April 1, 2020 is Census Day! If you have questions about the Census and want to be matched with one of MNCDHH's Census experts, please contact jessalyn.akerman-frank@state.mn.us. We are here to help. Below is a thirty minute webinar in American Sign Language (ASL) with English voiceover and captions, and a descriptive transcript with information about the Census. 

Recorded webinar

Descriptive transcript

[Onscreen voice interpreter (in speaker view). She begins to voice for an off-screen presenter.]

Jessalyn: Welcome, Roger. Hi, everybody, we are the, this is the census discussion. Thank you for joining. We understand that a lot of people will be joining throughout the time. They may be popping in and out, so before we get started, let's introduce everybody, my name is Jessalyn Akerman-Frank. I'm on the, I'm the director at the Commission, I'm involved in civic engagement, so I will introduce my team. And also to help us clarify the communication roles, I'm going to go back a little bit and explain. We have two ASL interpreters here. We have Tarra and we have Maria. They'll be facilitating communication so the CART, we'll be able to have CART captioning. You'll notice the chat feature on your right, so make sure, you'll see different people putting chats and questions and comments, if you have any issues . And also make sure you post questions and you'll see Katy on there. If you have any questions because we don't want people raising their hand all at once, so make sure you put your question in there and then she will let me know so then you can help us clarify and make sure the communication is clear. When I call on my different team members, I'd like you to introduce yourself. I will put them on the spotlight as the speaker view so you can see them a little bit bigger, so have a little bit of patience as we, this is our first time doing this, so have a little bit of patience so we can go through with this. So I'm excited to have everybody here today. We're going to start by introducing the census team. Jessalyn: So first we have Emory.

[Speaker view changes to Emory.]

>> Hello, my name is Emory Kevin Dively. This is my sign name. And I work with the Commission as a contractor.

[Speaker view changes to Sarah.]

>> Hello, my name is Sarah Arana, I'm also a contractor with the Commission.

[Speaker view changes to Migdalia.]

>> Hello, my name is Migdalia and I'm the project coordinator for Census 2020 as well as Deaf Equity Organization.

[Speaker view changes to Jer.]

>> Hello, my name is Jer and this is my sign name, Jer. And I am a contractor with the Commission. Welcome.

[Speaker view changes to Phillip.]

>> Hello, my name is Phillip and I am a contractor with the Commission.

[Speaker view changes to Cindi.]

>> Hi, my name is Cindi and I'm a contractor with the Commission as well. Welcome.

[Speaker view changes to Jessalyn.]

>> We can discuss the Census 2020 and the concerns that have arisen with that. Many of us maybe received a letter in the mail with, and an envelope like this. The census trained us that we'll be receiving a postcard, so many people were looking forward to their mailboxes for this postcard, but got this instead. [holds up envelope and shows the front and back] So, many are concerned, especially in the Deaf Community that this was not the actual census and it was fraudulent mail. They were expecting something like this. [holds up envelope and shows the front and back] It is a blue letter that is inserted into the envelope. With a private code. Many people received, said that they've received a few of them within the course of the week and they were concerned. So the team today wanted to help and support each one of these individuals with their concerns. We do want to make some clarifications that the census do not ask for your credit card, they don't ask for private information, your social security number. And they do not ask for any purchases. So I know that people were extremely concerned and had questions in relation to that in the census. We wanted to show you and we'll share what the website is and what we've used it for and how you're able to fill out the census form. Just have some patience with me as we share the screen.

[Jessalyn leans forward to move the mouse and click on the screen. Screen changes to my2020census.gov website (U.S. Census 2020)]

Jessalyn: This is what the census 2020, it's going to be my2020census.org, and you can start the questionnaire. And remember the code that we recently were discussing, the one that will be on your informational letter? So once you go onto the internet you can put in your private code that was given to you, and once you're in that's when the 10 questions will be shown. And we can discuss the, we will be discussing the 10 questions soon. So does anybody have any questions in relation to the specific log-in? Roger, you had a question?

[Speaker view changes to Roger.]

>> Roger: And then there's a sequence of numbers, I'm wondering once you go in, it's already ready, I don't have to fill in my name or anything like that, is that correct?

[Speaker view changes to Jessalyn.]

>> Jessalyn: So, Roger, once you go in with your code it will populate different questions, and, yes, it will ask for your name as well as your address, and they will ask for what your gender, male or female as well as your nationality. All the people that are living in your home and so on and so forth. There are 10 questions in all.

>> Roger (offscreen): Oh, I see, just 10 questions. Okay. Okay. Thank you very much.

>> Jessalyn: So now is there any more questions in relation to the population of the log-in?

[Speaker view changes to Roger.]

>> Roger: Yeah, what's the deadline or when does this need to be done by? Is it April or is it now or what's the deadline?

[Speaker view changes to Jessalyn.]

>> Jessalyn: That is a wonderful question. That is a wonderful question. So once you received it we encourage everyone to go ahead and fill out the form as soon as possible so that if you don't fill it out now, they'll send you another one again, giving you a reminder, there will be several reminders sent to you. There will be a fourth reminder, then they start calling and then they start getting door knockers, so I want you guys to understand that now with the -- coronavirus, they suspended April 1st for more dissemination of information and door knockers for people and visiting. So we encourage people who have already received the notice to go ahead and fill it out. So if you have, if you need assistance we're here to support you and you can register and how we can help you and support you in the process.

>> Roger (off-screen): Great. Thank you.

>> Jessalyn: All right. Thank you, thank you. So now we have approximately about five questions that the community has been asking us, and we're going to go and take turns and ask the contractors to answer some of these questions. First question is for Sarah Arana. And the question is what if I do not know my nationality? I don't know, what do I do?

[Speaker view changes to Sarah.]

>> Sarah: Yeah, how to answer that question related to your nationality, that's a good one. One of them could be how you identify. A second way would be you could mark more than one. A third option is if you're just not sure at all what you identify, you can also just leave it blank. That's no problem. And then just move onto the next question.

[Speaker view changes to Jessalyn.]

>> Jessalyn: Thank you so much, Sarah. Next question is for Jer. If I don't identify as male or female, what do I do?

[Speaker view changes to Jer.]

>> Jer: That's a good question. Some people may strongly identify one or the other and some may not. And if you do not, you can just leave it blank, there's no problem with leaving it blank.

[Speaker view changes to Jessalyn.]

>> Jessalyn: Thank you so much, Jer. So the next question is for Migdalia. If I live with a roommate, do I need to place them on the census?

[Speaker view changes to Migdalia.]

>> Migdalia: Yeah, so if your roommate Lives with you by April 1st, you have to count them as part of the census living with you, yes.

[Speaker view changes to Jessalyn.]

>> Jessalyn: Thank you so much, Migdalia. I did want to add some clarification information on that. If a person lives with you, most of the time, let's say they live and sleep with you, you do count them in your census. I know there's some people that are curious when it comes to if children are born by April 1st, what do we do, do we count them? Sarah?

[Speaker view changes to Sarah.]

>> Sarah: Yeah, so if you're in the hospital on April 1st and you have a baby that day, then you absolutely will count that baby.

[Speaker view changes to Jessalyn.]

>> Jessalyn: Okay. Jer, what about people who live in dorms? Do we count, where do we count them? Do we count them at home or in their dorm?

[Speaker view changes to Jer.]

>> Jer: Good question. So dorms for college students, the important thing is how much time do you spend at that dorm? If it's more than 50% of your time, then, yes, you are counted in that space. If it's, you know, you commute back and forth then you would count your home if that's your primary space of living. But if you're more than 50%, you count the dorm.

[Speaker view changes to Jessalyn.]

>> Jessalyn: Wonderful. The next question is going to be for Emory. II want to show that I am Deaf/DeafBlind/and hard of hearing but I don't see it in the census. Where do I put that information?

[Speaker view changes to Emory.]

>> Emory: That's a very important question. We may be looking for those words, Deaf/DeafBlind and hard of hearing and they're not on there. So you notice there's a space that says "race" , there's a space that you can fill in, you can fill in Deaf/DeafBlind/hard of hearing. Look at the very last question, it will say "other races" you can fill in right there the words Deaf, DeafBlind, or hard of hearing. You can also add your race if you identify as another race that's not on that list, the census will be able to track that then for you. That's a good way to do it.

[Speaker view changes to Jessalyn.]

>> Jessalyn: Thank you. Thank you so much. And final question is for Phillip. Am I required by law to fill the census or can I just disregard it?

[Speaker view changes to Phillip.]

>> Phillip: That's a good question as well. You're going to see this form and receive it in the mail and you may wonder? Required by law, and the answer is yes, it is. The U.S. Constitution Me. 14 required all people to fill out the census. If you ignore it and disregard it, you will be fined $100. If you purposely fill out false information, you will be fined $500. So, yes, the answer is everybody is required to fill out the census.

[Speaker view changes to Jessalyn.]

>> Jessalyn: Thank you so much. Now some of you, reminder of goals of the census, to be able to count every individual in the United States. And the reason for that is that there's over 6 -- people and being able to transfer those funds to each state, for -- services in each individual state. And without the census, you're unable to be counted and know the exact needs of your communities. So we're going to go and we're going to turn it over to the people that are on Zoom. Is there any particular questions that we have not answered just yet and wanted to discuss?

[Speaker view changes to Roger.]

>> Roger: So if I identified as retired, if I'm a Deaf person and I'm retired, do I need to put in age, or is that counted?

[Speaker view changes to Jessalyn.]

>> Jessalyn: Roger, sorry, it cut off the conversation. You were asking retired do I still need to be counted in the census?

[Speaker view changes to Roger.]

>> Roger: Yes, that is my question and that's what I was wondering

[Speaker view changes to Jessalyn.]

>> Jessalyn: That's a great question. Yeah, so everybody is counted regardless if you're working full-time, part,-time, you're a snowbird, if you're retired, doesn't matter. Everybody needs to be counted, but great question.

[Speaker view changes to Bethany.]

>> Bethany: Hi, my name is Bethany. And I'm from Family Tree Clinic. I've had some people that have contacted me to see if the census will be delayed due to the pandemic, or if the government -- I'm sorry, or if the federal government will be expecting us to respond at diligent time, the same deadline. I know that a lot of people are experiencing their concern with opening mail and things of that sort, so I wanted to know what was the process and what we were thinking about that.

[Speaker view changes to Jessalyn.]

>> Jessalyn: Yeah, that's a really good question. Yeah, thank you, Bethany. Right now this work, a lot of this work has been on hold until April 1st. They haven't made a decision about delaying it. They're trying to create a platform that shifts online because a lot of people are working from home and because libraries close, schools are closed, and so a lot of that information is not necessarily readily available, but we're trying to share the link as we are given, and I agree with you, a lot of people are anxious around the whole situation. And this is why we posted this event -- hosted this event. And I'm sure you're getting calls and I'm sure people are getting calls asking for private information, which the census does not do. You're right, with a lot of people getting mail, unsure whether I can open it, what can I trust, what can't I trust, and so we ask for your help, from the public's help. The census does not ask for your credit card, your social security number, it won't ask for you to pay anything, it won't ask for you to fill out very sensitive information. You need to -- they will not call you, so more information about the deadline and whatnot because of this and the timeline because of this will be shared at a later date. But please use our website, DHHS, the website and the Commission website, plus we'll pull up some more resources that we can look for updates as they come available.

[Speaker view changes to Bethany.]

>>Bethany: Thank you so much. I really appreciate it, that's all I needed to know. I have to go to another meeting but thank you so much.

[Speaker view changes Tarra and then to Jessalyn.]

>> Jessalyn: Thank you. Are there any other questions? So if not I'm going to show you some different resources. (Screen switches to DHHSD’s website) And this is what the website is, once you can pull it up. There are a lot of different videos to disseminate the information in ASL. (Screen switches to MNCDHH’s website.) There's also the Commission website, you're able to access. There's a tab for Census, and you can find the information there. And what are the actual contractors do and what they do for the Commission, what they're involved in, and you can look at that information at this area. See the contractors. As you can see, you're noticing our pictures are uploading as well as their contact information. If you have any doubts or want to make sure, you can also look at what is the staff and you can find that in the same location. And you are more than welcome to message us or set an appointment with us. We do have our direct contact there as well. (Screen switches to the Minnesota 2020 Census website under the Minnesota Department of Administration) So if you have any, if you have any questions about the census itself, here's the website for the Minnesota website. And as you can see, you can contact directly or e-mail the individuals that are in the census program. And these are the names. (Screen switches back to Jessalyn) Is there anyone one of you that have any additional questions or any other contractors that want to add anything? Contractors, do you have anything to add? Roger, do you have any more questions?

[Speaker view changes to Roger.]

>> Roger: So I have these two forms. (holds up two blurred out envelopes) So I should only have one, right? Because I should follow the one that has the code?

[Speaker view changes to Jessalyn.]

>> Jessalyn: Perfect. So what we're going to do is after this we'll have one of our contractors talk with you one on one because we want to make sure that your privacy code stays private for you. But if we had anything else to add, many of us are more than happy to show how to complete the census and we won't share your private information. And we won't share your private code with others. So we don't want for anyone here to know the information to the public. So Roger, if you're willing, I can assign you one of our members of our team and they can video with you and they can discuss one on one after the session.

[Speaker view changes to Roger.]

>> Roger: Good. Sounds great. Thank you.

[Speaker view changes to Jessalyn.]

>> Jessalyn: Sounds good, Roger?

[Speaker view changes to Roger.]

>> Roger: Yes, definitely

[Speaker view changes to Jessalyn.]

>> Jessalyn: I see there's some hands up. Jer and Phillip.

[Speaker view changes to Jer.]

>> Jer: This is Jer, basically I'm going to be explain why the census is sent out. It's sent out every 10 years. And the census is important because of course when you get it, report it sooner than later because you definitely don't want somebody to, you know, call you consistently or knock on your door consistently, so it's best that you fill it out as soon as you get it in the mail.

>> Jessalyn (off-screen): Yes, Emory.

[Speaker view changes to Emory.]>> Emory: Yeah, so I'd like to emphasize how important the census is. It's regarding money and how this money is spent based on each state's population. And we get that through the census. And suppose one state only gets one vote, then they realize, oh, that state may not be very important because there's not a lot of people there which means not a lot of people filled out the census. But that could actually equate to a lot of money that that state doesn't get. So make sure that you fill it out and we want to make sure because it happens only every 10 years. And because there's a lot of money that could be vested in the state based on who fills out the census and because that helps build highways, associations, state agencies, and if nobody fills out the census, then that money will be equated in other states. So some people think, oh, well, if I don't fill it out, I'm just one person, it doesn't make a big difference, but it does make a really big difference because we know that COVID-19 is impacting the entire world. We know that our votes are very impactful, we know that every vote counts just like every census counts. And so we want to make sure because it only happens every 10 years, so we want to make sure this increases our funding for Deaf, DeafBlind and hard of hearing population as well.

[Speaker view changes to Jessalyn.]

>> Jessalyn: Thank you so much. And Phillip?

[Speaker view changes to Phillip.]

>> Phillip: Yeah, I'd like to add about the census. Everything that, the information that you share is private. That information is only given to the census team to count and that's all. They're not going to share it with immigration, they're not going to share it with the IRS, they're not going to share it with police, they don't share it with anybody. It's literally just there for counting, and the census has been around for over 70 years. And so there are laws that govern and we know that there are reasons set in place that the census is committed to keeping our private information private.

[Speaker view changes to Jessalyn.]

>> Jessalyn: Thank you so much. Now we're going to wrap it up -- I'm sorry, Jer, you had something else to mention?

[Speaker view changes to Jer.]

>> Jer: For those who are interested with some of this, so Congress has a certain number of people who represent each state. And those representatives is entirely based on the census count. So if we have a low number of people who fill out the census, we have a low number of representatives. That's why it's very important as well to fill it out to make sure we're all counted.

[Speaker view changes to Jessalyn.]

>> Jessalyn: Thank you so much. Now before we wrap it up, how many of you have already completed your census and filled them out? (raises her hand)

[Screen switches to the following individuals who are also raising their hands: Emory, Jer, Phillip, Anne, Sarah, Migdalia, before returning to Jessalyn.]

>> Jessalyn: Wonderful. So if we have nothing else to add -- oh, one second. Wonderful. Beautiful. So now it seems we've gotten everything, perfect timing, 30 minutes in your day. Enjoy your time and spend it with -- this is also recorded live so people are able to view it afterwards. Again, if you have any questions or need assistance, we're here to be able to support you. You can go ahead and have a video phone appointment with any of the contractors, and all of us are ready to help you. Roger, I look forward to chatting with you next and connecting you with one of our contractors to fill out your form today. If there's anything else, we want to say thank you so much for the CART services as well as the interpreting services as well as everyone who has joined us here today. This is an extreme important thing. We want to emphasize the census will not ask for your credit card information, bank information, they will not ask you for social security number or to pay for any services. The census will not ask you that. The census will ask you only 10 questions and give you, provide you a code to be able to fill those out online. Where do you live, who do you live with, what is your nationality, things of that sort. Other things that provide private information that's not appropriate and that's concerning. So if you haveany questions, comments, or concerns, you can contact us. We're here for you. All right, Roger, I'm going to hang up with everyone else and I'm going to ask one of the team members to give your contract. Perfect.