CPCA and Regional Associations Successfully Partner on Census 2020 Outreach
In June 2019, CPCA was designated the Health Sector Lead by the California Complete Count – Census 2020 Office and has been leading Census outreach work for community health centers (CHCs) in partnership with 11 regional clinic associations. CHCs’ diverse patient mix, and their close connection to community members, uniquely positioned them as essential leaders for communicating to patients the importance of participating in the 2020 Census. CPCA worked with several partners to create resources and trainings in the hopes of supporting CHCs and partners to continue their Census 2020 outreach efforts during the COVID -19 pandemic.
September 30, 2020 marked the end of CPCA’s contract with California Complete Count. During the grant period, CPCA engaged its own staff, regional consortia, and external partners in Census 2020 strategies. Please find further details below on how CPCA and its partners engaged diverse audiences. You may access any of the resources below by visiting CPCA’s Census 2020 campaign website: www.myhealthcountsca.com.
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Census 2020 Social Media Toolkits
To help CHCs and others in the health sector continue their Census 2020 education and outreach efforts while in quarantine, CPCA developed two social media toolkits in August. The first toolkit, “Census 2020 National Health Center Week” focused on Census messaging and graphics available in English, Spanish, Chinese, and Vietnamese for each health focus day of National Health Center Week. This toolkit also shared promotional content for CPCA’s Facebook Live Event “Why Community Health Centers Count” where speakers from CPCA, California Complete Count, Community Clinic Association of Los Angeles County, Golden Valley Health Center, and AltaMed Health Services highlighted the importance of completing the 2020 Census. The Facebook live event currently has 1,100 views. Additionally, CPCA released a “2020 Census Civic Health Month” toolkit in English and Spanish for those in the health sector to promote voter registration and completing the 2020 Census to patients. Both toolkits were shared with over 139 organizations, including those part of the CA-Protecting Immigrant Families Campaign Health4All, Irregulars and the Mental Health Services Act Forum list serves. We thank our partners for their help to create and disseminate this toolkit.
Census 2020 Healthcare Animated Video in English and Spanish
To help further expand Census 2020 education and outreach efforts amidst COVID-19, CPCA developed an animated video in English and Spanish that explains how 2020 Census data will impact the health sector, including California’s health emergency preparedness.
CPCA Provides Technical Assistance to CHCs and the Health Sector Organizations
To support CHCs and health partners, CPCA hosted monthly Technical Assistance (TA) Census calls from June through September to advance peer-to-peer sharing and learning. CPCA invited speakers from California Complete Count, the Statewide Outreach and Rapid Deployment (SwORD) data team, and Homebase to help respond to issues challenging CHC engagement in the Census. Also, CPCA sent biweekly TA Census Resource emails to partners to help keep the health sector informed of current Census developments, including disseminating resources created by CHCs, CPCA and other partners.
Additionally, CPCA coordinated the delivery of Census outreach materials to health center sites including buttons, hand sanitizers, and First 5 coloring books and stickers. CPCA also allocated funds to AltaMed Health Services and Bay Area Community Health to conduct outreach.
Census Activities with Regional Consortia
CPCA’s expansive outreach efforts would not have been possible without the close coordination with the Regional Associations of California (RAC) that served as sub-contractors for this project. The approaches taken by each regional association were responsive to the needs of their respective regions and patient populations, and funding from CPCA allowed partners to reach an estimated 848,240 patients and community members.
RAC partners pursued innovative strategies to engage their patients, especially in response to Census operational challenges due to COVID-19.