NYC Census 2020 Convenes Emergency Session with East Asian Media: 43 Days and 56 Percent - A Countdown to Our Future

With President Trump cutting the census count by one month to depress responses among immigrants, NYC Census 2020 convenes an emergency session on the state of the 2020 Census with East Asian media and advocacy organizations

NYC set to potentially lose billions for COVID-19 relief, up to two seats in Congress and the Electoral College, which decides the Presidency

New York — At 11:45 AM on Tuesday, August 18, NYC Census 2020 will host an East Asian media roundtable in response to President Trump’s cutting of the 2020 Census count by one month, a move designed to depress responses among immigrants and rob New York City of billions for critical programs, as well as congressional representation and seats in the Electoral College, for the next 10 years.

The session will feature NYC Census 2020 Deputy Director Amit Singh Bagga, Research and Policy Director Howard Shih of the Asian American Federation (AAF), Amy Torres, Director of Policy & Advocacy at the Chinese-American Planning Council (CPC), Jennifer Sun, Co-Executive Director at Asian Americans for Equality (AAFE), and Chuck Park, Civic Participation Manager at the MinKwon Center for Community Action.

Angel Cheng and Yilin Wang from NYC Census 2020’s Field Team will also be available to provide brief comments and answer questions in Mandarin and Cantonese. Chuck Park from MinKwon will also give a statement in Korean.

The session will also cover important information about the U.S. Census Bureau’s door-to-door enumeration operation, commonly known as “NRFU” (non-response follow-up).

Members of the press must pre-register for this event by contacting Sona Rai at srai@census.nyc.gov.

What:

Conversations with New York City Census 2020 officials, coalition leaders, and community-based organizations about the latest developments involving the 2020 Census and the importance of the census to East Asian American communities.

Who:

Deputy Director Amit Singh Bagga of NYC Census 2020 will address misconceptions about the 2020 Census and New York City’s response to President Trump’s attempts to disrupt the census. Deputy Bagga will discuss NYC Census 2020’s priorities, East Asian-focused advertising, and what areas of the city are lagging in terms of self-response.

Research and Policy Director Howard Shih of the Asian American Federation (AAF) will discuss the importance of the census to East Asian American communities as the census is the basis on which all communities can obtain the money, power, and respect that is rightfully theirs, and how the organization is responding to the shortened census timeline.

Amy Torres, Director of Policy & Advocacy at the Chinese-American Planning Council (CPC), Jennifer Sun, Co-Executive Director, Asian Americans for Equality (AAFE), and Chuck Park, Civic Participation Manager at the MinKwon Center for Community Action will discuss the barriers to self-response participation and how their organizations are working to ensure that their constituents can get the funding and representation that is rightfully theirs by participating in the census.

When: Tuesday, August 18, 2020
11:45 AM - 1:00 PM Eastern Time

Where: Zoom link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87247422233
Password: census2020
Members of the press must register with Sona Rai at SRai@census.nyc.gov ahead of the event
For technical assistance, please contact Yilin Wang at yiwang@census.nyc.gov or
917-690-6289

Why:

New York City is in a census crisis: The city’s self-response rate is just over 55%, and the response rate for East Asian communities across the city are 10 to 12 percentage points lower than the city’s overall rate.
Only seven weeks left to respond; all communities must be mobilized to respond now.
There are no questions about citizenship or immigration on the census, and all answers are completely confidential and cannot be shared with anyone -- not immigration or tax authorities, and not with any law enforcement authorities or landlords.

About NYC Census 2020

NYC Census 2020 is a first-of-its-kind organizing initiative established by Mayor de Blasio in January 2019 to ensure a complete and accurate count of all New Yorkers in the 2020 Census. The $40 million program is built on four pillars: (1) a $19 million community-based awards program, The New York City Complete Count Fund, empowering 157 community-based organizations to engage historically undercounted communities around the 2020 Census; (2) an in-house "Get Out the Count" field campaign supported by the smart use of cutting-edge data and organizing technology, and a volunteer organizing program to promote a complete count in each of the city's 245 neighborhoods; (3) an innovative, multilingual, tailored messaging and marketing campaign, including a $3 million commitment to investing in community and ethnic media to reach every New York City community; as well as (4) an in-depth Agency and Partnerships engagement plan that seeks to leverage the power of the City's 350,000-strong workforce and the city's major institutions, including libraries, hospitals, faith-based communities, cultural institutions, higher educational institutions, and more, to communicate with New Yorkers about the critical importance of census participation. Through close partnerships with trusted leaders and organizations across the five boroughs, this unprecedented campaign represents the largest municipal investment in census organizing nationwide and will build an enduring structure that empowers New Yorkers to remain civically engaged.