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CENSUS NEWS FLASH:
ALERT FOR ALL
CENSUS
ADVOCATES
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Editor's note: With the Census Bureau's encouragement, we
are sharing the following information about an important, upcoming
event to boost census participation before the mail-out/mail-back phase
of the enumeration ends.
Please feel free to circulate this News Flash to other grassroots organizations, faith institutions, and civic
and business leaders in communities where response rates are still low.
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CENSUS BUREAU ANNOUNCES
"MARCH TO THE MAILBOX"
(APRIL
10, 2010)
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The U.S. Census Bureau is
organizing a massive 2010 Census promotional event -
March to the Mailbox (M2M) - in a final effort to boost mail-back rates
in hard-to-count communities before personal visits to unresponsive
households start on May 1 (Nonresponse Follow-Up operation).
By April 1, the agency will identify
roughly 6,000 low-responding census tracts, with local and regional
Partnership Specialists working with community-based "partner
organizations" to confirm that partners are willing to help mobilize
local leaders and volunteers for events on Saturday, April 10
(recommended date). The Census Bureau will provide promotional
materials - including hats, t-shirts, parade banners, fliers, lawn
signs, and other items - and will add radio advertising in these
communities in the week leading up to the activities. The agency's goal is
to mobilize one million volunteers across
the country to participate in highly visible events.
The Census Bureau has prepared a one-page fact sheet and a
toolkit to help partner organizations in affected communities plan their
events. Both resources are now available on the 2010 census website.
The toolkit includes suggested messages for partners to highlight,
ideas for city- or community-wide activities to draw attention to the
final mail-back campaign, tips for inviting media coverage, a list of
toolbox items that each participating community will receive, and other
relevant information.
Messaging ideas:
The Census Bureau is encouraging its partner
organizations to emphasize the following messages during April events:
- Today, We Count
- Fill
It Out, Mail It Back
- If you have already mailed back your
census form, thank you!
Other messages to consider, especially
for historically hard-to-count populations:
- Mail it back by April
19, and no one from the government will come to your door!
- It's not too late!
Final tips:
- The M2M campaign is designed
for local, not national, census partners. National partners -
including nonprofits, service providers, businesses, and faith
institutions - should share this information with their community-based
affiliates and franchises and encourage their participation in these
events. County and municipal officials should support these
efforts, by issuing appropriate permits and offering other available
resources (such as fire trucks for parades), as fully as possible.
- Partner organizations should
not call Census Bureau headquarters for M2M promotional
materials. The regional and local census offices, through
Partnership Specialists, will provide toolbox items to organizers of
each M2M event.
- Community groups should
distribute easy-to-understand materials telling people what to do if
they misplaced or lost or did not receive their census form. The
Leadership Conference Education Fund's collaborative census campaign
will post a downloadable flier with this information before the M2M
events.
- PARTICIPATE! This
mobilization is an important opportunity for 2010 Census Partners to
demonstrate the value of their participation in the Census
Communications Campaign, especially with respect to improving response
in historically hard-to-count communities.
The national "participation
rate" posted on March 25 was 29 percent. (Remember, there is a
24-hour delay in posting response rates, to allow Census staff to
confirm the numbers reported from the regions.) Let's redouble our
efforts to improve participation through the mail in the hardest to
count neighborhoods next month!
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Census News Briefs and
Census News Flashes 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/Flash to Ms. Lowenthal at TerriAnn2K@aol.com.
Please
feel free to circulate this document to other interested
individuals and organizations. Previous Census News Briefs are
posted on The Census Project web site
at www.thecensusproject.org.
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