Have you filled out and returned your Census 2010 form?
Hopefully your household is among the California state-wide 70% response rate. If not, take a look at the above video- a multimedia outreach effort for the hard-to-count and still severely underrepresented communities
As of this week, there has been only a 48% mail-in response rate from the McArthur tract, which is 22% lower than the overall state response rate. Response rates for Pico/Union and Koreatown were 58% and 62% respectively.
“It’s likely that the low response rates are non-English speaking and undocumented people—the same population we’re been trying to reach this whole time,” said Christen Hepuakoamana’a Marquez, Asian Pacific American Legal Center (APALC) Census 2010 media coordinator.
With limited staffing, funds and resources, community based organizations have needed to develop creative Census 2010 outreach tools. Next week APALC plans to hold multi-ethnic media outreach re-enactment of a Census home visit in English, Korean, Bangla and Spanish.
APALC also sponsored an Asian Pacific Islander Public Service Announcement (PSA) competition, and the winning entry was shown at the open of the week-long Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival, organized by Visual Communications.
Hagoth Aiono, 33-year-old Filmmaker of the “Grand Prize” PSA, is a first generation Samoan. Aiono, whose father is Samoan, born in Samoa and his mother is Maori, born in New Zealand, considers himself Polynesian.
Aiono felt that this contest was an opportunity to speak up within and reach out to the community about the important Census emphasis. He submitted four PSA entries. “I feel all my entries were strong artistically and I wanted the messages to be simple,” said Aiono. “If you removed the sound and watched them, it was pleasing to the eye and engaging.” When he heard which PSA won the “Grand Prize,” he was surprised because it was the most subtle- featuring females for messaging to a predominantly male-dominated Samoan culture.
“Partnering with Visual Communications, the nation’s premier Asian Pacific American media arts center, was a good way to involve a younger group to participate in an important information campaign,” said Marquez. “They can share with their parents and friends a message that can still make a difference in the Pacific Islanders community, a community that primarily communicates and unites through social networking websites.”
Marquez underscores the importance of message outreach to the API community, including the PSA contest:
1. The differential undercount of Pacific Islanders in the 2000 census was 5%, which is the highest undercount of any ethnic group.
2. The Long Beach area is one of the "hot spots" identified by the Census Bureau as having disproportionally low rates of return for census return rates. Long Beach census response rates are around 10% lower than the statewide average.
3. 1 in 4 Samoans in LA County live below the federal poverty line. And 51% of Samoans in LA County live below the 200% of the poverty line (less that $34k for a family of four).
4. 19% of Samoan households in LA county speak English less than "very well."
5. Large numbers of Tongan people also live in the Long Beach, Carson, Compton area. Tongans have an gmaiextremely high rate of linguistic isolation in LA County at 22%. Linguistic isolation meaning no one in the household is able to speak English.
Aiono's “Grand Prize” PSA will be played during the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival, through May 8, 2010. One of this year's film festival highlights is celebrating what would have been Bruce Lee's 70th birthday, with activities honoring the late actor and martial artist.
