Committee lays groundwork to support census

PORTALES — The Roosevelt County Complete Count Committee held its first official meeting Thursday morning to lay the groundwork to support the 2020 United States Census.

Darla Reed was appointed to serve as committee secretary.

The committee began by soliciting ideas for its 2020 Census Integrated Partnership and Communications Plan.

Ideas included producing printed fliers to put on notice boards around town, asking community organizations like local churches and schools to mention the Census after activities and setting up booths or giving out printed material at local events like the Homecoming Parade.

The committee also decided to reach out to the Portales Ministerial Alliance to see if it would like to send a representative to be part of the committee.

There was discussion on how to use social media to boost local participation and the possibility of using services like Facebook’s paid marketing feature to reach Roosevelt county residents.

The committee has received $21,000 in state funds from the ICounts grant that will be released for use in October. The committee is pursuing additional funding as well, while also working with Erinn Burch, executive director of Live United, to utilize a grant from the Con Alma Health Foundation.

The ICount funds can be used for organizing events, media advertising and even the purchase of food, provided detailed reports of money spent are presented at the end of every month.

The committee decided to work on organizing a fiesta in spring to reach out to people in hard to count areas, possibly in conjunction with Live United and Curry County.

There were also tentative plans to set up workshops and computer stations to help people without the proper knowledge or access fill out the Census. Currently, there are plans for Census information booths at the Peanut Valley Festival and the Roosevelt Health Fair.

The committee is hoping to mail out notices to alert community members that they may encounter Census workers throughout the year. Before the census opens on April 1, Census workers will be working across the state to verify addresses. Starting in May and going through July, enumerators will be going door to door to the residences of anyone who hasn’t submitted a response.

The committee is enlisting “trusted messengers” from the community to help spread the word while getting as many people to fill out the Census before someone knocks on their door and later accompany Census takers when they make home visits.

A major concern the committee has for the 2020 Census is that people may avoid filling out the Census because they do not want to give out their personal information. Information from the Census is used for large-scale data only and is not shared outside the Census department, said Johnny Montiel, co-chair of the Roosevelt County Complete Count Committee. The committee hopes it can involve its messengers, event booths and other outreach as a trusted source to dispel the misconceptions, Montiel said.

The committee will meet every two weeks starting with a meeting every Thursday at 10 a.m. in the Memorial Building. The committee approved a special meeting at noon on Nov. 14 at La Casa to meet and coordinate with its community messengers.