In the middle of the COVID pandemic, the City of Longmont has found creative ways of counting hard-to-reach populations in the 2020 Census.
Cultural brokers, people who act as a bridge between groups of differing cultural backgrounds: These folks head out into underserved communities, such as the mountain communities, older adults, LGBTQ and even monolinugal Spanish speaking communities to inform them of the benefits of being counted in the census.
The program Resiliency for All or Resiliencia Para Todos has helped the city identify cultural brokers though local nonprofits. “It's allowed us to elevate and show the importance of cultural brokers,” said Carmen Faucette, Boulder County 2020 census outreach field coordinator.
"The Community Foundation (of Boulder County) provided grants to nonprofits that had cultural brokers within these communities,” says Carmen Ramirez, community and neighborhood resources manager for the City of Longmont.
In the time of COVID-19, however, it has not been possible for brokers to knock on doors, a method used in censuses past. Instead, messaging in other languages has been key. The Longmont Multicultural Action Committee (LMAC), which has members from different ethnicities, is vital in reaching a number of diverse communities. In addition to messaging in Spanish, the committee created Mandarin/English flyers. These were oollo distributed at the Chinese New Year event run by the Asian-Pacific Association of Longmont (founded by Rita Liu), that took place before the shutdowns.
Without in-person events, the census effort had to pivot quickly. Representatives are now doing outreach for the census in the city and county through Zoom meetings with parenting groups at Sister Carmen and English classes at Intercambio de Comunidades.
To conquer the digital divide, efforts have been made to share census messaging through unconventional means such as car-parade graduations.
Faucette said "We're going all over town, actually we did Lafayette and Longmont, the two big high schools in Longmont: Skyline and Longmont High. It was within hours of each other. So we had to run from one location to the other one displaying our census sidewalk signs and also cheering the people because we were really happy to be part of it. And the other one is we attract attention. We even got balloons with the school colors...We also did the Head Starts because the head starts had their cap and certificate incorporated...We want to be that, you know, sign in the back of your head. Oh, the census. I'll write down the census."
So why all this fuss over making sure everyone is counted? Residents completing the census contributes to funding for programs like WIC, Medicaid, Head Start, and community support programs. With the state budget being cut by 25 percent, Longmont will need to rely heavily on federal dollars. If people aren't counted, they may decide the city doesn't need as much funding.
In the past Longmont has lead the way in making sure that everyone is counted for the census. Erin Fosdick, senior planner for the City of Longmont, stated that in 2010, this city's self-response rate was about 75 percent.
"When Erin told you that Longmont has been a leader in the county and the state, I want you to understand this speaks to the soul of Longmont. If you were to predict the response rate in the city that also has the highest concentration of hard to reach populations, you would predict that it had the lowest response rate, but it has the highest response rate," Chris Barge, vice president of Strategic Initiatives for Community Foundation of Boulder County, said.
All residents can help get the word out for Longmont's "Everyone Counts" census efforts. The best way to do that is simply by providing information. Creating concrete examples of why the census matters like the population counts seen on signs coming directly from the census. Ramirez said, "On the local level, don't we want to know how diverse our community is and how many assets it has?"
To find more information on and to fill out your census online, please visit https://my2020census.gov/. You may also fill it out by mail or call 844-330-2020 (en español 844-468-2020).
