2020 Census Coalitions

January 29, 2020

Online hiring practices, 2020 Census loom large for LI

Ah, the start of a new year, when people (and companies) consider some major decisions that could improve both prosperity and quality of life (or business). If entire regions could make New Year’s Resolutions, I’d recommend these two workforce development-related commitments for Long Island: develop and deploy an Island-wide strategy that helps employers clear barriers created by online applications (more skills-based hiring, less “degree inflation”), and leverage the networking capabilities of those same Island employers to help achieve an accurate count for the 2020 U.S. Census. These two actions will widen Long Island’s talent pipeline, foster new workforce-training resources and otherwise remove barriers to regional employment. One of the single-biggest barriers to employment is the online hiring process. The Internet and social media make it easy to inform more candidates about open positions and have certainly eased the burden of sorting through résumés; they’ve also had the unintended consequence of creating real employment hurdles. Online applications rely on employers selecting the criteria that help identify whether a candidate should be considered. Employers often use college-degree requirements to weed out lesser candidates – but many in the HR world will tell you a degree isn’t always required, simply an artificial barrier that often eliminates experienced candidates with the right skills. Further, many people with college degrees can’t get jobs because the work “requires” specific degree types, or some precise work experience. Military veterans cite similar challenges aligning their service experiences with specific industry requirements. Skills- and competency-based hiring strategies directly address these challenges, benefitting companies and job seekers both with and without degrees. And with a clearer understanding of specific industry competency requirements, educators and community-based organizations can expand their ability to recruit for larger employers. Harvard Business School’s Managing the Future of Work project explores this in depth, engaging various partners with the tools needed to bolster their workforces. According to “Dismissed by Degrees,” an article published by project, “reversing degree inflation requires the company to design new tools that value a non-graduate candidate’s work experience, competencies and potential.” Among the recommended steps for employers: adjust job descriptions to focus on core competencies, explore resources provided by Washington-based Grads of Life and other global partners, and reconsider the entire candidate-vetting process. Long Island has a robust workforce-development ecosystem, including our educational institutions, various job centers and plenty of community-based organizations. Funding for new programs that develop skills in the emerging workforce will be driven by the 2020 Census. The census helps with the equitable distribution of federal and state funds for educational programs, community healthcare efforts, new law enforcement officers and highway construction. Funding for public schools and regional workforce-development programs is tied directly to population – not just the number of people, which is critical, but demographic specifics. Workforce legislation prioritizes “target populations” for training resources. Without an accurate count that reflects how many people actually live on Long Island, where they live and who they are, critical education and workforce-development funding may be reduced. “The campaign for a Complete Count is motivated by the simple truth that every single one of us counts,” notes Rebecca Sanin, CEO of the Health & Welfare Council of Long Island. “We get one chance every 10 years to ensure that Long Island receives its fair share of funding, resources and representation … the stakes couldn’t be higher. “If we don’t count our families, we render them invisible for the next 10 years,” Sanin adds, “and we can count on overcrowded classrooms, congested and neglected highways, underfunded hospitals and empty storefronts.” Businesses are in the perfect position to educate employees on the importance of the census, and even help them complete it. Tens of thousands of Long Islanders already trust their employers with their personal information – and make a mental connection between that information and their livelihood. To that end, businesses can dedicate a computer terminal in the lunchroom to census instruction and completion, hold information sessions, provide copies of Long Island Counts – the HWCLI and Nassau County Comptroller Office’s July 2019 census preview – and even provide incentives for census participation. Removing barriers between employers and Long Island’s extraordinary talent pool, and making sure the Island gets its fair share of federal funding via the 2020 Census, couldn’t be more important. In the words of my favorite green guru, “Do or do not, Long Island … there is no try.” The actions we take right now, the priorities we set, will shape the next decade. Rosalie Drago is Long Island regional director for the Workforce Development Institute, a statewide nonprofit focused on job creation and retention.

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2020 Census Coalitions

January 29, 2020

Nonprofits gear up for 2020 Census

With two months to go before the U.S. Census Bureau begins inviting residents to respond to the 2020 Census, government officials in Nassau and Suffolk counties, hundreds of organizations and a local philanthropic group are collaborating on a strategy to motivate Long Islanders to answer that call. The once-a-decade census is mandated by the Constitution and affects the distribution of $675 billion annually in federal funding for a myriad of programs, as well as the number of each state's congressional representatives. "People are going to start hearing from the Census Bureau in March," said Rebecca Sanin, who is coordinating Long Island's "Complete Count" effort. Change is coming in the way people can interact with the census. For the first time, people will have three options: mail, phone or online. Government and philanthropic organizations have money designated to educate and help the public with the census. New York plans to make $20 million available to localities — $15 million of which already has been earmarked for the state's 62 counties — as part of a $60 million campaign involving dozens of state agencies, public authorities and SUNY and CUNY, said Jack Sterne, press secretary for Empire State Development. Long Island is poised to get $1.6 million of that money — just over $1.019 million for Suffolk and $664,109 for Nassau, Sterne said. In addition, a philanthropic entity, The New York State Census Equity Fund, housed at the New York Community Trust, has distributed nearly $2 million to nonprofits across the state, including Long Island. And the Census Bureau this month started a $500 million public education and outreach campaign. "Census Day is April 1, and the census is going to go through August … so we have to do everything in our power to make sure people are ready and are excited, because we've created a culture of momentum to get people to complete the 2020 Census," Sanin said at a People of Color subcommittee meeting at her office earlier this month. Sanin is president and chief executive of the Health and Welfare Council of Long Island, a nonprofit that advocates for and assists poor and vulnerable people, as well as the agencies that help them. That subcommittee — one of 11 — is planning far-reaching census outreach campaigns, from media ads to encourage people to apply for census taker jobs, to enlisting local colleges and universities, fraternities and sororities, even barber shops and hair salons for help. Tracey Edwards, Long Island regional director of the NAACP, who is a member of the People of Color subcommittee, called barbershops and hair salons "key influencers, because we all know that when you go to the barber shop and hair salon, lots of stuff gets talked about in there. And they are our unsung community leaders," which brought a chorus of agreement from nearly 20 subcommittee members gathered in a conference room in the Huntington Station office of the Health and Welfare Council. Other subcommittees are targeting other groups, such as immigrants. "We have built a census army of over 300 organizations that include business leaders, education leaders, faith-based leaders and associations, nonprofits. It's a multi-stakeholder army," Sanin said in a later interview. According to census data, Suffolk and Nassau are ranked fourth and fifth, respectively, of the hardest-to-count counties in the state because of a high proportion of groups that are typically undercounted: minorities, children under age 5, and immigrants. "Census Ambassadors" from local groups are crucial. "They are the trusted messengers in the communities," Vanessa Baird-Streeter, Suffolk's assistant deputy county executive, said in an interview. That's why we've been working with them for the past year, making sure everyone is up to speed, understanding the importance of the census. "Now you need boots on the ground," added Baird-Streeter, who also participated in the People of Color subcommittee meeting. Nassau County Executive Laura Curran said in an interview: The "nonprofits are really our partners. We are relying on them to reassure people who might not trust government that it's incredibly important to be counted … We want to indicate to our community what's in it for them" to answer the census. "We could lose out on school dollars, SNAP benefits. We also could lose out on congressional representation." New York lost two congressional seats after the 2010 census and now has 27. Both Curran and Baird-Streeter noted their counties had updated the Census Bureau's master address lists with thousands of additional addresses in preparation of the count. The bureau accepted nearly 4,500 addresses in Nassau and 9,400 in Suffolk, they said. Long Island officials are now waiting on the state to send the counties the application for census grants. Sterne, the Empire State Development press secretary, said in an emailed statement that the state's "Census Agencies," naming ESD and the departments of labor and state, "are working to finalize the funding process with counties for the $15 [million] for hard-to-count communities as quickly as possible." Also involved in census efforts is the philanthropic community, which "really has kind of stepped in to try to help organizations across the state to raise awareness to try to get these historically undercounted populations to be counted and not be afraid to be counted," said Sol Marie Alfonso-Jones, senior program officer with the Long Island Community Foundation, an affiliate of the New York Community Trust. Alfonso-Jones said $425,000 of the nearly $2 million census equity fund went to Long Island, with the LICF putting in an additional $25,000 for the establishment of complete count committees. Baird-Streeter said Suffolk legislators have approved using the LICF as the conduit through which to distribute the state census grants to nonprofits, which also needs state approval. Curran said Nassau is "looking at the Suffolk model to see how, if and when we get the grant, we can best get it out to the groups." WHAT'S AT STAKE IN 2020 CENSUS $675 billion annually in federal funds each year for many programs, including: Medicaid, Medicare Part B, Section 8 Housing Vouchers, Highway planning and construction, Special Education grants, Childhood Health Insurance Program, National School Lunch Program, Head Start/Early Head Start, and Foster Care. An undercount can mean programs are underfunded for people who need them, according to the Long Island Counts 2020 Census Report. Each state's congressional apportionment. New York lost two congressional seats after redistricting, based on the 2010 Census. New York now has 27 congressional representatives.

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