Often in the Census?, described the
disproportionate undercount of young children as "startling, but ... not
a new problem" and called on advocates for the nation's children "to act
as partners in delivering the message that the census is easy,
important, and safe." The 2000 census missed more than 750,000, or
nearly four percent, of children under age five, according to the study.
The undercount of minority children in this age group was even higher,
with more than five percent of both Black boys and Black girls missed.
The report cited the greater likelihood of young children living in
large (7+ persons) households, in more mobile families, in rental units,
and in non-traditional households as primary reasons for the
disproportionate undercount.
Census Bureau research shows that it is more difficult to achieve an
accurate count of households with these characteristics. The Foundation,
whose work focuses on "meet[ing] the needs of today's vulnerable
children and families," is home to the KIDS COUNT project, which relies
on census data and other statistical indicators to evaluate the
well-being of children annually. Noting that many child-focused programs
-- such as Head Start, foster care grants, and the children's health
insurance program -- rely, directly or indirectly, on census data to
distribute billions of dollars to states and localities, KIDS COUNT
coordinator Laura Beavers observed that, "Children depend on the rest of
us to make sure they are counted accurately ... and will be the ones to
suffer" if their communities are undercounted.
The Casey Foundation report, which includes recommendations to help
improve the count of children in the 2010 census, is available on-line
at www.aecf.org
[http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?et=1102814268503&s=12&e=001ovB2DYuem-09PVUBBa9WHOTf60ChkNProav8crLiUs3Ahzi2NbUnhhY8KjVAkj0atXHwCQzCQ4BEyMmk1E2Hz8DE_Vl2Rl5ytTimuggzrbQ=].
Updated analysis of federal funding allocations tied to census data: The
Brookings Institution completed an updated analysis of federal program
funds allocated, in whole or in part, based on census data. The new
study found that federal agencies used census numbers, or data derived
from census figures, to distribute $431 billion through 194 programs in
Fiscal Year 2008. Tables showing the amount of funds allocated to each
state (and the District of Columbia) and the amount of funds distributed
through each program and by program function, such as transportation,
are available on The Census Project web site at www.thecensusproject.org
[http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?et=1102814268503&s=12&e=001ovB2DYuem-2FlYC-QYJ1sGk_qcw0FWsB5T4J-uFcuteebsjgYjM3LmltDrwJNItSWmz1j5bJlDLrEyoY-uvvC53z85KBkOzz0qKs0tRVQyFeIw2VR6RFGgdHDHp5oTF-3GQKtDzRd-4=].
The Washington, DC-based think tank will release a full report
describing key findings and its methodology, along with federal funding
tables for the 100 largest metropolitan areas and 200 largest counties,
next month.
Fact sheet offers guidelines for outreach activities: The Leadership
Conference on Civil Rights Education Fund has prepared a fact sheet to
help community based organizations plan appropriate census education and
outreach activities that adhere to legal and procedural protocols for
collecting personal information. "Guidelines for Community-Based Group
Volunteers Promoting the Census," available at www.civilrights.org
[http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?et=1102814268503&s=12&e=001ovB2DYuem-2DpxJjg_nzVTIb9ojtuFcLQ_-U8Udes5xu8fy76P46X2abwf4-6p8qOHViyM52u13YrP-wAPqtiKkWr5izWfbLqMVw4bR1TdsFB5vX3UHspjWq5hmH-vUFSDxqVF65QRJY4UD50sne2A==],
suggests practical ways that grassroots organizations can help
hard-to-count populations understand the census form and why
participation is important, while honoring the law's strong
confidentiality protections for individual responses.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
QUICK LINKS:
2010 Census Web Site
[http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?et=1102799726019&s=0&e=001ieenCJSawS9MSQKhLC7e9SxLxV0joThigvWqHU-9-BHCPU-55NFWLR2QVepPofLH7cAr41tEbESO4aB9VGg_L80kuNj1xHTyL-eJCAjgZE6bup9xNxh5IgSjL4bWTBUB]:
The Census Bureau's new 2010 census web site offers useful basic
information on the census process, as well as sample questionnaires,
information on job opportunities, and in-language materials. Add it to
your "Bookmarks" bar to track mail response rates daily for your state
and locality next spring.
2010 Census Jobs
[http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?et=1102799726019&s=0&e=001ieenCJSawS9MSQKhLC7e9SxLxV0joThigvWqHU-9-BHCPU-55NFWLR2QVepPofLH7cAr41tEbESO4aB9VGg_L80kuNj1xHTyL-eJCAjgZE6XLMCW52xrUgcvnJOEOeZlbUTntqRONgc=]:
Visit this web page to download a Census Practice Test and find
information about the application process and a Local Census Office near
you.
The Census Project
[http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?et=1102779192183&s=0&e=001-uHVtKM5xCkhpXyGkLeDiJpfRQzOUPeB8uMLTMLgt-vdFGZ1ZD0NQXwHOQ7YaAc2enBAC2c2YE4dOVTwDWeOXO1uwJghOjCNJBW02KCyZB_i5JkcHtD0CGHCfd5XW99fZ3VemqK__IY=]:
Visit the Census Project web site for previous Census News Briefs, fact
sheets, and a weekly blog in support of an accurate 2010 census.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Census News Briefs are prepared by Terri Ann Lowenthal, an independent
legislative and policy consultant specializing in the census and federal
statistics. All views expressed in the News Briefs are solely those of
the author. Please direct questions about the information in this News
Brief to Ms. Lowenthal at TerriAnn2K at aol.com [mailto:TerriAnn2K at aol.com].
Ed Christopher
708-283-3534 (V)
708-574-8131 (cell)
FHWA RC-TST-PLN
4749 Lincoln Mall Drive, Suite 600
Matteson, IL 60443
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