This guest blog comes from Kelly Warren, director of Membership & Affiliate Engagement for the Michigan Municipal League. In 2019, she was appointed by Governor Whitmer to serve on the State Census Complete Count Committee. Kelly has been managing the deployment of capacity-building grants to Michigan's communities from the MML Foundation and coordinating state-wide and localized efforts to increase participation in the Census by Michiganders.

For every person not counted in the 2020 Census, Michigan stands to lose $3,000 per person per year in federal funds. Now more than ever, it’s imperative that we have a robust statewide count. Not only does the census count determine funding for housing and roads, but the count helps determine the federal funding Michigan relies on for public health and disease prevention.

The Michigan Municipal League Foundation (MMLF) has partnered with the State Census Complete Count Committee (CCC) to help Michigan achieve a successful census count. The partnership supports the “Be Counted” campaign which works to target outreach efforts for Hard-to-Count (HTC) populations, as well as use paid and earned media along with grassroots engagement to increase awareness in rural and urban communities.

The State CCC, has a goal of achieving an 82-percent response rate. In 2010, Michigan had a 78-percent participation rate and we are currently at 61 percent, making us 5^th in the nation in terms of census responses. The national response rate is 54.6 percent and more people are responding every day. Michigan’s response is commendable given that we are in the middle of a pandemic, and third in the nation for the most cases of COVID-19.  I’d like to especially recognize the city of Huntington Woods.  They have an 86-percent response rate, making them #1 in Michigan and #11 in the country!  We have a couple more rock star municipalities with response rates of more than 80 percent: Pleasant Ridge has gotten responses from 82 percent of their households, and East Grand Rapids is at 81.9 percent. Click here to see your community’s response rate and how it compares to other communities.

Our Role in the Census "Be Counted" Campaign

As part of our partnership with the State, the Foundation served as a fiduciary to provide community census support in 46 communities with hard-to-count populations. These communities represent over 2.1 million hard-to-count Michiganders. Amid the pandemic, some of these communities are finding ways to do outreach surrounding the census. Here are a few of the ways they are motivating their residents to respond. You may be able to incorporate them as well.

• Add census messaging to your website, community newsletter, and social media feeds.
• Create municipal branded census yard signs, or over-the-street banners.
• Include census information in school curriculum packets that are being sent to students.
• Include census information at food distribution centers.

For additional ideas, and activities that your community can do during the pandemic, and after, check out the League’s Census Toolkit for Local Units of Government. Read it to learn ways that you can increase self-responses and motivate residents in your community.

Are You Looking for Additional Ways to Support the 2020 Census?

Consider Phone Banking

We invite you to participate in a statewide virtual phone-bank campaign.  We are asking trusted community voices to reach out to residents to encourage self-response to the 2020 Census.  The Michigan Census Office is available to support your community in sharing the census message via phone, text, and social media to reach those most hard-to-count community members.  The State is offering phone bank training every Monday (at 10:00 am) and Wednesday (at 2:00 pm).  Click here to register.

Are You a College or University Town?

This week we worked with the National League of Cities, the Town & Gown Association, and ICMA to send a letter to Congress asking for additional financial support for university towns.  As America experiences the harsh economic consequences of COVID-19, university and college towns also face another significant consequence: a census undercount that could impact community quality of life for the next decade.  NLC has set up an online, editable University Community letter to Congress echoing our joint letter here.  University and college towns, you can act now by signing on to the letter.

Convenient. Confidential. Critical.

When promoting the census in your area be sure to highlight the three C’s.

• Responding to the census is convenient and people can respond by mail, phone, or online.
• The census is 100 percent confidential and secure and your information will not be shared with anyone.
• We want to make sure everyone is counted because its critical to the future success of Michigan.

Census Operations

The Census Bureau is planning a phased start to many of the census operations rather than beginning field operations nationwide on June 1, 2020, as previously announced.  Operations could resume at different times in different areas of the country based on federal, state, and local public health guidance, as well as the availability of personal protective equipment.

Online, phone, and mailed self-responses will continue throughout the data collection phase which will now go through October 31.  Households that have not yet responded to the census will receive an in-person visit by a census taker to collect their information later this summer. Responding now to the 2020 Census will minimize the need for a census taker to visit your home.

In addition to receiving funds from the state, the MMLF has raised corporate dollars to support vendor contracts and the community census support program.  Thank you to the DTE Foundation, AT&T, Consumers Energy, Delta Dental, Michigan Energy First, and Michigan Regional Council of Carpenters and Millwrights.  Funding dollars have been used to send text messages and direct mail pieces across the state.  It has also funded phone banking, faith outreach campaigns, and more.

Even though we’d love to see Michigan in the #1 spot for census self-responses, we know it’s not just about being in first place. It’s about the people that are impacted by a census undercount. It’s about the federal funding that is needed in our state. Returning your census makes sure that your community gets the money it needs—otherwise that money will be spent in other states and other communities.

Michiganders are amazingly strong, and amazingly resilient. We can do this. We can have an accurate and complete count in Michigan.  Being able to respond via the internet makes responding even easier. This is the first time we’ve been able to respond online for the census, and internet responses have exceeded Census Bureau projections. Click here to respond to the census.  If you’ve already responded share the link with others. There are only nine questions, and it will take you less than 10 minutes to respond.  Some populations, like seniors, prefer to respond via phone. They can do so by calling 844-330-2020. For phone numbers with different language options, click here.

Here are a couple of links where you can check your response rates daily.  The State of Michigan Census Dashboard, and the Census Bureau Response Rate page.

We encourage every community to join us in the effort of increasing census responses across the state.

Kelly Warren is director of Membership & Affiliate Engagement at the League. In 2019, she was appointed by Governor Whitmer to serve on the State Census Complete Count Committee. 

The Michigan Municipal League is providing resources, hosting informational webinars, and advocating on behalf of Michigan’s communities during the COVID-19 crisis. More information can be found at www.mml.org/coronavirus.