Census Champion

Census Champion

Do you like to volunteer? Are you active in your community? Do you want to be apart of a meaningful cause? Become a Census Champion!

When it comes to counting our families, it is so important to have trusted messengers encouraging participation, and there is no better messenger than peers! In partnership with the counties, we have created a Census Champion program to identify and equip trusted community members to talk to their peers and the media about the 2020 Census. We hope that in every shared community space from Barstow to Temecula, from Indio to Montclair, we will have a trained Census Champion that can share with their community what the Census is, why it matters, and how to participate in a culturally competent and accessible way. If you want to become one of these champions, read below to learn more! 


Those who are chosen to become a Census Champion represent not just their person, but our regional tables, cities, counties, and coalition. Here in San Bernardino and Riverside counties, we are uniting far and wide to ensure a complete count of our home, but we can only secure the participation of our community if they can trust us to give accurate, consistent information. Partners in every sector have spent months building and strengthening our #IECounts coalition and becoming a Census Champion makes you an official member of it. To prevent the spread of misinformation or misuse of the program, potential Census Champions should be selected or nominated from known trusted messengers in the community. In order to become a Champion, applicants must: 

  • Be a trusted source among their peers
  • Complete a verified Census 2020 training meeting 
  • Be recommended by a local community organization, committee, institution, or agency involved in the Census IE or IECounts coalitions 
  • Commit to participate in a monthly webinar to stay informed of Census 2020 information and updates 

Additionally, we want to involve any and all communities, including but not limited to: 

  • Latinos 
  • Black/African Americans
  • Native Americans 
  • Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders
  • Middle Eastern and North Africans 
  • Immigrants and Refugees 
  • Farm-workers 
  • People with Disabilities 
  • LGBTQ identifying folks 
  • Seniors/Older Adults 
  • People experiencing homelessness
  • Veterans 
  • People with low/no broadband subscriptions
  • Non-English or little English speakers 

Training

There are a great number of training opportunities that we will be offering throughout our Census campaign. Many of the opportunities will have different facilitators and cover different hard-to-count communities, but there will be four core components that will shape each training that qualifies for Census Champion certification:

  • Census 101 – a general overview of Census; common concerns; and state/local efforts to address said concerns
  • Outreach 101 – how to address common concerns; where to reach community members; how to recruit fellow Champions; etc
  • Interactive Learning – practice, practice, practice! 
  • Issues and Resources – discuss local/community specific concerns; learn the relevant community resources