Census Outreach Yields Historic Count for NYC

CWE census outreach workers pivoted to online, phone, and text outreach during the pandemic.

Census statistics released this month show that 8.8 million people now live in the five boroughs. The 629,000 person increase is due in part to the influx of immigrants and other transplants who have moved to New York over the last ten years, but much credit goes to city leaders and the hundreds of community organizations who fought through federal threats and the pandemic to ensure every New Yorker was counted.

A complete count was essential for New York. The once a decade census decides how many representatives each state receives in Congress and how federal funds for transportation, senior centers, and housing are divided up. In past years, New York’s population has been undercounted and city leaders and community organizations were committed to changing that.

Immigrants, seniors, and children are often undercounted in the census. In particular, many immigrants were worried about filling out the 2020 census because of hostile actions from the Trump administration.

“Between the pandemic and interference from the federal government, it was an uphill climb,” says Darly Corniel, Education Director at CWE and head of the CWE census program. “But our city’s effort to fill out the census and get counted was tremendous.”

In 2019, with the census approaching, the Consortium for Worker Education and the New York City Central Labor Council launched CWE-CLC Workers Count2020 to ensure that New Yorkers get counted. Working with affiliate unions and community partners, CWE census outreach workers organized residents across the city to participate. It was one of 150 programs that the City of New York funded to increase census participation across the five boroughs.

CWE census outreach workers ensured that often missed communities were counted in the census

As the census got underway, CWE’s outreach centered on students in workforce development classes at CWE partner non-profits and labor unions.

“You are more likely to participate if you are hearing about the census from your English teacher or from the community organization that you attend,” says Corniel.

When the coronavirus pandemic upended in-person outreach, CWE organizers shifted to phone, text, and online outreach to engage with New Yorkers about the census.

Organizers also pitched in with aid programs to help New Yorkers get through the crisis, and assisted aid recipients with filling out the census. This included supporting food and PPE distribution to NYCHA residents with GOLES and Council Member Carlina Rivera on the Lower East Side, helping food pantries run by Catholic Charities and St. Jerome Hands in the Bronx, and rallying with Black Veterans for Social Justice in Bedford-Stuyvesant.

CWE outreach workers also fanned out into communities to hang posters in storefronts and engage New Yorkers on the street.

CWE's successful census program is a model for our outreach campaign for the new Excluded Workers Fund

In total, CWE organizers had 37,175 conversations with New Yorkers about the census and supported 16,334 in completing the questionnaire. The successful census program is serving as a model for CWE’s outreach campaign for the state’s new Excluded Workers Fund.

The complete count will mean $1.8 billion more in federal funding for the city, according to recent estimates. Each additional resident counted results in about $3,000 in funding.

New York City’s census effort exceeded much of the rest of the country. Queens, Brooklyn, the Bronx, and Manhattan all outperformed previous census estimates by 5-8%, better than almost every other county in the country.

For some CWE organizers, it was the impact in their immigrant communities that made the campaign worthwhile.

"Honestly, it was the best thing I could possibly do as an immigrant,” says Diego Castillo, a CWE Census Team member. “To be out there telling the truth about the census and to help Spanish speakers to understand the importance of their participation, and to have them trust me and help them fill out the census, was the most amazing experience I could have. Time and time again, it made me feel useful.”