In challenging times like these, the need for community action is greater than ever. If you’re like the Philly Counts team, you’re already thinking of the next thing you can do to help your neighbors. We recognize that there are community needs during the COVID-19 that need to be addressed immediately. We’re keeping our sights on a complete and accurate Census count to support us for the next 10 years, while working to ensure equity in our communities now. Do you have input for how our outreach efforts could be more successful? Join a Working Group – you can find the details below. We encourage all of our partners who are interested in taking community action with Philly Counts through 2020 Census engagement work or providing support to community members during COVID-19 to join us on our weekly partner calls. Our network is growing each week – on Monday, we had over 100 people join us!
Learn to Phone Bank with Philly Counts: Are you new to phone banking? No problem! Join us for a phone banking training – we will go through all of the details with you so you feel confident making calls to your neighbors. Looking for a way to get involved in community action while you’re at home?
Join a Philly Counts phone banking session! We are phone banking residents in every neighborhood in Philadelphia and we need your support. We are phone banking households across Philadelphia to check in and connect families to resources, and answer any questions they may have about the 2020 Census.
Last week, 88 volunteers made 15,725 calls and had 2,356 conversations throughout Callowhill, Yorktown, Strawberry Mansion, and Hartranft. Volunteers resolved 93% of census-related issues. These were very meaningful and impactful conversations about the Census and community concerns. As of today, we have made more than 46,000 phone calls throughout Philadelphia! This week, we are continuing to call throughout the neighborhoods with predicted low response rates.
Help us with ongoing Census engagement efforts!
• Communications & Advertising: We’re teaming up with partners who have the ability to place ads in print, television, and social media, as well as draft op-eds and push messages through all communication channels. Join the conversation: contact mark.rooney@phila.gov for more information.
• Ongoing Census Engagement: Since we are not able to hold community events to engage people, communications and advertising are more important than ever. We know that many of you have ongoing communication with the people you serve. You may be distributing food, holding wellness check-ins, or providing other resources or services. Let’s work together to get the word out about the Census: contact morris.hobson@phila.gov to get involved.
• Census Action Day: We have approximately 100,000 census informational door-hangers in our office. When physical distancing measures are relaxed, we will create a list of target neighborhoods. We need our partners to be ready with volunteers, so we can get this information out to as many households as possible. We anticipate this will be held on a single day in late July or early August. To learn more about this Working Group, please join our Partner Call on Monday by contacting Mark Rooney at mark.rooney@phila.gov.
• Phone banking: Want to make sure your block is counted in the 2020 Census? Want to check-in with neighbors’ experiences surrounding COVID-19? We hold weekly sessions to phone bank residents in every neighborhood in Philadelphia, and we need your support! We provide the phone numbers and script. You may also be able to call your own list and share a report with us of who you called. To register as a phone banker, or if you’d like to create your own phone banking group, please reach out to Pedro.Rodriguez@phila.gov.
Measuring Success
May 4th-10th ● Volunteers assisted 1347 households in making a plan to participate in the 2020 Census ○ This equals approximately $2.8-7.1 million in federal funding each year, $28-71 million over ten years ● Volunteers resolved 93% of issues related to residents participating in the 2020 Census ● Calls increased by 18% and conversations increased by 14%, compared to the previous week
Overview ● In the first six weeks of phone banking, we have made over 42,000 calls and have engaged over 7,000 households ● Volunteers assisted 3351 households in making a plan to participate in the 2020 Census ○ This equals approximately $7-17.6 million in federal funding each year, $70-176 million over ten years ● Volunteers resolved 89.4% of issues related to residents participating in the 2020 Census
