In March 2020, people throughout your jurisdiction will receive an invitation to respond online to the 2020 census. The first attempt will try to get people to complete the information online in order to reduce the overall cost of administering the census. This is the first time ever the census process will be made available online.
In April 2020 a reminder campaign will encourage people to complete the census online or via paper or over the phone. Later that month census takers will go door to door in an attempt to collect census info from those not responding to prior efforts. These census takers will make multiple attempts to collect the data.
Census data guides approximately $589 billion in federal spending allocated to local communities each year, including more than $15 billion distributed to Minnesota communities.
Even one missed person in your city or county could mean forfeiting almost $28,000 in funding for the next ten years. This has a dramatic impact on our small rural budgets. School lunch programs, SNAP and WIC benefits, highway construction funding, housing programs, and many public sector insurance programs are dependent on this data.
This video talks about the financial importance to the state of MN. https://mn.gov/admin/2020-census/tools-resources/videos/
Complete Count Committees are forming and their job is advocating that everyone gets counted in the upcoming census. Committees meet to brainstorm how to make sure senior citizens, group home residents, apartment residents, children, renters, and new community members ALL get counted. The committees can use the many resources already developed to completes press releases, add things to their website, make social media posts, put up posters, make presentations to local groups and organizations, organize door to door information campaigns, develop flyers to be stuffed in mailings or agree to include information to their residents or employees. MANY resources are available to help with this effort at https://mn.gov/admin/2020-census/tools-resources/library/
Committees can utilize local service clubs like Lions, Kiwanis, Rotary; local faith organizations; schools; housing organizations, nursing home or group home administrators; law enforcement and social service personnel to help identify how to reach all residents throughout the area.
Currently it appears on the state website https://mn.gov/admin/2020-census/involved/ccc/find/ that there are committees that have formed in Benson, Montevideo, Clarkfield, Granite Falls, and Yellow Medicine County.
https://www.minneapolisfoundation.org/census/ the Minneapolis Foundation has a quick grant in the amount of $750 that is available to complete count committees to help pay for at least one of the following purposes: 1) Digital organizing; 2) Outreach to residents in high-density housing; or 3) Efforts to target historically undercounted communities.
Our agency is happy to promote and share your local efforts to encourage high rates of participation in the census. In our work every day we work with the data supplied by the census. We use it to write grants and plans for our local units of government. We use it to analyze trends and patterns. We map it, graph it, and use it in many ways. Let’s make sure everyone is counted!
