NYC Census 2020 Expands the "Count The Heroes” Campaign to Get Frontline Healthcare Workers Counted In The 2020 Census

Dell provides devices and AT&T provides free wireless coverage for tablets to City canvassers and volunteers who are helping to count those of New York’s frontline healthcare workers who have not yet responded to the census

NEW YORK, N.Y. – NYC Census 2020’s multi-borough “Countdown to our Future” campaign, which includes nearly 100 events and activities to promote the census and provide census completion assistance in several languages, now features a series of “Count the Heroes” events that aim to boost response rates among the healthcare workers who have kept New York City safe and functioning throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. The campaign includes a special focus on NYC Health + Hospitals, the largest public health care system in the United States, which served communities across the city in need during the COVID-19 crisis. 

At these events, NYC Census 2020 staff and volunteers carry Dell devices outfitted with new wireless service plans generously donated by AT&T while they canvass the exteriors of local hospitals to ensure hospital staff and other frontline workers are counted.

UPCOMING EVENT: 

Count the Heroes at Queens Hospital
What: Census intake for Health + Hospitals staff and other frontline workers
Who: NYC Census 2020 leadership 
When: Monday, October 5, Noon
Where: 82-68 164th Street, Jamaica, NY 11432 (At main entrance) 
Contact: Sona Rai, srai@census.nyc.gov, (585) 530 - 7484

PAST EVENTS: 

Count the Heroes at Elmhurst Hospital, Queens 
What: Census intake for Health + Hospitals staff and other frontline workers
Who: NYC Census 2020 leadership
When: Friday, October 2, 3:00 PM 
Where: 79-01 Broadway, Elmhurst, NY 11373 (tabling at 41st Ave., between 80 and 81 Streets)

Count the Heroes at Woodhull Hospital, Brooklyn 
What: Census intake for Health + Hospitals staff and other frontline workers during their staff appreciation week
Who: Director Julie Menin, NYC Census 2020
When: Thursday, October 1, 1:00 PM 
Where: Marcus Garvey Blvd between Broadway and Ellery Street

Count the Heroes at Harlem Hospital 
What: Census intake for Health + Hospitals staff and other frontline workers
Who: NYC Census 2020
When: Tuesday, September 29, 11:15 AM 
Where: 506 Lenox Avenue, Harlem, Manhattan (between West 137th and West 135th Streets)

Count the Heroes at North Central Bronx Hospital 
What: Census intake for Health + Hospitals staff and other frontline workers
Who: NYC Census 2020 
When: Tuesday, September 29, Noon 
Where: 3424 Kossuth Avenue, The Bronx

Count the Heroes at Metropolitan Hospital 
What: Census intake for Health + Hospitals staff and other frontline workers
Who: NYC Census 2020 
When: Monday, September 28, 11:30 AM 
Where: 2nd Avenue and 97th Street, Manhattan

Count the Heroes at Kings County Hospital
What: Census intake for Health + Hospitals staff and other frontline workers
Who: NYC Census 2020 
When: Monday, September 28, 1:00 PM 
Where: 451 Clarkson Avenue, Prospect Lefferts, Brooklyn

Count the Heroes at Jacobi Hospital, Bronx
What: Census intake for Health + Hospitals staff and other frontline workers
Who: NYC Census 2020 
When: Friday, September 25, 11:30 AM 
Where: 1400 Pelham Parkway South, Morris Park

NYC Census 2020’s “Countdown to our Future” campaign also features phone banks across neighborhoods with the lowest self-response rate in every borough. AT&T employees will also volunteer for these efforts.

As of October 2, New York City’s self-response rate is 61.1%. While this represents a significant closure of the self-response rate gap between New York City and the nation as compared to 2010, (just 5.5 percentage points now vs. 14 percentage points in 2010), many communities in New York City, including healthcare workers, still need to be counted.

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.