 I'm Marsha Joyner, and we are navigating the journey. Today, today we are going to navigate a journey that only comes once every 10 years. We want to know, are you counting? So we will begin our journey of navigating the journey into the world of the senses. Now, the senses comes once every 10 years, and you have to be counted. You have to be a part of this. Since 1790, the Constitution of the United States says we will have the senses. Everyone will be counted so that we can know where, how many people live in each state, how many people go to schools in that state, how many people drive on the highways, how many people do all kinds of things, how many representatives we have in Congress. All depends on whether you, you are counted. And let me tell you about the senses just in case those of you that don't remember. This is September, and pretty soon it's December, and everybody gets ready for Christmas. But do you know why Jesus was born in Bethlehem? Think about it. Why was Jesus born in Bethlehem? Because the rules of the day said that everyone had to be counted, and they would have to go back to the home, to the town of their father. So Joseph and Mary get off in Bethlehem for the senses. So if it wasn't for the senses, we wouldn't have a Christmas story. So just remember, even the baby Jesus was counted. So you have to be counted. That's enough of me. So we're going to meet my guest today. A lovely, lovely, just delightful Annie May. Thank you. Annie May is going to be with us as our journey through the senses. What it means, how you participate, and what the benefits we get from the senses. So, Annie May, that's a nice name. Thank you, Ms. Marsha. Thank you for having me here today. Annie May, now that's an old Southern name. How did you get a name like Annie May? Well, I came from the Philippines. Southern Philippines, actually. And I know my mom thought that it's a great name, a combination of her name and my father. So there you are. Yes. That's a nice name. Thank you. So tell us now, how long have you been, or you're born in the Philippines, but you're an American citizen? I just recently became an American citizen. I just recently immigrated, well, fairly recent in 2012. So this is my first time working for the senses, and it's also my very first US senses experience. Wow. Yes. Yes. So now tell us all about the senses. What is the senses? So as you mentioned earlier, every 10 years, America comes together to conduct a count, to count everyone once, only once, and in the right place. It started in 1790, actually. Shortly after George Washington became president, and it was actually directed at that time by the Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson. That was 200 years ago, more than 200 years ago, and we're still doing it at this time for the purpose of reapportionment of the US House of Representatives for redistricting and for the distribution of over $675 billion of federal funding across states, counties, and cities across the country. And again, it is mandated by the US Constitution. So if we don't count everybody, what do we lose as a state? Let's assume that the district is big as Kalihi, for instance. There's a lot of Filipinos. If all of them are not counted, what do we lose as a state? There is so much to lose as a state if we don't get a complete and accurate count of our communities. Again, there's over $675 billion, and we don't get what I would say a fair share of that when we don't count everyone. So there's actually a lot of studies that our audience or community can also look up to. You can look at George Washington University study. But for us in the US Census Bureau, our biggest messaging out there is be counted because that means federal dollars for our communities. So we get federal dollars based on how many people actually reside in the communities. That's correct. So that would mean that if you have, this is hypothetical, that you have a child that today is living with you and they're counted. Now, however, if they go away to college and they're not in the household at the time... They will be counted in the college or wherever they live on everyone. If they go away to Wisconsin to school, they're counted in the Wisconsin count and not in the Hawaii count. Yes, they will be counted wherever they live on April 1. That's correct. So it would behoove everyone to have them counted before they leave for college. Well, there is a time frame that we are counting. So wherever you are on April 1, which is Census Day, you will be counted there. Now, what about the schools? I read that you have a program for schools. What does that mean? It's called statistics in schools. For statistics in schools, it makes it accessible for our students to learn about. Can they register in school? Can they be counted? Can they do the actual count while they're in school? Could they put that student, let's assume they're a senior... In high school. In high school. Can they participate while they're in class? Actually, right now what we're doing with schools will be reaching out to students to remind their parents to actually participate in the census. Because the count will be how it's going to happen is you will get an invitation, each household will get an invitation on the mail to respond to the census, and each household will fill that out, counting everyone that lives in that household on April 1, 2020. So for schools, our outreach is to inform our students, educate them about the census, and hopefully they will also relay that message and remind their parents from 2020 to not forget to respond to the census. Yeah, so you said every household will get a letter. Is that what you said? That's correct. Every household will get a letter and an invitation starting March 12, 2020, to invite them to respond to the census online. We are still able to respond through the paper questionnaire, and you'll still be able to call as well, whatever is more convenient for you. But then there is that option now for the first time in census history to respond online as well. So it's easier. It's easier. However, in a place like Hawaii, where we have so many languages, and then they get this letter in English, then what? Or if you go online, it's English. And if you don't have a computer and all of this is in English, do you have a way for them to respond to people that don't, where English is not the first language? So definitely the census supports that English, you know, or inviting everyone to respond, even if you're not proficient in English. And how we're helping people to do that is that online, if you go online to respond, you can actually have an option of 12 non-English languages that is supported online. So you can respond on that language, the 12 non-English language. Paper questionnaire is only available for English and Spanish. And we have 59 other languages that are supported with language glossaries and those kind of support. Because in our own Chinatown, we have seven different Asian languages. Definitely. So, you know, the thought that they get something in English, like, well, now what? So another part of that too of what I do as a partnership specialist actually is we are partnering with organizations, local organizations. We're actually partnering with our state government, local government, local community organizations. Because you know your community, like what you said, in Chinatown, there are different languages, right? We are partnering with these organizations to help us reach out to people who may not be proficient in English and help them come Census 2020 to respond, help them, you know, correctly respond to their questionnaires. So that's very important. These partnerships we're creating right now, it's very important to our community so we can have a more accessible Census for everyone. Well, now if someone that's watching says, well, I belong to such and such, how can my organization help? Can they just call you? How does that work? Yes, that would be really great. We have a team of partnership specialists right now on the island who speaks actually one of the ways that the Census is bridging the gap with the languages is that most of us, partnership specialists actually speak languages other than English. So I speak Tagalog. I have a colleague, Sharon, who speaks Japanese. And we have our native Hawaiian Pacific Islander, a partnership specialist as well. Sharon and Elizabeth. Shout out to them when we have even a Spanish person. So we are supporting that, but that's why we're also connecting to these organizations. They can call us or check www.census.gov for partnerships. They can contact us and let us know what ways that we can partner because there are many ways to partner and do the Census. Whatever you're advocating for, whether you're an advocate group for people experiencing homelessness or you do language translations, we could really use your help on this comment. What about homeless people? Now they need to be counted too. Correct. And we are counting them. So you have someone that actually goes out to them? Is that because they're not going to get the mail? Yes. So we will be doing service-based enumeration at the end of March 2020 to account our communities who are experiencing homelessness in soup kitchens, mobile food vans, even in parks, transitional locations, parks, alleys, camps where they are. And we are asking help from our local communities or local organizations to connect us to these groups and let us know where can we do the count. So that's what we're going to do. Do you ever have a case where you have a double count? Let's assume that you have a child that today they're with you. And then let's assume they just run away from home and now they're living on the street. And now somebody else counts them. So they're counted twice. I know that's hypothetical, but do you ever run into cases like that? Well, there are different scenarios, right? There's no one, obviously all of us have different kind of household, different families, different situations. And that's why this educating and raising awareness in our community and how to do that will resolve these situations. So for example, in 2010 we actually missed out on over a million kids counting them. But I know your question is if we have a double count. So anyway, I'm just excited to share that. Don't keep that enthusiasm. We need to take a break. When we come back, tell us more about that and then how people can get involved with you. Okay, we'll be right back. The Hawaii Community Foundation. The Hawaii Council of Associations of Abarbon Owners. Hawaii Energy. The Hawaii Energy Policy Forum. Hawaiian Electric Company. Integrated Security Technologies. Galen Ho of BAE Systems. Kamehameha Schools. MW Group. The Shidler Family Foundation. The Sydney Stern Memorial Trust. Volo Foundation. Yuriko J. Sugimura. Thanks so much to you all. Hi, Marcia Joyner. And are you counted? We are on a journey that is going to take us until June about the census. And what is the census and why you need to be counted. And my guest today is Annie Mae. I like that. Annie Mae is with the census, 2020. And so Annie Mae started telling us some exciting adventures with the last year, last time. How many people did you say we missed? We missed out on over a million kids, which these kids will need schools, national lunch programs, education the next 10 years. So we don't want to do that. But anyway, your question earlier, I want to go back, is how do we avoid double counting people? So when we respond to the census, we just count who is in our household living, in our household on April 1st. And for example, in case that the child lives in two different places, right? So wherever that child lives the most, sleeps all the time, eats and sleeps and lives all the time, that's where that child should be counted. So if they have a joint custody, for instance, the mother lives one place, the father lives, and the children go back and forth every other week or whatever. So which parent gets to count them? So in that case, if the parents both feel like this child stays with them most of the time, 50-50, then wherever the child is on April 1, 2020. On that day? On that day. Okay, not just all the time, but where that child is that day. If they feel like it's 50-50, you know, the time that they spend with their child. So then they have to make that decision between the parents, which of them is it going to count? Yeah, there should be a good communication. So discuss it with your families if that's the case or situation that you're in. Okay, now you mentioned education. So part of the money's part of this, that the census is counting for, like with children, it goes to, you said education, how much education? Schools, lunches, school, what all of that? So like national lunch programs, Head Start, you know, those kind of very important for small ones, even Pell Grants, those kind of federal funds that our children use. Now what else do these federal funds cover in a community? Let's just take Oahu, not the big picture, but just Oahu. What does it cover? What kind of federal grant funds? Healthcare, Medicaid is probably the biggest. Supplemental, nutrition, SNAP programs, those kind. What else, like workforce development covers that. So a lot of different, actually my colleague has a good way of putting it. She says Kiki to Kokuna, because really from a Kiki to Kokuna, we'll need all these services that are federally funded. So yeah, those are just some of the examples. And it also helps our future, you know, our leaders plan for the future. Where do we build the next schools? Where do we build the next hospitals and for businesses? Where do they build a grocery store, for example? So it really helps with the planning as well. So the census really touches so many ways. So that once this is calculated, then if you are a contractor, like I said, you want to decide where you're going to build, then you go to the census and say, well, there's X number of people in this community, and they will need this. And did I get that right? The information that we provide in the census is very important in the planning and for future of our community. Now, is it just once a year, once every 10 years, or do you update the numbers during that 10 years? So the actual count that we do is every 10 years. So this is why it's a huge endeavor. And we do need everyone's help. However, the next numbers, those will just be estimates. So you don't go out of count again, you just estimate? The estimate is based on the count. And however, the US Census Bureau still has many other surveys going on as well. Other than the decennial one. So we have American Community Surveys, different economic surveys. So those are still happening as well. I was going to say, I'd notice that the economic changes, if you read it, oh, this was done here and this was done here, if you're looking for something, that changes. So now, tell us, how and do you need people with jobs? How do they apply? Where do they apply? Can we look at and talk about what kind of jobs, how much it pays, what are they expected to do, and how do they apply? Thank you so much for bringing that up. It's very important. We do need people to help us make the census possible as census takers. You need to be 18 years and above to be a census taker. And you need to have a valid social security number. You have to have a valid email address. And it's very good opportunity. It's flexible hours. You can work part-time as well. In Oahu, that's around $18 an hour for the pay rate. And you will be able to serve your community and also make some income as well. So do you have part-time and full-time? We have part-time and full-time positions. So full-time positions might be more office. So all you have to do is go to 2020census.gov slash jobs and create an account and answer the assessment. And from that on, they can decide what kind of positions you want to work for. If you wanted to, like I said, be in the office, then you would say that. Or if you want to go out and actually talk to people. Yeah, you can indicate those. You can indicate those. Because the hours too, right? So if you can only work part-time and all that, those things matter. What kind of education background do you need? Or do you? You need to be above 18 years. That assumes a high school education to be 18 or above. To be 18 above. So are there any special jobs that are specialists that you would need in advanced education? At the moment, we're really pushing for the census enumerator jobs or the census taker jobs. We will let you know or we will get in touch with our partners if we need other specialists. Because we also have IT managers and all that. However, at the moment, it depends. I think we just share that. That might be a close position now, but we will see just keep your CUSA jobs or our advertisements for this job openings if there are any other jobs aside from census. Tell us again. We do have a flyer. So tell us again exactly how we can apply, how we can reach you or give us the telephone numbers and the email address, how we can do that. Definitely. So you can apply at 2020census.gov.slashjobs and create your account there. You may also call 1-855-job-2020. If you have any questions regarding the jobs, job openings or if you want to follow up on something. But to connect with partnership specialists, you may call me at 808-892-5141. My email is kind of really long, but it's basically my name Annie that made that key, that so-called SOKOL at 2020census.gov to connect with us. Yeah. So if they have any questions, they can call you directly. Yes. They can call me if they want to participate and be a partner of the 2020census to help us educate and raise awareness in the community. That would be really great. And we're also hoping to create complete account committees to again have that working committee to help us get the word out there about this. Now I have one last question. And it came up 10 years ago, and I don't know where we are now. And that is for people who are part this and part that and part that. And there was a time when you could only choose one. Now can you choose that you are all of these? Yes. Definitely you can choose the race that you belong to. The options are there now. You can even, I saw that you can check Filipino, so I'll definitely check that one. But if you are mixed, you can check appropriate boxes that pertains to you and you can even write it down as well. Oh, okay. Yeah. That's been a big thing for years. Exactly. Yeah. In Washington, they ever expected to come to Hawaii and find all these mixtures when everybody's mixed. Yes, we are very diverse. Yes. Yes. So I just had to ask if that's been corrected. Yes, that's correct. And one last question. I think we have enough people now for another congressional seat. Do we, and if we do, how do we go about getting it? Or can you answer that, or do I need to? That will really depend on our account. So how far we are from that, we will have to see. Okay. Well, it's been a pleasure spending this time with you and we'll see you next month. She's going to be with us once a month. So thank you. Thank you again. And remember, are you counting?