Mayor Lori Lightfoot wants Chicago’s movers and shakers to contribute to an “all-hands-on-deck” campaign to ensure at least 75% participation in the 2020 census.
Lightfoot urged business leaders to match the $500,000 the city has earmarked to bankroll community organizations charged with reaching the 48% of Chicago’s population identified as hard to count.
“With your help, we can double our impact, awarding $1 million worth of grants to organizations on the ground in Chicago to support this effort,” Lightfoot told business leaders at the Harold Washington Library.
People considered hard to count include immigrants, refugees, the homeless and non-English speakers.
Lightfoot said a request for proposals for census projects will be released next week.
Ten years ago, Chicago’s 66% census response rate was “among the worst participation levels” of any big city in the nation, she said. This year’s goal is an ambitious 75%.
To do that, Chicago plans to spend $2.7 million — $2 for every “hard-to-count” resident — to cut through what Lightfoot has called the cloud of fear created by immigration raids and a nixed citizenship question.
Some of the money will be used to implement “creative, strategic technology solutions to address gaps” in computer and internet access.
On Thursday, Lightfoot lifted the veil on two of those innovative ideas: “mobile census kiosks and internet hot spots to address gaps in access to computers and the internet.”
Computer and internet access is essential since the 2020 census will be the first that can be completed online.
“If you are a large employer, consider adding a census kiosk in your stores, your plant, your office, your lobby and encourage your employees to participate,” the mayor told business leaders.
“If you’re a customer-facing entity, think creatively about your product marketing and packaging and how you can use that as a way to advertise your commitment to the census. Where can you promote the census in your stores and products?”
Earlier this year, a divided U.S. Supreme Court blocked the Trump administration’s threat to add a citizenship question to the census form.
But Lightfoot acknowledged Thursday the mere threat of a citizenship question created “a lot of fuss” and a lot of fear that must be overcome.
“If we don’t do our job, we’ll have the abysmal result that we had 10 years ago. I mean — 66 percent is terrible. I’m worried about it, though, because in the lead-up to the census, there’s been a lot of saber rattling by President Trump and people are afraid,” she said.
“Communities of color — particularly immigrant and refugee communities — are very worried about any contacts with anything that looks official. And particularly if it has the federal government’s name on it.”
