The Char and Chuck Fowler Family Foundation, Cleveland Foundation, The George Gund Foundation, Saint Luke’s Foundation, and two members of the Ohio Census Advocacy Coalition (OCAC) – Cleveland VOTES and the Children’s Defense Fund-Ohio – have awarded $50,000 in the third round of census microgrants aimed at increasing participation in the 2020 census among hard-to-count (HTC) populations. The OCA Greater Cleveland chapter is honored to be one of 15 recipients in the third round of 2020 census outreach microgrants from The Cleveland Foundation coalition.
With the funding, OCA Greater Cleveland designed and printed six outdoor banners that were strategically placed in Cleveland’s AsiaTown neighborhood with a QR code, website, and phone numbers for the Census in English, Spanish, Chinese (Mandarin, Cantonese), Vietnamese, Korean, Tagalog, and Japanese. We also created car stickers for the AAPI Census Caravan in Cleveland as part of a larger nationwide effort to Get-Out-The Count in this Hard-To-Count population. We also worked with the Cleveland Census office to provide Mobile Questionaire Assistance at three locations in AsiaTown (Park-To-Shop, Koko Bakery, and Kim’s Groceries) in conjunction with the Census Caravan. Volunteers and Census workers were available to assist in English, Mandarin, Cantonese, Toisan, and Spanish. We also help to update and register voters and provided vote-by-mail applications for absentee voting.
The Census Caravan of seven cars with nine volunteers traveled throughout Cleveland’s AsiaTown neighborhood other parts of Ward 7 in the St. Clair Superior neighborhood where the census self-response rate was lower than the City of Cleveland’s rate.
Landmark Locations along the Route:
Asia Plaza
St. Clair Place Apartments
Emperor’s Palace
Sterling Recreation Center
Bo Loong/Siam Cafe
East Professional Center
Dave’s Supermarket
Asian Town Center/Asia Food Co.
Kim’s Grocery/Korea House
Koko Bakery/Map of Thailand/Dagu/Han Kabob
Tink Holl Food Market
Good Harvest Food Market
Superior Pho/Ha Anh/Anna Beauty
Park-To-Shop
Video from the Census Caravan in Cleveland:
Photos from the Census Caravan and Table Event
