Outreach for the Census in 2030

On October 31, the Senate Committee on the Census held a hearing on increasing participation and building trust in the 2030 census. The challenge of reaching isolated communities is perennial. It is well understood that many people will not respond to the Census unless they hear from trusted messengers that the Census is safe and that their participation will make a difference. Significant efforts to enlist trusted messengers for outreach have occurred in the last couple of Census cycles in Massachusetts. In the recent hearing, witnesses critiqued the 2020 efforts and offered thoughts about how to do better in 2030. The main theme of the testimony was that we need to make a much earlier start on outreach efforts than we did in 2020.

2020 Outreach Appropriation and Process — Background

In the last cycle, the legislature appropriated funds for outreach in the FY2020 budget. The FY2020 budget was approved on July 31, 2019. It seemed at the time that the legislative action was timely for the April 2020 Census. However, the budget language required a rigorous grant administration and reporting process. The language appears below:

0511-0271…….. For a statewide competitive grant program for the purpose of ensuring a complete and accurate count in the 2020 census; provided, that the grant program shall be known as the Complete Count grant program; provided further, that the grant program shall be administered by the secretary of the commonwealth through a competitive request for proposals, which shall support outreach efforts in communities that are at significant risk of being undercounted; provided further, that the entities eligible to apply for the grant shall include: (i) nonprofit organizations that demonstrate direct access to hard-to-count populations through media, mailings, canvassing, phone banking, or public forums, (ii) publicly funded organizations that provide direct service to hard-to-count populations, including but not limited to, public libraries, workforce centers, community-based health centers, and homeless shelters; provided further, that eligible outreach and education activities shall include but not be limited to: (a) conducting outreach to hard-to-count populations through media, mailings, canvassing, phone banking, or public forums, (b) disseminating information at key service centers and access points in the community, and (c) tailored outreach and support to homeless populations, households with limited English, immigrant communities, and individuals with difficulty accessing the internet or otherwise completing the form; provided further, that, in making awards, the secretary shall ensure, to the maximum extent practicable: (1) proportionate funding based on the distribution of hard-to-count communities across the commonwealth, and (2) targeted investments in areas with no federal area census office; provided further, that the highest priority is given to proposals which (A) demonstrate a track record of success in serving individuals in historically hard-to-count communities, (B) identify solutions that directly address barriers to a complete count on 2020, including but not limited to: usability of the digital platform, impacts of a federal citizenship question, and reduced federal resources, and (C) tailor outreach efforts to engage historically underserved populations; provided further, that the total grant to a single recipient shall not exceed 10 per cent of the total available; provided further, that the secretary shall provide technical assistance to eligible entities in the application process; provided further, that the secretary may use not more than 5 per cent of the total appropriation for necessary administrative costs reasonably related to grant administration; provided further, that the secretary shall develop guidelines which outline periodic reporting requirements for grantees, including semi-annual and final reports; provided further, that the secretary shall file both a preliminary and a final report on the efficacy of the grant programs, which shall outline key accomplishments and estimated impact of the awarded funds; and provided further, that the preliminary report shall be filed with the house and senate committees on ways and means and with the joint committee on election laws not later than 3 months after the awarding of the funds, and the final report within 6 months of the completion of all grant activities………………………………………………………………………………………… $2,500,000

Fiscal 2020 Budget, Chapter 41 of the Acts of 2019

From a July 31, 2019 start, it took several months to develop the legislatively mandated guidelines and procedures, administer the newly designed grant application process, draft appropriate grant contracts, and release the funds to dozens of organizations. One clear message from testifying leaders of community organizations was that the timing of funding hampered their ability to staff outreach efforts. Earlier legislative action in this Census cycle seems like a clear priority and my colleagues and I will be working on that. Beginning a strategy development process seems like a funding priority for Fiscal 2027, especially in light of the expected challenges reaching immigrant populations.

The Need to Start Earlier

Essentially every witness spoke to the importance of starting outreach earlier.? Some lightly edited excerpts from the testimony appear below.

What we learned in 2020 was that investing in [trusted non-profit community] groups financially to scale their outreach program was monumental. These are often the groups operating with small budgets. The get out the count effort is massive in their communities they serve and they are often the only groups able to do this work, but cannot do so without hiring paid canvassers, callers, or temporary staff to lead this effort. What happened in 2020 . . . is that grassroots nonprofit saw resources late in the year before the count, . . . . [I]t was just not enough time for grassroots organizations to actually scale at the level that they needed to. . . . which is why I’m so grateful for this Senate hearing at this time . . ..

Shanique Rodriguez, Executive Director, MA Voter Table

[In 2020] ?it was critical that the [outreach] was really led by our nonprofits that were rooted in our communities to hear from the ground and also to work with our government entities that would be able to also bring information. That started early. But this time around we really, really do need to start it much earlier to ensure that we’re building awareness to learn about what are the new challenges and fears that our communities are facing right now, and how to tackle those together to educate each other.

Vatsady Sivongxay, Executive Director, MA Education Justice Alliance

?I just want to say thank you for starting preparation for the 2030 census early. . . . ?really thank you for starting these preparations early . . . ?I’m so glad to see that the Commonwealth has taken this seriously.

Beth Huang, Former Executive Director, MA Voter Table

Given the current landscape, we urge the legislature to invest in the amounts [more] significantly [than in] previous funding cycles in the existing complete census count program and the census data technical assistance line items in the Secretary of Commonwealth budget. That way we can ensure Massachusetts communities and organizations are fully supported and to begin those investments early . . .

Geoff Foster, Executive Director, Common Cause MA

?[W]e need early sustained investment and partnership from the commonwealth.

 Sothea Chiemruom Cambodian Mutual Assistant Association.

?I do want to stress the importance of deploying funding earlier to avoid any setbacks.

Eva Milona, past director of the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition

[E]arly coordination and planning is so critical is because . . . what is now really incumbent on the state and local government and the larger community partners to really make this successful in 2030. ?I think an earlier timeline and earlier work and resources that can be strategic to really empower that earlier work is exactly where I think we need to . . . ?invest a lot of this coordination work be cause I think it’s going to really bear the fruit at the end.

Dave Koffman, Massachusetts Municipal Association (MMA)

?I tell you, this whole thing is not gonna be easy at all. I am just blessed that you guys began this conversation at an early stage. And I tell you that the ideal situation for me and many of [the other witnesses] have mentioned it, don’t wait until the last minute. . . . ?Thank you so much for establishing this committee this early in the process.

Gladys Vega, La Colaborativa

?We unfortunately face new challenges, and for many of us, we’re trying to think about the remaining part of this year, let alone getting ready for 2030. But I know the importance of starting early, and again, we are grateful for this space.

Noemi Ramos, New England Community Project

Other Perceptions and Recommendations

The testimony included a number of other perceptions and recommendations:

• Critical role grassroots nonprofit organizations as trusted messengers
  • Importance of including them in message development.
    • Professionally developed messaging materials in 2020 were too complex and missed the mark with immigrants
    • Grass roots organizations can do culturally and linguistically appropriate outreach
    • Listen to community leaders and learn from them what will work
  • Need for “boots on the ground” — paid outreach workers
    • Census Bureau emphasis on mail and digital outreach, as opposed to direct field outreach, increases importance of state funding for direct outreach
    • Perception that too much assistance came in the form of oversight as opposed to funding for the development of an effective local outreach operation
• Additional partners in outreach:
  • Municipalities — local complete count committees — should be supported. Need for year round civic engagement work in the Gateway Cities that have higher populations of historically undercounted communities.
  • The private sector should be engaged, working directly with their employees
  • Any service organization that has contact with undercounted communities is a potential partner
    • Possibility of funding channels in addition to the basic Complete Count Committee . . . trust fund managed by Administration and Finance to support outreach efforts “braided” into other state programs
• Investment in communications infrastructure; need to overcome viral disinformation.
  • Youth getting information from Youtube, Facebook, TikTok.
  • Messaging will evolve in response to events over the next few years, but
    • There is a core message about the value of participating in the census to assure local and national representation and to secure funding
    • We need to start building the communications infrastructure now.
• Role of the state — define best practices, information clearing house, resource supplying targeted funding; need for local complete count committees
• People with disabilities and seniors are two possibly undercounted groups that need more attention.

Overall Takeaway

There was a clear and convincing message that we need to start early and proceed thoughtfully and inclusively, joining all possible partners, to build a strategy for achieving a complete count in 2030. That strategy needs to be centered in the communities that are most likely to experience undercounts. Local governments and grassroots partners need to play a central role. We need to be especially attentive to the municipalities that may not be well-resourced to plan outreach efforts. With a deep undercount of immigrant communities nearly inevitable, we can nonetheless do our best to minimize the extent of that undercount and to completely count other historically undercounted communities. The Senate Committee on the Census should work to better identify these additional undercounted communities.

See also: Immigrants and the Census in 2030