The coronavirus pandemic may have stopped a lot of things, but one thing it hasn’t is the census.
Billions of dollars in federal spending is at stake for Virginia -- for everything from transportation projects, to public schools. And we’re off to a solid start, about a 56-percent response rate. That’s above the national average.
But since coronavirus has hit, the state has had to rethink its outreach strategy.
“In particular as we focused on how do we reach our hard to count communities, a lot of those plans were certainly focused on in-person events,” says Kelly Thomasson, Secretary of the Commonwealth.
Thomasson’s office is now focusing on virtual outreach through email and social media. “This emergency situation shows us even more why the census is important…. (so) we know how many people there are in Virginia and where they’re living so we can know how to distribute resources and funding to the communities that need them.”
The census can befilled out now online, by phone, or by mail.
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.
