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Coronavirus Sends Indiana City’s Census Outreach Online

South Bend, Ind., has unveiled a Census outreach effort that puts online efforts at the center, stepping up digital outreach to ensure a complete count of residents. Federal funding for the coming decade at stake.

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(TNS) — Coronavirus has thrown “a little bit of a curve ball” into the once-a-decade census that got underway in mid-March, potentially complicating how to count some hard-to-reach groups, but officials hope a pivot to online outreach will help.

On Wednesday the city of South Bend, Ind., and St. Joseph County Public Library unveiled a new outreach effort with an online thrust. The announcement came on “Census Day,” April 1, when wherever you are or were living is where you are counted. The city isn’t alone in stepping up a digital outreach. Berrien County census officials want to do that, too.

The efforts are meant to ensure a complete count of residents, because of the federal dollars and other matters tied to census numbers.

“The ways we normally connect with people have been eliminated,” said Sam Centellas, director of La Casa de Amistad, a nonprofit group in South Bend serving the Latino/Hispanic community. “We’ll test more than ever what social media reach and capacity is.”

In-person contact through community groups is often how early census outreach is done for groups of people who may be difficult to count, such as renters, non-English-speaking residents, young children, mobile groups like students, and those who simply may be hesitant about participating.

But community centers, libraries, schools, churches, government offices, neighborhood picnics and more are locked or postponed as the area weathers mandated closures and stay-at-home orders because of coronavirus.

Centellas is concerned about a dent in the census count. He already was worried about an undercount in the Latino community, after last year’s news about a citizenship question, which ultimately didn’t make it onto the survey.

Others say it’s too early to worry.

Eric Trotter, acting director of development services for Elkhart, who’s heading census efforts in the city, said coronavirus has thrown a “curve ball” into the census, but, “At this juncture I’m not concerned. It’s still very early.”

The U.S. Census Bureau suspended field operations until the middle of April because of coronavirus, then extended data collection from the end of July to the middle of August.

Meanwhile, the bureau is urging people to go online — you can even use your smartphone — to 2020census.gov to fill out the census form, which will take about 10 minutes. Information is kept confidential.

A lot rides on an accurate headcount for a community, including how $650 billion in federal money is allocated, and how congressional representation is apportioned. Data collected on age, income, education and more also influences local research and business investment decisions.

Jeff Rea, president of the South Bend Regional Chamber of Commerce, says the data operates like the “community’s dashboard” and is “critical” in business decisions about where to locate or expand.

In 2016, Indiana received $17.9 billion for 55 federal programs based on data from the 2010 census — money for Medicaid, student loans, food stamps, child care, crime victim’s assistance, and much more.

“The results of the census will have an impact on federal dollars flowing to our community for the next decade,” South Bend Mayor James Mueller said in a statement. “I’m glad to join together with so many important community organizations to ensure South Bend gets counted.”

Fourteen local nonprofits and institutions were tapped to join a group called South Bend Census Champions. Each received a $2,500 award from the city to buy equipment, upgrade internet access, and support staff and volunteer outreach efforts. Outreach will focus on telephone and online contact throughout April and May.

The agencies chosen are in or near areas that had a less than 73% response rate in the 2010 census, earning them a classification as “hard-to-count” tracts on the city’s northwest, west and south sides.

The agencies include Imani Unidad; Near Northwest Neighborhood; West Side Small Business Resource Center; La Casa de Amistad; Mount Carmel Missionary Baptist Church; South Bend Heritage Foundation; St. Adalbert Catholic Church; Kennedy Park Neighborhood Association; LGBTQ Center; Our Lady of Hungary Catholic Church; Vida Nueva South Bend Church of God; Broadway Christian Parish UMC; Cultivating Life Ministries; and Kingdom Center Church.

The city also is launching a series of public service announcements highlighting the local campaign.

Kathy Stady, who’s heading up census efforts in Berrien County, said she’s reaching out to municipalities and nonprofits to post census information on their websites, because census posters dotting so many public places aren’t being seen by many people now.

She also created fliers to include with the lunches that school kids’ families are picking up during the coronavirus shutdown. One side features census information, and the other side has a picture for kids to color.

Stady is hopeful that community events to promote the census originally planned for April or early May will still take place later in May or in June.

Initial census cards asking people to go online and fill out their survey went out in the middle of March, and some reminder mailings have followed. A paper survey will be mailed in mid-April, Stady said, which might appeal to people not comfortable with using technology.

Trotter said in Elkhart he reached out to service groups, places of worship, food pantries and senior activity sites, particularly in hard-to-count tracts near downtown, distributing information in both English and Spanish.

As of Tuesday, the city of Elkhart already had seen a 33.1% response rate to the census.

“I think for less than a month,” Trotter said, “that’s pretty good.”

The national response rate as of Wednesday was over 38.4%, while Indiana’s rate was 42.4% and Michigan’s was 44.6%. South Bend’s rate was 38.4%

While coronavirus could make it more difficult to reach some groups for the census, it could make it easier to reach others.

“Right now, people have some downtime at home,” Rea said. “I hope they take advantage of it to fill out the census.”

©2020 the South Bend Tribune (South Bend, Ind.). Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.