If you had Robert Groves’ job as the Director of the Census and given the rapid growth of the Latino population, what changes would you implement to encourage more participation for Latino families?
The current strategies employed by the Census Department demonstrate a commitment to combine technological tools and good old-fashioned word of mouth. The visibility of advertisements via popular media outlets such as radios, televisions, internet, newspapers, and magazines appeal to a wide variety of people, especially as these materials are available in both English and Spanish. Rather than change the Census Department’s approach to increase Census knowledge and participation among Latino families, I would expand on those existing by encouraging more grassroots efforts. As the Census has over 2000 partnerships with local organization, the willingness of community groups to encourage the Census is present. I believe that one vital aspect that has been overlooked however is the college age population. If the Census were to hire students to form Census Awareness groups and campaigns at their universities and colleges, young students would not only learn more about the census for their own sakes, but would ideally also be inspired to educate their own families, their hometown communities, and the communities that they are a part of while at school. Thus, in order to create an effective network of people that are informed about and ultimately, participate in the Census effort we must also encourage youth participation. Seeing as how this age group is especially keen with virtually every type of technology, I strongly believe in this generation’s potential to create powerful organizations to promote the Census.
