“WE’RE LIVING THE UNDERCOUNT” – 2020 CENSUS LAYS GROUNDWORK FOR BETTER QUALITY OF LIFE, TEXAS ADVOCATES SAY

June 1, 2020

Fiercely committed to a complete count of Texas residents for Census 2020, advocates across ethnic groups are re-thinking tactics and strategies of how to increase self-response rates during the COVID-19 pandemic.

We all know that we are in a really difficult time right now with COVID-19, acknowledged Katie Martin Lightfoot, community engagement coordinator for the Center for Public Policy Priorities in Austin. Many of the resources that working folks and families across our state are relying on now to survive are determined by census data.

In a virtual forum hosted by Ethnic Media Services for media and census advocates, speakers underscored the struggle between bringing the urgency of the census message home to people while still keeping a distance. Our main challenge in getting everyone to fill out the census is that we’re missing that human touch, conceded Paulina Lopez, a Census Bureau senior partnership specialist responsible for the state’s 35 southernmost, heavily Latino counties. We’re not giving up, she said emphatically.

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