Including new videos in different Asian languages and updates from the U.S. Census Bureau.
In light of the COVID-19 outbreak, several updates have been made regarding the U.S. Census. Here are a few things to know:
Counting College Students and Group Quarters
With college students home with their parents instead of on or near campus on April 1st, who should count them? According to the U.S. Census Bureau, students who have left town due to school closures should still be counted at their college or university residences. Students who live off-campus should count themselves at the residence they live in that is closest to the university (i.e. an apartment complex, condo, or a house etc.) and coordinate with their roommates to make sure you are counted there. College students will be counted through group quarters, as will nursing homes, group homes, halfway houses, and prisons.
Protecting Census Workers
In an effort to maintain social distancing, The Bureau’s Mobile Questionnaire Assistance program will begin April 13th instead of March 30th as planned. In addition, the Bureau will also delay their Early Nonresponse Followup operation, which is the Census Bureau’s efforts to follow up with households that have not replied to the Census by April 1st–including in-person assistance by an official Census enumerator. This will be delayed from April 9th to April 23rd.
New Census PSAs in Multiple Languages
Last week, AARP released two translated Census PSAs in various Asian American languages.
The videos, which tackle “How to Take the Census” and “What is the Census” have been translated into Mandarin, Cantonese, Korean, Japanese, Vietnamese, Hmong, Lao, Thai, Khmer, Punjabi, Hindi, Urdu, Gujarati, Nepali, Telugu, Tagalog, Burmese, and Bengali. For the full playlist of videos, click here.
Empowering Pacific Islander Communities (EPIC) has also released their own Census videos for the Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander community. Click here to watch the videos.
