NEW ORLEANS—The 2010 census is underway throughout the country, and a group of Loyola students here at home is doing their part to make sure New Orleanians get counted.
These students are not only raising awareness, but they are doing so in communities where spreading the word is critical.
For a small group of Loyola students, the past few weeks have been all about the numbers.
“Everybody seems to know that it's coming,” said Marimar Velez. “They just have questions about how and when they'll be able to fill it out, so that the one thing we've been focusing on."
The students’ focus is on the 2010 census. As part of national competition for public relations students, a group from Loyola has launched a campaign called "Down for the Count." It is designed to boost awareness about the country's once-a-decade count of its population.
"It impacts the city so much that we just want everyone to know,” said Christine Minero. “They're concerned about different things. They're concerned about healthcare. They're concerned about education. They're concerned about schools. And the census impacts all of that."
The Loyola team has spent the past several weeks, sharpening their public relation skills by launching a series of outreach events around town; zeroing in on certain communities to clear up misconceptions and break through language barriers.
"We've targeted the hard to reach audiences that have been traditionally undercounted in the census,” said Minero. “We've targeted the Vietnamese audience, the Latino audience and the college students."
On this night, the students are talking to parents and students as the Esperanza Charter School in Mid City, which caters to the Hispanic community.
The students said they know the work they're doing is especially important for the minority communities in our area because the census forms will not be bilingual.
"The reason they're not being offered is because the Latino and Vietnamese communities haven't been counted with a high enough percentage to justify to the Census Bureau that they need the bilingual forms. It's kind of a horrible catch 22," said Minero.
While guiding lessons on the census, these students are learning their own lessons about the best ways to connect with an audience: coloring books for the kids and a raffle for the adults.
"It’s definitely trial and error,” said Minero. “We found that some events have worked better than others and some tactics work better than others."
"For us, it's almost become a passionate mission because we love the city so much,” said Dominic Moncada. “To convey this message, that the census is important. It's not just an assignment, but something worth doing"
For more information about the campaign, you can E-mail downforthecountnola@gmail.com, and for general information about the census, check out 2010census.gov.
