NMNCC News:
In light of the growing concerns over COVID-19 or the Coronavirus, the New Mexico Native Census Coalition (NMNCC) wants to acknowledge our communities and prioritize the safety and well being of our people, elders and children.
Secondly, we thank you for your tireless efforts to ensure Native communities are counted by committing to get an accurate count for the next 10 years.
March 12, the 2020 Census launched nationwide and operations to get the count started in Tribal communities will begin on March 16. Given potential changes and the Tribes’ concerns for their people, this will likely impact outreach, education and mobilization efforts as self-quarantine and social distancing measures are being implemented.
We are dedicated to continue to offer support, resources and strategies to ensure an accurate count while understanding that our people, our families, elders and children are our priority. At this time, we highly encourage the online response option. We understand that some areas may not have access to the internet and recommend responding by phone. The other option is to fill out the questionnaire and return it by mail for these communities that do not have digital access.
When you receive your invitation to respond to the Census, please go to the online portal to complete the form — it’s 10 questions which could take as much as 10 minutes, and is easy to complete. If you need help with some questions, please look at our questionnaire information page, How to Get Counted, specific to the American Indian & Alaska Native communities.
To help continue the momentum of our Census work and practice social distancing we recommend:
- Continuing to share and strength your social media practices, if you have them
- Dropping off reminder flyers
- Consideration of implementing a text messaging campaign
We also have several resources for Complete Count Committees to aid in continued outreach with the Census in Native communities:
- NMNCC meetings calendar
- NMNCC Resources (social media templates, flyers, etc)
- Federal Registry https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2019-02-01/pdf/2019-00897.pdf
- U.S. Census Bureau’s Tribal Resources Page
Moving forward
Meetings will continue to be offered via Zoom on the first Friday of each month. If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to Charlotte Little, Pueblo Census Coordinator, for more information.
We thank the Tribal Leadership, our partners and all the Complete Count Committees’ work in this to ensure an accurate count. So many of our communities depend on it.
