Du Page County Complete Count Committee met Feb. 18.
Here is the minutes provided by the committee:
1. CALL TO ORDER
11:30 AM meeting was called to order by District 5 Sadia Covert at 11:45 AM.
PRESENT: Breinig, Brink, Caputo, Covert, Healy, Kamran, Kenny, Ramirez, Roth, Rutledge, Selmon, Smith, Snipes, Troll, Shefali, Bedalov
ABSENT: Page, Fabian, Ayala, Brent, Chang, Childress, Diaz, Elliott, Guyton, Keating, Krajewski, LePage, Miceli, Murphy, Noonan, Robey, Sadiq, Schvach, Sullivan, Tawney, Webb
2. WELCOMING REMARKS - CHAIR OF COMMITTEE
Chair Sadia Covert noted that it is 42 days until Census Day, April 1. She announced the rollout of the DuPage 2020 Census palm cards which were featured at last month’s meeting, and the County’s Communications staff has worked with the County Board to record public service announcements, which will be previewed at today’s meeting. The PSAs include a Spanish version featuring County Board member Greg Hart and an announcement by County Board Chairman Dan Cronin.
3. APPROVAL OF MINUTES
The minutes of January 21, 2020 were approved without amendment or correction upon voice vote.
1. Complete Count - Regular - Jan 21, 2020 12:00 PM
RESULT: ACCEPTED [UNANIMOUS]
MOVER: James Healy, District 5
SECONDER: Ashley Selmon, District 1
AYES: Breinig, Brink, Caputo, Covert, Healy, Kamran, Kenny, Ramirez, Roth, Rutledge, Selmon, Smith, Snipes, Troll
ABSENT: Page, Fabian, Ayala, Brent, Chang, Childress, Diaz, Elliott, Guyton, Keating, Krajewski, LePage, Miceli, Murphy, Noonan, Robey, Sadiq, Schvach, Sullivan, Tawney, Webb
4. STAFF REPORT
Jon Nelson, Policy and Program Manager, noted that it is less than a month before DuPage County residents begin receiving their initial invitations from the US Census Bureau asking them to respond to the 2020 Census. As of January, the Chicago region of the Census Bureau had informed him that they were at 55% of their recruitment goal, so they are asking DuPage to continue with their local census recruitment push. Mr. Nelson noted that workNet DuPage and People’s Resource Center have both hosted census recruitment fairs at their locations throughout the county, as has College of DuPage.
Mr. Nelson noted that the Census 2020 palm cards, which were obtained through a RAILS grant, are now ready for distribution; and three video public service announcements featuring County Board members Covert, Healy, Hart, and Chairman Cronin were previewed for the committee at today’s meeting. The PSAs are scheduled for release on April 1 and all feature the official US Census website, www.census.gov. Mr. Nelson also noted that he has the official US Census Bureau guidelines for completing the census questionnaire which he can make available to committee members whose constituents need assistance completing the census form.
Upcoming census events include: People’s Resource Center and workNet DuPage will be hosting their last census recruitment fairs in February; the Village of Woodridge is hosting a 2020 Census-STEM Family Fun Day on March 21; the West Chicago Public Library is preparing a census event for March; the Glen Ellyn Public Library is hosting a census lecture on March 25.
In closing, Chair Covert acknowledged the contributions of Joan Olson, Chief Communications Officer, Evan Shields, Public Information Officer, and all those who worked to create the video PSAs, as well as the municipalities that are creating their own PSA outreach to their local communities. She also expressed her appreciation to the members of the Complete Count Committee for their dedication to attending the meetings each month and for all their contributions, and to Jon Nelson for his efforts.
5. CCC DISCUSSION
Chair Covert noted that she will be attending a collaborative advocacy breakfast in her home district (District 5) on Friday, February 21, to talk about the census and distribute palm cards.
Member Breinig, DuPage Mayors and Managers Conference, stated that he is seeing good results from their ongoing census outreach.
Greg Bedalov from Choose DuPage stated they are planning another email blast for tomorrow (February 19).
Roberto Ramirez, Spanish Public Radio, is doing PSAs on the census. He asked if it might be feasible to utilize Spanish-speaking students from College of DuPage as spokespersons for future Spanish-language PSAs, working in collaboration with COD’s own radio station.
Lisa Snipes noted that the DuPage Homeless Continuum of Care continues to post census hiring information on its website, and on February 28 she will be reaching out to all of the homeless housing and service providers to confirm their awareness and participation as appropriate for the hard-to-count population.
Shefali Trivedi, Giving DuPage, stated that the Community Services teams are continuing to bring census awareness to clients at every opportunity via presentations and client visits, using the palm cards as an effective point of contact.
David Roth, DuPage Federation, noted that the Federation and Giving DuPage partnered last week to present a workshop on census communications, focused on strategy and specific messaging. The event was hosted by the DuPage Health Department. He noted that the Federation can offer messaging and communication assistance as well as language translation and interpretation assistance to organizations that might need those services. He noted that interested parties can contact the Federation at censussolutions@dupagefederation.org
Reema Kamran, Illinois Muslim Civic Coalition, stated that her organization has moved into its census education phase, noting that the pledge cards they utilize now include pictures of the Census Bureau’s invitation letter and a sample census form. During this phase, the focus will be on informing constituents about why the census invitations are important. Regarding other initiatives, the Coalition has a 12-week series of student videos and influencer videos featuring volunteers from around Illinois who share why the census is important for students and their peers. The influencer videos will feature messages in Urdu, Arabic, Spanish and English. Ms. Kamran emphasized the importance of making these multi-lingual video presentations accessible to communities via links in websites that are familiar to them. The Coalition is also in the process of creating PSAs in Urdu, Hindi, and Bengali, languages that have been identified with hard-to-count communities. Ms. Kamran also noted the faith-based summit that was held by the US Census Bureau today, and; she offered to share the video link with Jon Nelson for distribution to committee members. She also shared that she had reached out to Chair Covert and Jon Nelson about a proposed community-wide faith-based event at College of DuPage, to which all of the County departments and elected officials would be invited to interact with the public and address their questions and concerns regarding the census.
Kathy Kenny, League of Women Voters, noted that the League hosted a census event last month that was well-attended. Presenters included representatives from Common Cause and the Naperville Complete Count Committee. She noted that the seven DuPage member Leagues are ready to help with online census response setups.
Sarah Troll of Impact DuPage and the DuPage Health Department noted that they will provide staff education to Health Department employees utilizing tablets and digital labs.
Dr. Brian Caputo of College of DuPage noted that there was a census job fair on February 13 for students. He also mentioned the effectiveness of using specially designed screen savers on public computers at COD. As Chair of the Aurora Complete Count Committee, Dr. Caputo noted that he has had numerous opportunities recently to address the census in venues such as the Aurora Chamber, the League of Women Voters and the Quad-County Urban League.
Patty Smith, Aurora City Council, noted that the Aurora Fire Department offered its services to help with census outreach by hosting events, providing tablets, and so forth. She noted that most communities place a high degree of tryst in their local fire departments and that this could be another avenue of outreach.
Dani Brink, School District 88, noted the District created its own census web page, including video content and links; this information was shared on their social media outlets and District newsletter. Future endeavors include playing census videos and PSAs on TV screens throughout
their schools and having representatives from the US Census Bureau address parent meetings at the schools.
Sheila Rutledge, DuPage County Board, suggested the committee make available to libraries the information about screensavers and multi-lingual content, noting that libraries have multiple public computers available to their patrons.
Co-chair Healy reiterated the importance of faith leaders in reaching their congregants with information and assistance regarding the census.
Co-Chair Covert noted that he spoke with NAACP representative Michael Childress and Sahira Sadiq, CIOGC, last week for updates from their organizations. The NAACP is planning a major outreach to neighborhoods and youth centers. CIOGC has set up census banners in every mosque in DuPage County to draw attention to the upcoming census.
6. PUBLIC COMMENT
LaTiyfa Fields, Metropolitan Mayors’ Caucus, updated the committee on efforts made by their local government partners to engage the public by distributing pledge cards and census fact sheets and hosting interactive events at local libraries. The Caucus is also encouraging their local government members to use the new census mapping tool developed by UIC for the state of Illinois in addition to the ROAM tool. She noted that the Caucus may have additional funding available to assist in developing census tools and resources that are relevant to committee members.
7. ADJOURN
Without any further business before the committee, and without objection, the meeting was adjourned. The next meeting of the committee is scheduled for Tuesday, March 17, 2020.
http://dupage.iqm2.com/Citizens/FileOpen.aspx?Type=15&ID=7226&Inline=True
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