2020-4-22 NaFFAA invites all to complete the 2020 US Census

New York, NY (April 24, 2020) - Last month, the National Federation of Filipino American Associations (NaFFAA) recently held its 2020 Census Filipino American Community Engagement Online Action Launch. The virtual event featured the U.S. Census Bureau’s New York Regional Director Jeff T. Behler as keynote speaker and was hosted by NaFFAA’s New York State Chair Laura Garcia and National Operations Officer Chris Rivera. It was designed to empower all individuals to complete the 2020 Census together in a simultaneous online action. As of print time of this release, the national self-response rate was 51.8%.

The online session had a live question and answer session and had 21,000 views.

Important points we learned:

• The Census is safe and easy! This is the first year we can all fill out the Census online.
• The Census is a very short form, asking for demographic information (ethnicity, age, relationship, etc.)
• The Census will NEVER ask for your immigration status, social security number, financial information, money, or anything on behalf of a political party.
• Personal information collected by the Census Bureau cannot be used against respondents by any government agency or court.
• The Census provides population data for government, businesses, and community groups to make decisions.

Your community benefits the most when the census counts everyone.  Federal funds, grants and assistance to states, counties and communities are based on population totals and breakdowns by sex, age, race and other factors.  When you respond to the census, you help your community get its fair share of the more than $675 billion per year in federal funds spent on schools, hospitals, roads, public works and other essential programs.  Additionally, local governments use the census for public safety and emergency preparedness.

While the once-a-decade count is in progress, the United States and all countries around the world are battling the COVID-19 pandemic.

In these unprecedented times, Brendan Flores, NaFFAA National Chairman stated,

“While we acknowledge the gravity of the situation the world is currently facing, we must also look towards the future we want to see after this pandemic passes. NaFFAA has been the voice of the Filipino American community since 1997, but we must continue to have all of our voices heard by being counted in the Census. Completing the Census and doing your part to slow the spread of COVID-19 do not have to be mutually exclusive — we can do both.”