QCC Works to Ensure Everyone is Counted in 2020 Census

Quinsigamond Community College is helping to make sure everyone in the Worcester community is counted in the United States Census. The College recently took part in a video outreach campaign to encourage people to participate in the census. QCC students and alumni recorded the videos in Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, Ga, Vietnamese, English and Albanian to represent these communities within the City of Worcester.

“QCC used its voice and the voice of its students to engage the community in an effort that will benefit all of Worcester,” said QCC’s Associate Vice President for External Affairs, Viviana Abreu-Hernandez. “Federal and State funding is allocated based on the population identified in the census, so it is imperative everyone is counted.”

Recognizing the importance of having everyone in the City participate in the census, in late February Ms. Abreu-Hernandez and QCC’s Director of Community Bridges Déborah L. González, met with Partnership Specialist Edward McGuire, of the Census New York Region Office, to discuss supporting the census efforts by encouraging QCC students and their families to fill out the census form.

“Mr. McGuire indicated that higher education institutions were ‘trusted voices’ in the community and that QCC’s voice will positively contribute to the efforts making sure that each and every member of the Worcester community would be counted in the 2020 Census,” Ms.  Abreu-Hernandez said.

The College immediately jumped into action, filming a variety of videos in different languages to be distributed throughout Worcester.

“One of our main goals was to help remove the concern of disseminating private information, as well as the importance of being counted in the census,” Ms. González said.

In addition to sending internal emails to the QCC community and having the information on the census prominently displayed on the QCC website, the videos were shared with other organizations in Worcester that included:  

• Latin American Business Organization (LABO)
• The Latino Education Institute
• South East Asian Coalition
• African Community Education
• Ascentria Care Alliance
• Worcester Public Schools
• Worcester Interfaith Alliance
• Worcester Public Library
• Worcester Legal Aid
• Worcester Community Connections Coalition
• Literacy Volunteers of Greater Worcester

Due to the coronavirus/COVID-19, the deadline to fill out the census was moved to October 31 and on July 16 census takers began visiting homes that have not filled out the census.

“The beauty of these videos is that our students represent the Worcester County community – diverse, multi-language, and engaged,” Ms. Abreu-Hernandez said. “We hope these videos will enlighten people in our diverse communities and remove any fears they may have about filling out the census.”

To view the census videos, visit www.QCC.edu/census.