 And welcome to At the Crossroads, I'm your host, Keisha King, and I am truly so excited to have you here today with me as we get ready to talk about Census 2020. You may have heard that as we conclude this year, we're not just ending any old year. We are at the end of a decade and the beginning of a new decade. Within each decade, we make it a point to count every person living in the United States. And that's why we're talking about Census 2020. This year's Census 2020 is April 1st, 2020, and we want you to be counted, not fooled. Today we have with us a partner or a partnership specialist, Sharon Truex Nakashima, who's joining us today to talk about Census 2020. Hi, Sharon. Hello, Keisha. Thank you so much for having me today. I'm so delighted and honored to be here. And it's just as you said, you know, we're gearing up, we're getting ready. Our mission is to count everyone once, only once in the right place on April 1st, 2020. As you know, time is going to go fast. Yes. I can't believe we're already towards the end of the year. Yes. So 2020 is right around the corner. It truly is. It truly is. And if I may take just a quick moment just to thank you, I know, besides doing all of the wonderful hosting that you do here on this program, you also are a very active and dedicated member of the NAACP. And the NAACP has a complete count committee, which we'll talk about a little bit later on, that ensures that every African-American on Oahu, and not only on Oahu, but on all the islands throughout the state of Hawaii are counted in this decennial census. So thank you for volunteering and taking your time and your passion for that as well. Thank you so much. It's truly a pleasure to serve with the NAACP. I am their education committee chairperson. And then for the complete count committee, I'm the education chairperson for the census. So I'm really excited about it. It gives us all an opportunity to ensure that every member of our community here in this beautiful state is counted and represented. And we get there on Saturdays, and oh my goodness, we could spend three or four hours there coming up with ideas. NAACP Complete Count Committee is honestly one of my favorite groups. I hate to say it because some of the other groups might say what, but it's so true because you were the first grassroots organization on Oahu to form a complete count committee. You are passionate about it, and I can just see the leadership coming through. And I use the NAACPCCC Complete Count Committee as an example to other groups when we're speaking across the island. So congratulations on that. And we are going to be counting on you and everyone to really kick it up for 2020. Well, we have some great things planned through the NAACP for the Complete Count Committee for March. And we're going to talk about that maybe in another show because it is something that we are leading into so that we can count every person. And I should mention that we want to count every person on island, and we're putting an emphasis on African Americans, but we're looking at every group because as you know, there are some groups in the last census who weren't represented well, because in that area, maybe they didn't have enough representation or they couldn't get out, but we're going to get into that during our second half. Okay. All right. Sounds good. I want to ask, why do we do a census in the first place? Okay. Well, since 1790, it's mandated by the Constitution. And the census serves several purpose, you know, several purposes. One is, you know, for House of Representatives, you know, it is so that we can have representation. We also, you know, it is for, well, sorry, excuse me, it's for congressional districting, you know, where the district lines are going to be drawn, you know. And then most importantly, it takes care of, and it's connected to, over $675 billion across the United States in federal funding. So it goes to serve our community. And when we break it down, we're looking at approximately $2 billion, probably a little bit more nowadays, you know, because this is based on estimates from the previous census. So we're talking about, you know, the impact on programs. I always like to say to everybody when I'm on speaking engagements, keiki to kapuna, you know, from the children all the way to the seniors. So we're talking about everything from school lunches, all the way to Medicaid, you know. And what we're talking about is how, you know, based on the population count, you know, we need to know where people live and where they are and who they are. And once we can determine that every 10 years, it's very important for us to be able to have those very special safety nets, whether there be like a Pell Grant for college students, you know. Where are we going to create the roads, where are roads needed, where are the hospitals going to be, you know. So my big message to everybody is when we look at the cause and effect of census, then we understand that it is so much more than quote, just a survey, you know. This is a representation. This is your voice in the community. And you're helping not only your ethnic group, for example, or, you know, we have like, for example, we have the LGBTQ plus group who has the CCC and we have advocates for children and seniors, but not only for your own group, but when we're talking about strengthening and building a community, we're talking about taking only 10 minutes of your time to fill out a census. That's exactly right. It doesn't take long to complete. And we're going to talk a little bit about the fact that this year will be the first time ever we've been able to use technology in the ways that we will. For example, we can use our smartphones. We can use a laptop or computer to complete our census survey. So we can show that first slide now to say why we ask. Okay. That sounds fantastic. Yes. Because this internet, we call it internet self-response. You'll still have the ability, there's some seniors and people that have asked me questions and said, I still like to do it, quote, the old fashioned way, you know, which is the traditional way they've been doing it all these years. So you'll still receive it in the mail as such, but you have this ability to answer these questions that are popping up on the screen right now. And these are the actual questions that will be on the census. And they don't look hard. You know, they want to know the number of people living or staying in the home. Exactly. It's not hard. They want to know about additional people there. If you're an owner or a renter, the telephone number, date of birth, one question that is not on the survey, and you can bring it back to us now. One question that's not on the survey that I want us to be clear of, and I want you out there to hear this, one question about citizenship. Most people think it's still on or that they're trying to get it on. It's not. Sharon, talk to us about the citizenship question. Yes. So there was a decision. The citizenship question actually originally was on the census up until 1950 as part of the Voting Rights Act. And then it was taken off, okay, several decades passed by. And then, as you know, about approximately less than about two years ago, there was a motion to put it back on the census. But these questions are vetted, and they go through a very time-consuming process. They're not just questions that are popped onto the census. They have to go through a process of why these questions are asked. And when it was brought up in the current climate with so little time, there were people that said, wait a minute, there's not enough time for us to vet that question. Even though it used to be on there, let's find out what's happening here. And it did go to the Supreme Court. There was a ruling that was earlier this summer. And so that question, even though we still get asked if that question's going to be on there, we do want to reassure all of your viewers that no, that question is not on there. So these are the actual questions. You can see them on our census.gov website, the actual survey, so you can see what it looks like. So actually, we've already gone to print. So there will be no additional questions on there. And as I shared, it only takes 10 minutes of your time. That's if you're going slow. That's probably if you're having a snack while you're writing your census, you know? But really, it should be like this. And you know, for some of us on our smartphones, you know, it's going to be very quick. Those who are going to do internet self-response have the ability actually to go a few weeks early. March 12th is our kickoff for the first time in the history of the census to do internet self-response. Right. And that's what I mentioned earlier is that this is the first time in the history of the census that we can go online and we don't all have to be counted on that one day. Exactly. It's a jump start. Yes. And we want like, for example, yourself and myself, we hope that like people like us that we are on there on that first day. And we really should be, you know, because we are committed and, you know, to ensuring that the complete count happens in Hawaii. And the good news is this, Keisha, I don't know if you know about this part, we're going to be able to see uploaded onto the census onto the website the response rates as they come in. So, you know, we don't have to wait around until April 1st. We can start seeing things happening on March 12th. And it's like, oh, wow, Hawaii, we're already on board. Look at that. Honolulu is going or this group's going, you know, and we can know that we can feel good knowing that we took a part in that and made it happen. Yes. And I like that because it's kind of like voting or other when they say this precinct has been counted and this area has been counted. And so if it hasn't been starting with March 12th onto April 1st, then we know as a complete count committee that we can go out there and knock on those doors with you guys or get our groups together and say, hey, let's get you counted. Let's fill this survey out. Yeah. Let's make sure it happens. And again, you know, I'll be honest with you, you know, I like you and I like you too. We like to keep it real. Yes. I will say this. The facts and things that we're talking about right now, you know, I've always filled out the census. I knew that, you know, just like I always do voting, you know, this is very, very important, you know, as an American, we do these things. And I will be the first to tell you, I had no clue how important that, you know, if I don't fill out the census, there may be a possibility of a child not receiving a school lunch, you know, we're taking money out of the kettles, so to speak, and not a good, not in a good kind of way, you know, and how we can contribute when we want to do something that's very easy for us to do that makes a big impact on the community. This is it. This is it. I love it. If you want to have an impact on the community, any individual can do this. Yes. This is not very hard to do. And there are lots of groups who are out there who are willing to help, so we will keep that in mind. We're going to go to break right now, but when we come back, we're going to talk a little bit about how others can help themselves and the census by getting a job with the federal government. Yes. That's a really, really important. That's my favorite topic. Yeah, a lot of favorite topics, just like me. You're watching At the Crossroads. We're going to take a quick break and come right back after this. Hey, hello, everyone, and welcome to the Think Tech Hawaii studio. My name is Andrew Lanning. I'm the host of The Pretty Matters of Hawaii. We air here every Tuesday at 10 a.m. Hawaii time, trying to bring you issues about security that you may not know, issues that can protect your family, protect yourself, protect our community, protect our companies, the folks we work with. Please join us and I hope you can maybe get a little different perspective on how to live a little safer. Aloha. Aloha. My name is Duretian. You are watching Think Tech Hawaii. I will be hosting a show here every other Wednesday at 1 p.m. And we will be talking to a lot of experts and guests around sustainability, social justice, the future here in Hawaii, progressive politics, and a whole lot more. So please tune in and thank you for watching Think Tech Hawaii. Aloha, and welcome back to At the Crossroads. I'm your host, Tisha King, having a great conversation with my friend Sharon from the Census Bureau. She is the partnership, let's see, chairperson? I'm currently the Hawaii team lead or we actually have seven other partnership specialists in different languages. So I speak fluent Japanese, but we have Annie, whom you've met, representing for the Filipino community. We also have a Spanish language specialist. We have two Native Hawaiian partnership specialists, Native Hawaiian Pacific Islander. And we also have a Chinese language specialist that we just hired. So we're going to have to get him on board here. And then we have one in Maui and one residing in Hilo. And then of course we reach out, you know, so nobody's on Kauai right now. So we go out to Kauai and to all the different places as well. You guys are putting forth a great effort to make sure everyone is counted. What I think that is unique about Hawaii is that we're so transient. We have people here from all over the world. We have military personnel who may be stationed here, but this isn't their permanent home. What happens with them? How are we counting every resident? Okay, that's a great, excellent question. And we do have information that is on our website that, you know, we would love to have people check out. We call it group quarters and, and, you know, it's special residency criteria. So we have a special way of, you know, doing what we call the enumeration or counting of military personnel who are stationed, like for example here, you know, we have so many bases, right? They're stationed on Hickam, Pearl Harbor. I can't even keep up with how many bases we have. Exactly. You know, yeah, I've kind of lost count, you know, but we have every branch of the military service, which we, you know, really respect and we, we love them. You know, so we want to make sure that they're counted, you know. So what happens is they're counted on the base where they're stationed at. So their military commander and their military leadership will be counting. And also, we've also already connected with the military housing folks because we've got, you know, people that need to be, you know, counted that way. Some of the other examples of what we call the group quarters or group facilities, we have everything from, you know, college students, April 1st, okay. They're at UH Manoa. They're on the campus in the dorm. They're not graduated yet, or, you know, they haven't left the campus yet. So they will be counted there. Even though, for example, mom and dad might be back in Dayton, Ohio, but, you know, we're going to say, mom and dad, don't count your daughter because she's actually going to be part of the UH Manoa count. So, you know, we have to have those kind of conversations. Also, you know, those who are incarcerated, you know, we have to take them into consideration. Also shelters, you know, also assisted living care homes. I've personally gone around. I've been in Manoa, you know, all of these different residential places. And we've been talking to the managers of each of those places so that we can say like the plaza, for example, and we can talk to them and we just say, please make sure, we want to make sure that every person that is in this facility is counted on April 1st. There will be an enumeration happening there too. Now, you know, Sharon, we have a huge population of homelessness or houselessness. Yes. So I know that you have a plan in place for anyone who is houseless. Absolutely. Why don't you tell us a little bit about that? Absolutely. It's going to be a little bit in stages. The first part of that stage is going to be we are working right now with groups, for example, partners in care. And these are people that are passionate. As professionals, they take care of the homeless, the Hawaii Health and Harm Reduction Center, the Gregory House, a lot of different segments of the community and they're working, they're kind of making like a coalition and working together to tackle this crisis that we didn't have. You know, I mean, we had it in a different shape and form 10 years ago, but now, you know, this is going to be really top of mind, you know, for us. And one of the things is we are working, you know, of course, with the city and county of Honolulu, for example, and Mark Alexander is the director of their Department of Housing. And you know, he's already joined, you know, with the CCC and Complete Count Committee and he's helping us out. But here's what's going to happen, Keisha. So right now, we're just doing preliminary work with these partners and saying, okay, we want to make sure we have a complete count. We're going to need the help of professionals who know where these people need to be counted. So we're gathering up that kind of information. January, I believe the date is, I believe it's the 23rd. It's that third week in January, there is going to be the point in time count. And that's the one day where everybody that is homeless will be counted, where they are, you know, shelter or no shelter on the beach, you know, wherever they happen to be in parks, you know, and we're going to reach out and there's going to be a complete count of that, that data, that information will be shared with us, you know, as part for the, as a like a prelude to the census. And then we are going to be doing our count with our field workers and especially trained staff, of course, you know, because the circumstances are a little bit different. It's a lot harder to count the homeless, as you can imagine that it is to walk into a assisted living facility and ask the administrator, okay, there's 25 people here, you know, we're done, but, but we want to make sure. And just to let you know, even if somebody's not able to fully respond, we are going to make a note and make that count that there was, you know, for example, three individuals right here at this park, at this particular juncture, you know, and so because, as you know, they need the funding the most, so it's a catch 22, if we can't count them, you know, the cause and effect of the funding and we've, and we've all got to work together, put our heads together to make solutions happen. And this is part of the solution. And I love it. And you answer that so thoroughly. It's important that we know here in Hawaii of all places that every person is counted and especially our houseless, um, community members because they need the funding the most when we talk about the numbers, we're talking about six over 600 billion dollars. Yes, across the United States and then for us, it's at over $2 billion. So when you break it down on the low end of it, it actually, okay, when we look at ourselves as individuals, you are controlling and taking care of about $1,533 and I am doing the same, you know. And so, for example, if we, if we walk away and we don't fill out that census, that's money that, you know, is not, again, you know, our fair share of the pie is like, you know, you just said sayonara to the money and the money just flew off and went to another state. And we never, we never say sayonara. No, we don't. That's one thing we're going to agree on. All of us, all of us, what about American citizens who are not living in the U.S. at the time of the census? Okay, they are also, you know, they're, they're living in an overseas kind of situation. They will also be counted and acknowledged for. So that's one of the things that we, you know, we want to make sure because they could be stationed outside. So, you know, like for example, even with military and, you know, other circumstances, so we will make sure that they are counted, you know, so the different embassies across, you know, and the, the councilates, they get all the information, of course, overseas, but you know what? We're, we're connecting. We just became best buddies and friends with the Marsha Lease Council General and the Vice Council General. And we were just doing outreach this past Saturday at their town hall meeting. And boy, they had a lot of questions, you know, and they want to make sure that they're counted and they were asking, you know, can we get jobs? You know, what, you know, how can we participate in this? You know, so they were very inquisitive and that was like our first major outreach. So we're, we're making friends with everybody on the island. Good, good, good. You've been so busy. I want to get into, as we promised, I want to talk about these jobs because there is a huge push for census jobs right now. Absolutely. Yes, we just had a wonderful national recruiting week where we did an extra push, you know, that just happened. But, but you know what? Every week is recruiting week at the census, you know, and until we get the project done. And let me just say a lot of people might be shocked to learn this. We are the largest peacetime recruiting effort, you know, the 2020 census hiring for the 2020 census. It happens every 10 years and we hire more people. You know, more than, for example, Walmart or McDonald's. Yeah, so we are hiring, you know, and and we want to, you know, really what we'd like to see is a lot of representation. You know, we need to hire people from the community because, as you know, in some of our rural areas, like on the Big Island and, you know, when you're talking about way out in the country road and Kauai, you know, we want to make sure that they're seeing their neighbors interacting and asking, you know, for their census and where is your census and did you turn it in? You know, it sounds better when it comes from a friendly face and, you know, and they know their community. They can point out where are people, you know, is somebody still living at this house or where do these people go? You know, so the neighbors know the answer, right? Sometimes it might be the nosy neighbor, but you know, that's OK. We want the nosy neighbor to tell us where the people are, you know, because we want everybody to participate. So, you know, it's 1 8 1 8 5 5 J O B 2020. And that's our phone number for a hotline. And then, of course, you can just go to 2020census.gov and jobs. And it's an easy process. I would like to invite the number right there on the screen. There it is. I would like to invite all of your viewers. Let's, you know, this, you know, let's get on this right now. Because as we know, the holiday season comes, you know, it's put on the back burner and then here comes January, you know, well, we want to make sure that all of your viewers are ahead of the line, so to speak, and they've gotten, you know, gone through the process because it takes a little while. You know, we want to make sure that people have ample time to fill these out. And we are doing these also like at job centers. We're going to the universities. We're going to libraries and the library staff has been trained also to know about how to help you fill this out. Like, suddenly if the computer freezes up, you know, they can help you out. They can help in that process. Very good. So for Census 2020 jobs, you can go all things census related. You can go to census 2020.gov or census.gov. It's 2020census.gov. So we have a, we have a, you know, we have a census.gov that's all the time for the Census Bureau. But if you want 2020 information, you can go right to it and cut through the chase with 2020census.gov. Got it. I love this. And, you know, what's really good about our government is that they're offering great pay, flexible hours, weekly pay. That's a big deal. That's a big deal. And paid training. Yes. So you're not going to go and just figure it out on the job training. It's paid training before your first day. Absolutely. And the paid training will start in March. So we're looking at, you know, the big time for the people that are going to be about to be hired, March, April, May, June, you know, all in all in that time period. And yes, you will be receiving a little, you know, you'll receive all of the equipment that you need to be able to do the integration. You are paid during training. And like I always like to say, it's a little bit more than you would make like at a fast food place. You know, the hourly rate is very good. And most importantly, you're doing something great for the community. You're doing work that you can be proud of. You can put this on your resume. It could get you in, you know, it gets you into the federal system. So it could lead to something else, you know, that you can say, hey, I was already doing, I worked for the Census Bureau. Now I'd like to do something else. And it's a great way to get going on careers. As a former director of human resources, I've always told people it's easier to get a job when you already have one. Exactly. You know, once you're in the system, you can then maybe navigate into something else. So it's not a one and done. I've had so much fun talking with you today. Oh, my goodness, I have too. And again, I'd like to thank you for your dedication and devotion as an NAACP, African American Complete Count Committee, you know, as a leader in that, in that respect, you know, for the Education Committee. And I'd also like to thank you for, you know, taking the time to ask these very vital questions so that, you know, our big thing is we like to go around throughout the community. So please have us back and we'll have more updates along what we call this road to 2020. I will. I'd be so delighted to have you all back again. We're going to do it. We'll probably invite Annie as well. And then I hear there's an electrifying person that you want to tell me about. We have some fiery and passionate people on our team here in Hawaii. So Team Hawaii is like a volcano. You know, we are we are erupting with information and energy. And yeah, we're making things happen. In a wonderful, good way. Yeah, thank you so much. You've been watching At the Crossroads, where we've talked about census 2020. We want you to remember the question you're worried about. It's not even on there. Don't be afraid. Complete your census. It happens April 1st, so don't be fooled. Be counted. Thank you for watching At the Crossroads. Aloha.