Metro East organizations working to get their communities counted by the 2020 census are watching a back to its original .
The lawsuit challenges a last-minute change by the Trump administration that ends the census on Sept. 30 instead of Oct. 31. The bureau had originally extended the length of the headcount to accommodate delays caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
Reverting to the original timeline would give valuable extra time to local community organizations, which have been doing the majority of census outreach and engagement in the Metro East.
鈥淭hat would be excellent,鈥� said Yolanda Crochrell, executive director of the Quad City Community Development Center in Madison. 鈥淲ith the cutoff at such an abrupt moment, it forces us to cram a lot of activities or events together.鈥�
The center has been helping residents respond to the census by setting up tables with computers at community events, like food giveaways. Crochrell explained she鈥檚 partnering with a few businesses in Venice to offer vouchers to residents who complete the census.
鈥淲e realize people need incentives to get going,鈥� she said.
Crochrell said her organization is focused on the official remaining weeks it still has to engage residents in the harder-to-count areas of Madison County, like parts of Alton, Madison, Venice and Granite City.
鈥淚f by chance it does pass, we will definitely come back and do a couple more events in October,鈥� she said. 鈥淛ust to make sure we鈥檝e covered and got everyone.鈥�
Losing October is especially detrimental because most of her engagement from the community comes on Saturdays, Crochrell said 鈥� and October has five of them. Many area residents have Saturdays off work, she said.
She鈥檚 most focused on raising responses in Venice in the final weeks, with the goal of increasing the response rate to 60%, which would be in line with the other areas she鈥檚 targeted, Crochrell said.
Currently, Venice and areas in and around East St. Louis have the lowest response rates in the Metro East, hovering between 42% and 45%, . In 2010, both areas ended with final response rates near 60%.
An extension of the count would also help Stephanie Taylor, who鈥檚 been working to engage East St. Louis residents in the census. Taylor is the president and CEO of Community Development Sustainable Solutions in East St. Louis.
鈥淲e need to kick into high gear and actually meet and exceed [response rates from] 10 years ago,鈥� she said. 鈥淩ight now if we don鈥檛 make at least 60%, what we think looks bad now, what we think looks like it鈥檚 war torn, will probably crumble.鈥�
Census counts are used to calculate how much funding a locality receives from federal and state governments. The data also determines how some grant funding and other programs are distributed to communities.
As the count winds down, Taylor is taking a more direct approach to spur census participation in her community. She and other members of her organization stand outside or across from aid offices, places where people receive food and other services, to catch residents who may not have responded to the headcount.
鈥淚鈥檓 changing the terminology from, 鈥楶lease engage and do the census,鈥� to now, 鈥業t鈥檚 a census checkpoint,鈥� kind of like a COVID checkpoint,鈥� she said. 鈥淚f you come past us or encounter us, we will run your name, so it鈥檚 become a checkpoint because of the urgency.鈥�
The current political climate, from the court battles over a citizenship question (which the census does not ask) to the killing of George Floyd, only adds to the difficulty Taylor and other organizers face trying to get residents counted.
鈥淭here are a lot of things going on right now that give people the perfect opportunity to give you an excuse,鈥� Taylor said. 鈥淪ome people may lash out and say, 鈥業f this is the government, then I don鈥檛 want to have any dealings with that.鈥欌��
Eric Schmid covers the Metro East for 漏 2024 外网天堂 as part of the journalism grant program: , an initiative of The GroundTruth Project. Follow Eric on Twitter:
