Community
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Local Organizations Encourage 2020 Census Participation While Responding to COVID-19
Census info is being included with food boxes at food banks across Pierce County
Since December 2019, more than 40 organizations received funding for census outreach through GTCF, thanks to a grant from the State of Washington Office of Financial Management. In response to COVID-19 and the challenges it presented to outreach, GTCF received an additional $857K from the Office of Financial Management to support rapid response census outreach efforts in Pierce, Kitsap, and Mason Counties. All organizations funded in the first round of 2020 Census Community Grants received additional funding. Five new coalitions and one new organization also received census outreach funding.
Here are some creative ways 2020 Census Community Grant recipients have encouraged census participation while responding to community needs due to COVID-19:
- Raising Girls handed out 1200 hygiene kits for young girls and boys with census inserts
- Emergency Food Network is putting food inserts in all of their food boxes
- Puyallup Watershed Initiative, in collaboration with VT Radio Universal, is hosting bilingual digital radio programming encouraging census participation
Even with shelter-in -place orders in effect, many individuals and families have already completed their forms.
2020 Census Self-Response Rate (As of April 9th, 2020)
- Pierce County – 51.1%
- Washington – 51.7%
- United States – 46.7%
If you haven’t submitted your census response form yet, there is still time. There are only 10 questions on the form, and completing it online takes about 10 minutes. Responses can also be submitted over the phone, or mailed in for those who received a form in the mail.