Nothing stops college students more in their tracks than to tell them they can bring in $1,000 with only 10 minutes of work, Leah Zuber says.
But she wasn't running a get-rich-quick scheme at Grand Valley State University these past few weeks. Rather it was a way for Zuber and her team of public relations seniors to tell college students -- targeted as a "hard-to-reach" audience -- what filling out 2010 census forms as residents of metro Grand Rapids can mean to the area.
"I would say that almost 100 percent of the students we talked to didn't have a clue that they should fill out the form as a resident of this area," says Zuber, 22, who hails from Howell. "More census forms means more funding for the city of Grand Rapids. We can help the city because there are so many of us."
Faced with the possibility of losing clout in Washington D.C. and millions in federal funding, a number of local organizations are trying to educate the hard-to-reach groups such as students, minorities and immigrants to simply fill out the forms that started arriving in the mail this month. City officials say that the response rate of Grand Rapids residents to the last census in 2000 was below the national and state averages.
What hangs in the balance? Census data is used to allocate $400 billion annually in federal funds to local and state governments. According to a study conducted by the Brookings Institution, the annual per capita census allocation is approximately $1,000 in federal funds.
Among its many uses, data collected by U.S. Census Bureau can determine the scope of federal funding for roads, medical research, and availability of college tuition grants and loan programs. And it's used to apportion seats in the U.S. House of Representatives.
So being underrepresented now can mean getting shortchanged for years to come.
An Invisible Population
About 30 percent of people do not complete census forms and are therefore not included in the population counts, Kent and Ottawa County census office officials say.
To reach these populations, the city of Grand Rapids established the Complete Count Committee with the expressed goal of accounting for all residents. In 2000 when the last census was determined, 197,800 people were counted as Grand Rapids residents.
"We are trying to engage everyone to ensure that we get the most accurate count," says Haris Alibasic, sustainability manager for the city of Grand Rapids and the 2010 Grand Rapids census liaison. "We've received a really good response from businesses, community members and community associations who are helping us reach more people."
Alibasic has been working with a number of ethnic community centers to assure that information is available to the hard-to-count" populations. "We've seen a tremendous increase in population from all over the world, including those of Hispanic, Latino, Dominican, Bosnian and Somalian decent," he says. "We are working closely to ensure that there is an outreach to the immigrant populations."
In addition to the language barriers, some immigrant populations might not be educated on the U.S. census procedures. "It is similar to the process in some other countries, but it's not always the same," says Alibasic. "Knowing and communicating the differences is very important."
Terry Satchell, the local census office manager for Kent and Ottawa counties, says his office has undertaken a number of initiatives to ensure a more accurate count.
"Our partnership division has been working with local businesses, congressional offices and the mayors' offices to get more people counted," he says. "We have eight partner reps who target specific populations, a helpline and 44 questionnaire assistance centers with people who can help with literacy and translations."
The Census Bureau itself has tried to encourage a better response rate by shortening the 2010 census from a lengthy booklet that was used in previous years to a 10-question, pre-stamped form.
Students to the Rescue
Zuber answered the census bureau's call for help earlier this year.
She and four other graduating seniors from GVSU's chapter of the Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA) used everything from social media sites to advertising on busses to educate their fellow students on the census.
"Our task was to target students because it's a hard audience to get through to," says Zuber, chapter president. "Students aren't educated on the procedures. Our job was to raise awareness and motivate students to take the census."
Census guidelines say that people should mark the location where they live most during the year as their residency. Since most college students spend at least nine months out of the year at school, they are encouraged to use their university address as their primary residence.
In addition to their $1,000 question, Zuber and her PRSSA team brought this point home to students by giving presentations to GVSU classes, handing out brochures and creating ads that ran on The Rapid busses that were paid for by the student chapter.
The team used social media, creating a Facebook page, a Twitter account and a website, and they created a 45-second video that used positive hand gestures and the tagline: "Hand Yours In."
Zuber's team took the "hand" theme a step further at their booth in the Kirkhof Center during the last two weeks of February by encouraging students to apply cutouts of their hands on a huge banner of Michigan, marking their hometowns and taking the pledge to complete their census forms.
The team was one of a number of groups of public relations students at colleges and universities across the country who participated in the PRSSA's annual Bateman Case Study Competition, in partnership with the U.S. Census Bureau. The Bateman competition was established in 1973 by the Public Relations Society of America to give members a way to practice problem-solving in a real-life situation.
Due to the rules of the Bateman competition, the census campaign had to be executed only during the month of February so their efforts can be judged against those of other student teams from across the nation. The GVSU team is now working on measuring its effectiveness, but won't know the effects of the campaign until the census results are tabulated.
Satchell says if all students and the other members of the traditionally hard-to-count populations took 10 minutes to register as local residents, the population and funding increases could be huge for the local economy.
Zuber feels the team's efforts definitely had an impact on response.
A preliminary six-question survey of about 150 students taken last week indicates that 75 percent say they will now participate in the census, she says. Further she estimates that the bus advertising may have reached thousands of students since it is a primary mode of transportation serving the Allendale and downtown campuses.
"Money is tight right now, and this affects the whole city," Zuber says. "And I'm glad we helped. I'm looking for a job now, and I would like to stay in West Michigan. I love it here."
Kelly Quintanilla is a freelance writer born, raised and living in West Michigan. Matthew Gryczan is the managing editor of Rapid Growth magazine and owner of SciTech Communications.
Photo:
Leah Zuber
Easttown Community Association
Bateman Team -Courtesy Photo
Census Flyer -Courtesy
Photographs by Brian Kelly -All Rights Reserved