Conducting the Census through the Pandemic: Low-response census tracts and other challenges
Topics: Population Geography
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Keywords: 2020 Census, ROAM, Response Outreach Area Mapper, LRS, Low response score, Self-Response, partnership specialist, community engagement
Session Type: Virtual Paper Abstract
Day: Monday
Session Start / End Time: 2/28/2022 11:20 AM (Eastern Time (US & Canada)) - 2/28/2022 12:40 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada))
Room: Virtual 23
Authors:
Heather L Bloom, University of Nebraska
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Abstract
For 2020, the U.S. Census Bureau created the Response Outreach Area Mapper (ROAM) to aid government officials, non-profit organizations and community leaders in planning census outreach. ROAM helps users look at low-response score areas (LRS), at the census tract level, that are predicted to be harder to count. The LRS data from the Census Bureau’s Planning Database (PDB) includes a Low Response Score, 2010 Census data and select American Community Survey estimates from 2012 to 2017. This information helped partnership specialists target which census tracts and counties would need the most educating about the benefits of completing the 2020 Census. This information, along with the daily updated 2020 Census Self-Response by State map and database, was designed to help partnership specialists and the community know where to direct their promotional efforts.
Enter the pandemic. In mid-March 2020, travel was stopped for all Census Bureau partnership specialists for three months. As Census Day, April 1, 2020, approached, instead of being in the field, meeting with community leaders and citizens, partnership specialists were ordered to stay at home. In person, large gatherings stopped, and this meant conducting outreach via online meetings, phone calls and e-mail blasts. The extended Census completion deadline gave partnership specialists more time to encourage participation, spurring new ways to engage LRS communities at a distance. This paper highlights techniques used by a former partnership specialist to promote community engagement during the 2020 Census.
Conducting the Census through the Pandemic: Low-response census tracts and other challenges
Category
Virtual Paper Abstract
Description
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