Innovation Ecosystem

10 days that could shake RI

United Way launches major effort to urge Rhode Islanders to become census champions

Screen shot from Twitter

A tweet from Angela Ankoma, promoting how easy it is to get counted by the Census.

By Cortney Nicolato
Posted 9/21/20
Rhode Island has less than a week to mobilize its residents to fill out their Census forms, a key factor in the flow of federal resources.
What other kind of civic collaborations can be created around similar issues of great import for Rhode Island? Why is there such a concerted effort by the Trump administration to halt or hinder the Census process? Can the networks created for Census fulfillment in Rhode Island be re-purposed for other tasks?
Put up a sign that says: bottom-up innovation at work. Jennifer Hawkins of ONE Neighborhood Builders, headquartered in Olneyville, reported in a Twitter post on Friday, Sept. 18, that her organization has held four pop-ups in the last month, helping 220 people complete their Census forms – as well as distributing free food, a $20 Price Rite gift care, hand sanitizer, and masks. “Ensuring ‘hard to count’ neighbors,” Hawkins wrote, “means greeting people with delicious food in their neighborhood.”

PROVIDENCE – Grrr. My blood boils when I imagine what 10 years of under-resourcing schools, housing, and health facilities in Rhode Island neighborhoods will do.

Unfortunately, that’s what’s going to happen if another 60,000 Rhode Islanders don’t complete the census by Sept. 30. That’s why United Way of Rhode Island is working with the RI Census Complete Count Committee to increase awareness and participation over the next 10 days.

Who’s missing?
Rhode Island’s census participation rate is around 94 percent right now, about average nationwide. The real problem, however, is not just that we’re missing households, but we’re missing the households who are most in need.

It’s our lower-income residents who disproportionately have not completed the census. In Olneyville, for example, the portion of the population self-reporting in 2010 was 41 percent, but it is only 36 percent in 2020.

There are many reasons why this may be the case. Most of those currently not counted are among the 40 percent of Rhode Islanders who live in rental units. They may not know to open census mailings addressed to “Resident.”

Or maybe have recently moved and not received any mailings from their previous residences. Some may not have Internet to receive online notices and complete the forms.

Or they may be afraid to document just how many people live with them, fearing reprisal from their landlord or housing authority. Undocumented neighbors may be concerned that their responses will be used by ICE [by the way, the Census can’t share individual data to another federal or nonfederal entity.] The reasons are real and endless.

How our communities will suffer
Everybody in an undercounted community suffers, all of us. Our neighborhood schools, libraries, school lunches, after-school programs, Headstart programs, health care programs, and public transportation, for example, will receive funding for fewer residents than they actually serve. The schools will still provide education for all our kids, but without a complete count, schools may be doing it with fewer federal resources.

We’re talking about enormous amounts of money at stake. Census data is used to allocate funding for 315 different federal programs. These include programs that impact all of us, from Medicare to Rhode Works, which is using federal money to fix roads and sidewalks and build bike lanes for all Rhode Islanders.

Congress makes overall allocations to programs, but the determination of how much of that budget goes to each state is determined by a formula that uses Census data. In Rhode Island, such federal funding has represented about $3.8 billion that comes into our state.

With state and local tax revenue down as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, federal funding is going to be even more important. And the worse part? The numbers we derive from the 2020 Census, we will be stuck with for 10 years.

Barriers at every turn, but bright spots abound
Rhode Island started the 2020 census strong. The governor appointed the Census Complete Count Committee in March 2018. Community organizations received grants and made plans for events and door-knocking programs. But COVID-19 put a stop or dramatically slowed down all of that. The pandemic also halted door-to-door work by Census enumerators, who only got started in August 2020, several months later than planned. And now President Trump has ordered that the count be stopped two months early. The odds have been stacked against us.

There have been some bright spots. The Portuguese American community has really mobilized, starting here in Rhode Island and then nationally. They have taken it to heart that they want to be seen as a group that matters in the United States. They have conducted a lengthy and intricate outreach campaign to get people to write in their Portuguese ethnicity on the form, because it’s not one of the check boxes.

In addition, some Census Complete Count Committee grantees’ grassroots efforts to mobilize their communities have created new advocates for future policy initiatives. College Unbound, for example, has mobilized interns in phone banks and other outreach that is providing leadership training. Progreso Latino has similarly had teen interns who are getting a sense of what community organizing is like.

What we can all do now
We still have 10 days from Monday, Sept. 21, to impact federal funding for our state for the next 10 years. Let’s mobilize Rhode Island’s close-knit community and get all our neighbors counted. It only takes five minutes. And, importantly, the information is confidential to the Census bureau and cannot be shared with anyone, including other departments of the government.

At United Way, we’re asking every person who calls 211: “Have you filled out the census?” If you haven’t, we will forward you to the Census’ call center, which is available in 14 languages. We’re also setting up interviews for journalists with respected members of various communities so they can relay the message.

You can do the same: Ask everyone you know. Text friends and family. Post about it on social media. Tell those you love to please go to 2020census.gov or call 844-330-2020 to complete this critical civic duty. Spread the census rally cry for the next six days to help Rhode Island, because the economic stability and viability of our state depends on it.

Cortney Nicolato is president and CEO of United Way of Rhode Island and a contributor to ConvergenceRI.

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