 And while we are navigating the journey as always on Wednesday afternoons, today is one of those very special days that we do every month and that is, are you counted? And it is our monthly visit with the census people. And today, Annie Mae is in a darling name, Annie Mae is going to be our guest. Annie Mae is, I think, okay, now before I get it wrong, just Annie Mae is with the census, census 2020. And we are going to talk about the importance of the census and what is going on with the census now because of COVID-19. So Aloha. There she is. Aloha, Ms. Marsha. Aloha, thank you for having me again and having the census again in your show. We really appreciate it. Well, we do too in order for us to have all of the things that we take for granted and especially now with this COVID-19 and all of the hospitals, so many of them, public hospitals are funded by the monies that we get because of the census. So there's so many things that we don't even think about, but it's all based on the census, who is counted, how many people in Hawaii. So talk to us about what is going on now with the census and what operations, what have you made the changes because of COVID-19? Yes, thank you so much. I'm really happy to be here today and update our community about what's going on, especially with COVID-19. The census has not changed. It's still ongoing. However, we did do some, we had to adapt just like everyone else. Like everyone of us have to adapt with the current situation with COVID-19. And so what we did was instead of going into the field as scheduled last since March, last March, April and May, supposed to be we are on the field doing other operations. When we say operations, it's different ways of counting people in different places. So when we say field operations, it's our workers going into the field counting group quarters, for example, like hospitals and correctional facilities, those kind of things. And also update leave operations where we leave census packets in your household because you don't have a mailing address. So those are actually postponed because of COVID-19. It's also for the safety of our community and also of our census workers. So at the moment, we are facing the openings and doing those operations again. So we're hoping to hear more next week if we are going to open here in Honolulu and when we are going to start field work again. So we are thinking around hopefully mid June, we will be able to get back to those areas where we were not able to continue our field operations such as handling or stopping by households and dropping their census packets. So these are more especially impacted, the rural areas are more impacted by these situations where they don't have mailing address and they have PO boxes instead and we don't deliver to PO boxes. So we have to actually hand deliver their census packets. However, everyone got there, those who are mostly in Oahu and in areas where we do the self-response, we sent invitations. You probably already saw it. So you already had your invitation to respond online over the phone and paper questionnaire. So those are options are still ongoing. We're still inviting people to respond proactively through those options. Well, now I read just recently that there are 22,000 homes in Hawaii statewide where there is no internet connection in their neighborhood. And so how is there a telephone, how can we reach, how can you reach those people? Is there a way to do that? Yes, definitely. Thank you so much for bringing that up. So if you don't have an internet connection or you are not, even if you do, you're not comfortable going online and filling out your census, there are still other options on how to respond that you can call 844-330-2020 to make a phone call. And you can actually complete your census form. You can already respond just by calling those numbers. And if you go online, we have 12 other languages where you can actually talk and speak in, for example, Tagalog and respond in Tagalog if you wish. And those numbers are in our 2020census.gov. And at the same time, if we saw that you did not respond online, we definitely sent you a paper questionnaire. So you can still fill it out and mail it back to us. Now for those households who are in our update leave areas, meaning those areas where we have to leave the packet, you did not get your census invitation or your unique census ID to go online. We will be delivering those as soon as possible when it is safe for our numerators and census workers to be in the field. However, we do appreciate your patience. I know a lot of people were hearing from the field that they are waiting for their census paper questionnaire and they're excited to fill it out. And we're really happy that you're excited and you're looking forward to it. However, at the moment we're not yet doing it, we will let you know when we're in the field again. Now, how are we doing? I know that 10 years ago, we were behind. For some reason, a lot of people didn't fill it out. So we were not at 100% response. How are we doing this year? Are we in the closer to 100%? Are we above 10 years ago, below 10 years ago? How we're doing? So for today, every day we have this map we call the response rate. It's the 2020 census response rate where you can actually see how your community is doing on a daily basis and how we are responding as a nation, as a state, as a county. So I just want to start with today's number and then we'll talk about how we did last year, last decade in 2010. So today, national average, we have already reached a milestone. Nationwide 60%, actually 60.2% of the country has already responded to the 2020 census. And for Hawaii, that number is for us, we are at 54.9% as of the numbers today. In 2010, the self-response number is at 64%, around 64%. A self-response number is how did our community proactively responded to the census, meaning how did we respond? Did we send out voluntarily our paper questionnaire that was in 2010? So that's what we are measuring when we say response rate. The people's voluntary and proactive response to the census. So we only did 64% in 2010. So that was that's the total across the state of Hawaii. So we still have a lot to do. And that's why we are in this platform and we work with our partners like you, Ms. Marcia, to really get the word out there and to continue to encourage our community to respond. I know we have the challenge right now, right? However, we did COVID-19, however, it also gave us the opportunity to extend the census. So there is still supposed to be originally, if we did not have a pandemic, we should be done by July 31. We should be wrapping our responses and all our operations by July 31. However, with the current situation, we still want to continue to have an accurate response. So we need to extend that time. So instead of wrapping up on July 31, you can still respond until October 31 online. So we expanded these operations, but we still like to remind people, you don't have to wait up until October 31 to respond, right? We're still doing door-to-door follow-up with households who did not respond. Because again, we want to encourage everyone's participation. We want an accurate and complete count because that means more money for our community. So around August, we will be following up with those households who have not yet responded to the 2020 census. So we really encourage everyone to respond now. It's easy, it's safe, and it's confidential. It's very important for our community. Okay, so we are supposed to respond to the people who happen to be in the household at that time that are residing in that location. Even that includes renters and cousins and uncle Eddie and whoever. That's correct. Now, what about if we go back to tourism as it looks like we will? What about people in the hotels? Because while they reside in California or someplace else, they are not counted as being at home at that time. So are they counted in the hotel? What happens with them? We do not count our visitors in the state. They will be counted in their residence in where they live. And also right now, it's actually April 1st. Where were you on April 1st? Where are you counted? So that's our kind of our benchmark date. But if you're just here for vacation, it doesn't matter because you will get your invitation to respond on the mail on your place of residence. So April 1st is just like this benchmark date. For example, babies, right? If babies are actually born after April 1st, so if the baby is born on April 2nd, and actually we had this situation happen, the baby should have been born on April 1 before 1159. The baby was born on April 2 at around 1204. I know. And so our friend asked, is the baby counted? And we're like, unfortunately, the baby won't be counted because it's after April 1st. So it's actually, that is kind of like our benchmark date. Of course, since you've moved the deadline, does that change the baby? It does not change. That's our kind of like our benchmark. Where were you on April 1st? And that's why April 1st is kind of like a reminder for us. It was supposed to be census day. We still celebrated it virtually, of course. But yeah, where were you on April 1st? So the baby wasn't counted? No, it's, yeah. It was, it has to be April 1 for our residence. That doesn't work because the baby will not be counted for 10 years. And in 10 years, that child will go to school, will do all of the things that this census, that we get money for to ride on the highways, to go to school, to do all these things, and the baby's not counted. Because the census is kind of like a snapshot of our country on April 1st, if you think about it. So we are hoping that you did count your baby who are born for April 1st. Please don't forget about them. Because as Ms. Marcia said, they will be needing the schools and the lunch programs and head start programs in the next 10 years. Let's talk about that. The programs that we in Hawaii get that are funded because of our numbers and the census. So what are some of the programs? So the census really touches a lot of the programs, especially the federally funded ones, like Medicaid, again, national school lunch programs, SNAP, a lot of our healthcare, again, Medicaid, Medicare, a lot of the hospitals, anything that receives public funding or federal funds. Those are impacted by our census numbers, transportation, the bus system, for example, our roads. So these are really important programs and services that we use every day. So if we think that the census is not really important, but we don't realize that every day the census actually affects our lives. Well, now speaking of which, we have this huge Native Hawaiian population. Are there special programs for Native Hawaiians in Hawaii? But in Alaska it would be Native Eskimos and other the narrow-home nations in New Mexico. What about them? Are there special programs for Indigenous people? Definitely. There are a lot of programs that are, for example, Native Hawaiians or Native Americans. And I actually have colleagues who work directly with Native Hawaiian populations, because in Pacific Islanders as well, because, you know, historically it is difficult to count these communities. Same with, for me, the Asian, I'm Tagalog and I'm Filipino. So I work closely with Filipino communities. We're talking about language access for our communities, right? If there are grants that we want to write specifically for our Native Hawaiian community or Filipino community, Chinese community, we look at those numbers to justify that, hey, we are here, we are represented, we matter, we need these programs, we need these grants to support our community. So definitely. Yeah, well, then that means that we, all of us, have to make sure that all of those communities in Hawaii are fully counted. Definitely. And we work with our partners and we're very grateful for each and every one who are contributing efforts in making sure that we are, you know, distributing census materials in the grab and go lunches. So we have community partners who are helping us with that. We are right now because of COVID-19, we also had to adjust our outreach. So we are here like in media, for example, talking about the census and for our Filipino Complete Count, I can speak more about them because I work closely with the Filipino Complete Count Committee. We are going to be having a radio thong this Saturday, a two-hour radio thong to discuss COVID-19 and, you know, we are actually partnering with our doctors, Filipino doctors, so that we can actually speak directly to our community about, you know, about these issues that affect us right now. And so there's really a lot of approaches and strategies that we are doing to make sure that our communities are counted. Well, now the Filipino community has some, well, what, three, three or four different languages? Actually more than a hundred in our native. But here in Hawaii, Ilocano is the most widely spoken language. Yeah, but we do have a lot, but mostly most of us understand Tagalog, which is our national language. Now, where will this be? Where will your radio thong be? It's going to be on actually on three, or I think now five radio stations. KNDI is going to be this Saturday, May 30, 10 o'clock to 12 p.m. And then it's going to be live on air on KNDI, KPRP, KPHI, Retro 102.1 in Hawaiian 107.9 f.m. And also on Facebook live with Mr. Larry Ardanis. So, and this will be hosted by, yes, Mr. Larry Ardanis and Ms. Pinet Misalucha for this Saturday. Wonderful. Yes, it's in partnership, I don't know, it's in partnership with our ethnic education, Hawaii and Philippine Medical Association of Hawaii. Wonderful. That is fabulous. Now, so you will let us know how many people called in to participate. And there's a call in, right? We have the Facebook live to actually get people. We will be getting people to, you know, ask their questions there as well. And we will have like census questions. So if they want to participate, they can win like some census rags and all that. So, yeah. That's sad. That should turn out a lot of people. Yeah, yes, we really, this is not our first one. This is actually our third one. The first one was March 14th. The story of that is initially we were going to have like an in-person gathering, like census fairs to invite people and, you know, talk about the census and have other organizations there as well. But again, due to the situation, we had to creatively adapt. And it's actually, we're actually reaching out more people through online, Facebook live, and at the same time with radio stations. So we're really happy about that. And I'm so happy to work with very flexible leaders. Yeah, I saw the concert you did, you sponsored, that was beautiful. Yes, that was really beautiful. I also watched that one. I think we had two that week, yeah. So a lot of our partners are helping us make it happen. And yeah, we're just really happy and excited that despite the fact that we are in the middle of a pandemic right now, a lot of people are still, you know, coming up and with solutions and still very passionate about the census and still actually more passionate now about really getting a complete count because we know how this affects us in the future. I mean, the amount of money that comes into our community to help us with this COVID-19, census numbers were used to determine how much money with the CARES Act is actually coming to our state. And that's why it's very important that we get a complete and accurate count so that we can say that, hey, we're here and we need the appropriate funding to help our community to make sure that our community gets the need that we deserve. Well, you're doing a great job, my goodness. Thank you so much, Ms. Marsha. Jay, if you're watching, we need to do a whole thing on a Saturday on ThinkTech. So Jay, if you're listening. I can share with him our flyer. That would be a nice shout out for our event this Saturday. Yes. Thank you so much. Yeah. So we need to think about how everybody can support. Now, I remember you had an LGBTQ event planned and because of COVID-19, it didn't happen. What are you doing with that population? That is actually with our partnership specialist, Sharon. Hi, Sharon, if you're watching. I told them I'm going to be here this afternoon. So at the moment, I know that Sharon still is continually working with the LGBTQIA plus community. I am not very well aware about their next plans, but I know they continue to participate and engage with Sharon and I'm also excited to hear what they have. So I will ask her for sure and we'll let you know about what their plans are in the coming weeks because supposed to be they were also going to have a lot of talk stories and then of course, get canceled. Well, whatever you want, we are here for you. Yeah, definitely. Thank you. Yeah, we're still planning to do some mobile questionnaire assistance. Again, it depends on our state and local rules on how we can do those things. So a lot of things are still changing as we continue to adapt to the situation. Well, now there are rules. We understand that. However, this pandemic has changed everything. So are these hard, fast rules or do you have room to kind of stretch it in order to do things that we've never had this before? We've never planned on something like this. So all of the ordinary rules seem not to have. Or at least you can stretch. Well, we continue to adapt to the rules change almost every day. But definitely we will follow what is being advised to us. PPEs, of course, if we are out and about and the sanitation and all those six feet away from each other. I just want you to see that I have one. Oh, that's really beautiful. I love that. I actually have my donut one. I have to kind of reach my friend gave me. I'm going to reach bread. Yup. Yeah, there you are. Yes, I thought I would be fashionable and have one to match each outfit. Right. Instead of each outfit, I had to find, I had the mask on now. I got to find something to go with the mask. That one looks great. That one looks great. My friend gave me this, this donut one. My friend gave me this as a birthday present. Oh, that's wonderful. It is. It's delightful. Yeah, I had all the official ones. Right. This one is great because you can breathe. Oh, really? Yes. Yeah, I haven't tried the one yet. You can breathe. However, what I learned is that when you wear this one, if the makeup, it all comes off on the weekend. I know. Which I think is the reason that that orange man in the White House doesn't wear a mask is because he wears makeup and it would come off on the mask. That, I guess, that's not very nice. That's what I think. Looking at my own, the makeup on the mask, I think, oh, that's why. It is challenging. It is challenging. Okay, again, show us, if you will, how we can meet you, how way the telephone number is, anyone that still wants to get a job. Let's, can we see that again, Harry? Thank you. Yes. So basically, I know I put two websites there, the one with the my2020census.gov, we'll just send you directly to how you can respond. However, if you have questions about jobs, if you have any questions about you know, rumors or numbers to call, that's 2020census.gov. It's a really, really good resource for any 2020census related questions. You can also call 844-330-2020 to respond to your census in English. And we have 12 other languages available. Please go to 2020census.gov as well for the numbers. And then you can still just fill out your paper questionnaire if you already have it and send it back to us. So that's how easy it is. Hopefully that's helpful. Yes. I still think that your anime is such a darling name. Thank you so much, Miss Marsha. Thank you. I gotta tell my mom. Thank you so much for being with us again. Thank you for having me again. And we look forward to seeing you next month. Yes. I'll send my friends. You can count on it. I will talk to Jay and see what we can do. I will send you guys the flyer that we have. Thank you for helping us promote it. Thank you so much. Thank you. We'll see you next time. We'll see you again.