The 2020 Census count has already begun, are you prepared?
By Jamal Watkins, NAACP
The Census is extremely vital to communities of color across the nation. A complete and accurate count would ensure that the appropriate funds, up to billions of dollars, are allocated to local, state, and tribal governments to improve the lives of our people. Access to quality education, healthcare, good roads, and even the number of Congressional seats our communities receive are all at stake. That’s why we all have the civic responsibility to be counted.
To ensure all are counted, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is inviting you to take part in the Census Week of Action from February 24 to February 28. Sign up here (http://naacp.org/2020-census/) to participate in webinars and training during the week as we will be offering two classes per day. One session will be held for everyone, and one will be geared towards Generation Z and Millennials. The sessions will train you on our newest mapping tool. We will also be releasing the report of the findings of the tool for the last two years.
In addition to the list of events for the week, we will be hosting a Twitter Townhall on “Mapping the Count” on Monday, February 24, to bring more awareness to the Census and offer concrete ways of we can get more people of color involved. Participating in the town hall will be:
- Joy Williams, President, Brooklyn NAACP
- Alvina Yeh, Executive Director, APALA
- DeJuana Thompson, Creator, Woke Vote
- Mayra Macia, Executive Director, Latino Victory Fund
For nearly a decade Advancement Project National Office, Asian & Pacific Islander American Health Forum, Demos, Faith in Action, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, National Congress of American Indians, National Urban League, Race Forward, and UnidosUS have functioned as a collaborative of nine leading national, racial equity anchor organizations (the Anchors) supported by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. Together, we work to promote racial equity, advance racial healing, and ensure that all children, families, and communities have opportunities to reach their full potential.
We have been able to do this primarily through work on non-partisan civic engagement projects, including voter protection/voting rights advocacy, voter registration, and the 2020 Census. A significant part of our work has been using data and metrics to coordinate and strategize how to mobilize in the field. A Data and Analytics hub hosted by the NAACP was formed by the collaborative last year that is mapping hard to count communities. It has been built on both an Arc GIS and Caspio platform and has worked with ESR to launch the tool and give away 1,350 free licenses to organizations on the ground.
For more information on the Census Week of Action, visit naacp.org and follow us on Twitter and Instagram @NAACP.
