{"id":94542,"date":"2019-10-04T19:15:39","date_gmt":"2019-10-05T02:15:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/siliconeer.com\/current\/?p=94542"},"modified":"2020-07-19T13:22:20","modified_gmt":"2020-07-19T20:22:20","slug":"census-experts-youth-advocates-tackle-getting-californias-kids-counted-students-help-in-getting-their-families-counted-too","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/siliconeer.com\/current\/census-experts-youth-advocates-tackle-getting-californias-kids-counted-students-help-in-getting-their-families-counted-too\/","title":{"rendered":"Census Experts, Youth Advocates Tackle Getting California\u2019s Kids Counted \u2013 Students Help in Getting their Families Counted Too"},"content":{"rendered":"

(L-r): Executive Director of Ethnic Media Services Sandy Close (far left, standing), hosted youth advocates and census experts, (seated from left), Mayra Alvarez, president of The Children\u2019s Partnership, Robert Clinton of the San Francisco Office of Community Engagement and Immigrant Affairs, Christina Wong of the San Francisco Unified School District, Hong Mei Pang of Chinese for Affirmative Action, Son M. Le, of the U.S. Census Bureau and Andre Aikins of Stay Alive & Free, Sept. 27, who addressed issues of the importance of and challenges in ensuring that all children are counted when the 2020 Census is compiled next year. (Amar D. Gupta\/Siliconeer)<\/em><\/p>\n

With millions of dollars of federal funding on the line statewide, a gathering of youth serving organizations, community activists, city and census officials and ethnic media met to brainstorm how to ensure that the youngest members of the population \u2013 especially kids 4 and younger \u2013 get counted in the 2020 census next year.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe youngest children are the least likely to be counted and wind up losing the most because their services disproportionally rely on federal funds,\u201d Mayra Alvarez, president of Children\u2019s Partnership, told the audience.\u00a0 \u201cAnd federal funds are driven by census data.\u201d<\/p>\n

The next chance to get it right won\u2019t come until 2030, when those kids will have missed out on years of educational, nutritional and health care support they\u2019re entitled to \u2013 at a rate of thousands of dollars for every person not counted.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need all the help we can get to make sure it\u2019s a successful count,\u201d said Robert Clinton, 2020 Census project manager for the San Francisco office of Civic Engagement & Immigrant Affairs, which co-hosted the Sept. 27 event at the World Affairs Council with Ethnic Media Services.<\/p>\n

Attendees represented a broad swathe of diverse communities, from indigenous Mayan speakers from Guatemala to African diaspora members to Eastern Europeans, Asian Indians, Vietnamese-, Chinese-, Filipino- and Korean-Americans\u00a0 \u2013 the latter being the immigrant group with the highest undercount.<\/p>\n

There was broad consensus that getting trusted community messengers to promote the importance of everyone being counted, whatever their age or legal status, would be key. Those messengers could include ethnic media, community service providers and young people themselves.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
(Top row, l-r): Executive Director of Ethnic Media Services Sandy Close; Mayra Alvarez, president of The Children\u2019s Partnership; Robert Clinton of the San Francisco Office of Community Engagement and Immigrant Affairs; Christina Wong of the San Francisco Unified School District; Hong Mei Pang of Chinese for Affirmative Action; (Bottom row, l-r): Son M. Le, of the U.S. Census Bureau; Andre Aikins of Stay Alive & Free (Photos: Amar D. Gupta\/Siliconeer); San Francisco Unified School District students, from left, Talia Kishinevsky, Katelyn Alexis Rivas and Geraldine Marie O. Urgel, gave presentations on their experiences. (Photos: Lynn Chan\/Ethnic Media Services)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

To enlist teens and young adults, EMS announced the launch of a contest for 14-21 year old residents of San Francisco co-sponsored by San Francisco\u2019s OCEIA.\u00a0 Titled \u201cWhy My Family Counts,\u201d the contest offers eight $500 first prizes and eight $250 second prizes for a 400-word essay, a work of art, or a 2-minute video\/audio of music, rap or spoken word. Entries are due by Dec. 1.<\/p>\n

Nationwide, in the last decennial census there were a million kids age 4 or younger who weren\u2019t counted.\u00a0 Of those, 10% were in California. Because census data informs approximately three-quarters of a billion dollars annually in federal spending, that undercount cost the state dearly in funding for such programs as school lunches, school breakfast, SNAP, WIC, Head Start and section 8 housing vouchers.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are risking billions of dollars not coming to our state,\u201d noted Alvarez of Children\u2019s Partnership.<\/p>\n

California, as a state, has allocated $187 million toward getting everyone counted in 2020, to minimize a potential $3 billion loss of federal funding, she told the audience.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing counted accurately helps our children thrive,\u201d she said.\u00a0 \u201cThe message that kids are our future resonates.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey have to lead the charge and get their family on board, understanding the impact on their lives and their families\u2019 lives,\u201d said Andre Aikins, who teaches math and works to reduce violence through the organization Alive and Free.<\/p>\n

He maintained that traditional outreach models may not work with today\u2019s youngsters.\u00a0 \u201cWe have to be very creative. We have to acknowledge that we\u2019re in the digital age. Kids are tapping on phones before they can write.\u00a0 They need color, they need rhymes, music.\u201d<\/p>\n

San Francisco is home to 115,952 children 18 and younger, according to Clinton \u2013 about 13.4% of the population.<\/p>\n

Some 6.9 percent of these kids live with their grandparents, 47.5% live in rental housing, and only 8% of those between ages five and 17 speak just one language.\u00a0 All these characteristics pose a heightened risk of being overlooked in the census process \u2013 and costing their communities the taxpayer support they qualify for.<\/p>\n

Joining the panel speakers at the event were three San Francisco United School District students, each of whom shared an essay they had prepared for the contest about how, as newcomers to the United States, being counted means being visible.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
On Sept. 27 at the World Affairs Council, San Francisco Unified School District students, from left, Talia Kishinevsky, Katelyn Alexis Rivas and Geraldine Marie O. Urgel, gave presentations on their experiences 10%children being included in next year\u2019s census. (Photos: Lynn Chan\/Ethnic Media Services)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cEvery 10 years we count our freedom,\u201d said Talia Kishinevsky, a senior at Ruth Asawa School of the Arts, who described overcoming language and cultural barriers as an odyssey from Ukraine to the United States that her parents began in 1990.<\/p>\n

When it comes to meeting children\u2019s immediate needs, SFUSD administrator Christina Mei-Yue Wong highlighted three categories of spending based on census data.<\/p>\n

The $159 million annually dedicated to special education, a combination of $14 million of federal grants, plus state and local dollars. But all of those allocations are based on census data.\u00a0 Similarly reliant on census counts are the national school lunch program, for which more than half of SFUSD\u2019s students are eligible, and Title 1 programs that focus on helping low-income students, Wong emphasized.<\/p>\n

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Losing this kind of support \u201ccan lead to a multiplier effect\u201d for the challenges families face, said Hong Mei Pang of Chinese for Affirmative Action.\u00a0 Giving a shout-out to the millions of young people demonstrating worldwide for climate change, Pang praised the student presenters and underscored the key role they will play in encouraging parents to fill out census forms online.<\/p>\n

Unlike in 2010, she noted, the paper form of the questionnaire will be in English only with a Spanish translation provided if a specific census tract\u00a0 meets the standard \u2013 which none in San Francisco have.<\/p>\n

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Sandy Close, executive director, Ethnic Media Services speaks at the World Affairs Council, in San Francisco, Sept. 27. (Amar D. Gupta\/Siliconeer)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Census Bureau outreach specialist Son M. Le, a longtime community activist, pointed out that 80% of the kids overlooked in the 2010 census came from families who were counted.\u00a0 Not counting kids is as much a problem of lack of understanding and information as it is about mistrust of government. Recalling his own arrival as a lone teenager in San Francisco\u2019s Tenderloin, Le predicted the success of the census rests finally on people\u2019s willingness to break out of their own isolation, and young people can lead the way.<\/p>\n

Kids and youth (14-21 yrs) who live in San Francisco, can enter the essay contest at this link:
\nhttps:\/\/siliconeer.com\/current\/sf-youth-essay-writing-contest-why-my-family-counts-in-the-2020-census\/<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(L-r): Executive Director of Ethnic Media Services Sandy Close (far left, standing), hosted youth advocates and census experts, (seated from left), Mayra Alvarez, president of The Children\u2019s Partnership, Robert Clinton of the San Francisco Office of Community Engagement and Immigrant Affairs, Christina Wong of the San Francisco Unified School District, Hong Mei Pang of Chinese…<\/p>\n

Read More<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":99,"featured_media":94543,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[275,5,45351,1292,11,276,72,19,4786,20],"tags":[36675,26713,36676,16409,7708,36673,6627,5209,36672,706,2563,147,26714,141],"class_list":["post-94542","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","category-current-affairs","category-gen-z","category-legalissues","category-lifestyle","category-opinion","category-politics-current-affairs","category-topics","category-u-s-news","category-youth","tag-2020census","tag-2020uscensus","tag-census2020","tag-uscensus2020","tag-7708","tag-2020-census","tag-census-2020","tag-ems","tag-ethnic-media-service","tag-kids","tag-san-francisco","tag-siliconeer","tag-undercount","tag-youth"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/siliconeer.com\/current\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94542","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/siliconeer.com\/current\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/siliconeer.com\/current\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/siliconeer.com\/current\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/99"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/siliconeer.com\/current\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=94542"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/siliconeer.com\/current\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94542\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/siliconeer.com\/current\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/94543"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/siliconeer.com\/current\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94542"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/siliconeer.com\/current\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94542"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/siliconeer.com\/current\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94542"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}