Starting April 2, healthcare workers, police officers and firefighters with valid ID or uniform will receive free coffee and Egg McMuffin sandwich at participating McDonald’s restaurants in Los Angeles, San Diego, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, Ventura and Imperial counties

WHAT:	To help support those who are working around the clock to keep us safe, McDonald’s Southern California franchisees will offer free breakfast to first responders beginning April 2 at the company’s 700+ locally owned and operated restaurants in Southern California. All healthcare workers, police officers and firefighters with a valid ID or uniform are eligible to receive a free small coffee and Egg McMuffin sandwich during breakfast hours at participating McDonald’s restaurants in Los Angeles, San Diego, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, Ventura and Imperial counties. “We’ve been inspired by the commitment of our first responders working tirelessly to keep our communities safe,” said Paul Tulaphorn, McDonald’s franchisee and association president of the local McDonald’s owner operators group. “On behalf of our franchisees and employees, McDonald’s Southern California region stands ready and proud to serve our local heroes.”
WHEN:	Starting April 2, during breakfast hours (until 10:30 a.m.)
WHERE:	Valid at participating McDonald’s restaurants in Los Angeles, San Diego, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, Ventura and Imperial counties.

SACRAMENTO – The California Department of Public Health today announced the most recent statistics on COVID-19. California now has 10,701 confirmed cases and 237 deaths. As of April 2, local health departments have reported 156 confirmed positive cases in health care workers. For more information on COVID-19 and California’s response visit the California Department of Public Health website.

Testing in California
As of April 2, approximately 94,800 tests had been conducted in California. At least 35,267 results have been received and another 59,500 are pending. These numbers include data California has received from commercial, private and academic labs, including Quest, LabCorp, Kaiser, University of California and Stanford, and the 22 state and county health labs currently testing.

How People Can Protect Themselves
Every person has a role to play. Protecting yourself and your family comes down to common sense: 

• Staying home except for essential needs/activities.
• Practicing social distancing.
• Washing hands with soap and water for a minimum of 20 seconds.
• Avoiding touching eyes, nose or mouth with unwashed hands.
• Covering a cough or sneeze with your sleeve, or disposable tissue. Wash your hands afterward.
• Avoiding close contact with people who are sick.
• Staying away from work, school or other people if you become sick with respiratory symptoms like fever and cough.
• Following guidance from public health officials.

What to Do if You Think You’re Sick
Call ahead: If you are experiencing symptoms of COVID-19 (fever, cough or shortness of breath) and may have had contact with a person with COVID-19, or recently traveled to countries with apparent community spread, call your health care provider before seeking medical care so that appropriate precautions can be taken.

More information about what Californians can do to prevent the spread of COVID-19 is available at www.covid19.ca.gov.

California continues to issue guidance on preparing and protecting California from COVID-19. Consolidated guidance is available atwww.cdph.ca.gov/covid19guidance.

By Mark Hedin, Ethnic Media Services

As of April 1, 37.9% of California’s households have filled out their census questionnaires, Ditas Katague, the state’s Complete Count Committee director, reported at a “Census Day” teleconference.

The nationwide response rate was slightly higher, 38.4%, but California’s 40 million population includes 11 million people the Census Bureau considers “hard to count” — more than in all of Georgia, Katague said.

California’s marathon effort to get everybody counted by the Aug. 14 deadline includes immigrants, infants, the elderly, the incarcerated, the homeless, those who speak no English.

Before the deadline, Census Bureau “enumerators” will have visited households that didn’t fill out their census forms online, over the phone or by mail. The enumerators are scheduled to begin their work May 28 and will return several times, if necessary, to try to get the questionnaires completed.

The completion deadline originally was July 31 but was extended by two weeks, to Aug. 15, in response to the CORVID-19 virus outbreak. Other aspects of the Census 2020 timeline also have been adjusted, such as the schedule for training and dispatching enumerators.

“It’s about power, it’s about money, it’s about data,” Katague said. 

Nationwide, about $1.5 trillion every year (https://tinyurl.com/Census-directedUSspending) of federal government spending is allocated based on census data. That data drives federal funding for emergencies like the coronavirus.

“Just know that being counted is very important for emergency response,” Katague said.

Besides all that federal spending, census data determines how many seats a state gets in Congress. 

“Representation, having a voice, being able to be heard, and being sure that the dollars we send to Washington come back to our community,” that’s part of the power aspect, Katague explained. “If California loses a congressional seat to North Carolina or Texas, I can’t even imagine the impact it would have.” 

And health care funding is a particular concern, she added.

California has allocated about $187 million to this year’s census outreach and communications, far more than any other state in the country and multiples of what it spent in 2010. That year, the “great recession” had Sacramento pinching pennies. Ten years earlier, in 2000, California became the first state ever to fund census outreach efforts. 

The state doesn’t do the counting itself, just the outreach, Katague explained.

“So I just appeal to everyone: Can you answer those nine questions?” (https://tinyurl.com/2020census-ninequestions) 

The chance to count everyone won’t come around again until 2030. Meanwhile, for every Californian who doesn’t get counted this year, their community will miss out on about $10,000 annually in federal spending. Those federal tax dollars go to build roads, staff schools, pay for health care and nutritional needs and much more —300-plus federal programs. 

Jun Lim, from Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Los Angeles (AAAJ-LA), also participated in the teleconference. As one of the state’s trusted messengers in its outreach efforts, AAAJ has set up a hotline for anyone with census questions or concerns: (844) 202-0274 (2020API).

Lim cited an ongoing need for culturally competent help in getting the Asian American and Pacific Islander/Native Hawaiian communities counted. That population is deemed “least likely” to respond to the census, she said, despite being the fastest-growing immigrant group in the country. The reasons include wariness of government intentions and a lack of awareness about the role of the census in U.S. government. 

To encourage participation, AAAJ has helped assemble countusin2020.org, where census information is available in dozens of languages, including Spanish, Chinese, Tagalog, Urdu, Thai, Punjabi, Hmong and many more.

Basim Elkarra, who directs census outreach for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, described the shift away from in-person events, because of the pandemic, to communicating by phone banks, webinars and WhatsApp, distributing in-language flyers at grocery stores, and cultivating in-language speakers to help dispel confusion about the 2020 census.

Elkarra noted that in the Somali and the MENA (Middle Eastern/North African) population, “When someone speaks their language, it builds trust.

People will take our community more seriously when they see the actual numbers.” He cited the dramatic undercount of Armenians in California and in the U.S. overall as a key reason for why they are underrepresented.

The Census Bureau in mid-March began sending out “invitations” to participate to all known household addresses. The invitations direct recipients on how to fill out their nine-question census forms online. But even households that haven’t received an invitation can go online to respond: my2020Census.gov. 

If an online response isn’t an option, people can call (844) 330-2020 to answer the nine questions by phone, fill out the questionnaires that arrive by mail and mail them back, or wait for an enumerator to come knocking.

The panel addressed concerns about how to tell if a person claiming to be an enumerator actually is — identification, a local phone number to check the ID, an official bag and hand-held electronic device with the nine questions — and about privacy of information. Strict confidentiality rules protect the personal information people provide from being disclosed even to other government agencies or landlords.

All the speakers emphasized that for anyone concerned about stay-at-home orders or virus contamination, the best thing to do is to fill out the census form online, at my2020Census.gov.

“My core message is that participating is safe and secure for all Californians,” Katague said.

By Sunita Sohrabji, India West/Ethnic Media Services

SAN FRANCISCO, CA—- The United States, currently leading the world in the number of people infected with coronavirus, is at the crest of fully experiencing the pandemic, a panel of medical experts and community health advocates told reporters March 27.

The U.S. has registered more than 136,000 infections and approximately 2,400 deaths, according to March 26 data from the World Health Organization.

The telebriefing — organized by Ethnic Media Services and sponsored by the Blue Shield of California Foundation — featured two physicians speaking from the front lines of the global health crisis: Tung Nguyen of the University of California, San Francisco, and Daniel Turner-Lloveras of the Harbor UCLA Medical Clinic.

A large percentage of the immigrant community relies on public health facilities, Turner-Lloveras said, but fear to seek care because of the new public charge rule the Trump administration rolled out Feb. 24. The rule says immigrants who seek any form of federal public aid could be denied permanent status in the U.S.

But in a March 13 memo, US Citizenship and Immigration Services stated that seeking treatment for COVID-19 related health issues would not negatively affect any alien as part of a future public charge determination.

In a March 27 alert, the agency further clarified: “The Public Charge rule does not restrict access to testing, screening, or treatment of communicable diseases, including COVID-19. In addition, the rule does not restrict access to vaccines for children or adults to prevent vaccine-preventable diseases.”

The March 27 advisory also stated that there might be an exception  

with regard to the receipt of certain cash and non-cash public benefits. “The rule requires USCIS to consider the receipt of certain cash and non-cash public benefits, including those that may be used to obtain testing or treatment for COVID-19 in a public charge inadmissibility determination, and for purposes of a public benefit condition applicable to certain non-immigrants seeking an extension of stay or change of status,” stated the agency.

The alert can be read here in its entirety: https://www.uscis.gov/greencard/public-charge

About 43% of undocumented immigrants have no health insurance, said Turner-Lloveras. “We cannot contain a virus outbreak by providing care to only some of the population. We cannot successfully contain an outbreak if there are those among us who are afraid to seek care,” he said.

Public health innovator Rishi Manchanda, founder of HealthBegins, said the pandemic disproportionately affects immigrants and people of color. Psychiatrist Sampat Shivangi, currently serving on the Trump administration’s Council for Mental Health and Substance Abuse, spoke about the psychological effect of self-isolation and the possible surge in substance abuse. 

Veteran activist Manju Kulkarni, executive director of the Asian Pacific Policy and Planning Council (A3PCON), briefed reporters on the rise of hate crimes against the Asian American community in the wake of the pandemic. 

Nguyen said he has “never seen doctors so scared by an infection. We could be looking at a million infections by next week and four million by next month.” 

The virus is deadly: 15 to 45 of every 1,000 infected people will die of a COVID-19 related illness, Nguyen said, noting that the elderly are particularly vulnerable. No vaccine exists for the disease, and the U.S. is still 12-18 months away from developing one. No cure exists, said medical experts on the panel.

“You need to just stay home,” Nguyen stressed. The most effective methods to steer clear of the virus are social isolation and avoiding touching objects and surfaces. For communities of color and immigrants, who tend to live in multigenerational households, it’s imperative that people who must leave the household for work wash up and change clothes afterward, before engaging with their families again. The virus may be in the air for up to three hours. It can live on cardboard for up to 24 hours and on plastic and steel for 72 hours, the UCSF physician said.

New York City is currently experiencing the worst of the pandemic, Turner-Lloveras said, and its overloaded hospitals lack medical supplies to treat all ill patients. California hospitals, which had an extra week to prepare, may be better-equipped to manage the surge. They are trying to triage appropriately, using telemedicine and other resources to avoid a crush of people coming in at once.

Turner-Lloveras has worked in low-income communities in Los Angeles and advocates for hospitals to be “ICE-free zones” that limit immigration agents’ access so they cannot arrest and detain people seeking medical care. He also spoke out against the overcrowding at ICE detention centers that can increase the community spread of the virus.

Manchanda also has worked in South Central Los Angeles’ low-income communities. He told reporters that the pandemic disproportionately affects the economic well-being of people of color and the immigrant community as well as their health. 

“It’s hard to not work for many communities of color. Lower wages and insufficient insurance coverage limits their access to treatment and often forces them to work even while ill, increasing the risk of exposure to the community,” he said. Also, many minorities live in large cities, frequently in public housing, placing them at a greater risk for infection. And members of ethnic communities often work in front-facing jobs, such as grocery-store clerks, and take public transportation to get to jobs, resulting in higher rates of exposure. 

Manchanda added that limited access to testing, language barriers, and underlying illnesses, such as diabetes and heart disease that disproportionately affect certain minorities, put immigrants and minorities at greater risk of infection and death.

The rise of xenophobia against Asian Americans is real, Kulkarni said, citing the case of a child who was punched in the head 20 times at school because a bully thought he was Asian. A3PCON has received 750 reports of COVID-19-related hate crimes in the past month, she said.

By Lou Yeboah

“Lord, teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.” Of all that Moses could have asked, he simply asked, “Lord, teach us to number our days.”  Moses understood that his time here on earth was short. Paul said that it is closer than when we first believed. The night is just about to be over and it is day time. Wake up! You can’t continue to live like you have been living. Don’t be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. It would be madness to jeopardize your soul for naught; post to hell without excuse; and place yourself under the possible necessity of being damned. How long have you got left? How many more times will your eyes flicker open in the morning as consciousness comes into focus? How many more breaths are going to flood your lungs with life-giving oxygen? How many more beats of your heart will pump that oxygen to your vital organs, until it stops for good? Do you ever think about these things? I tell you, we should all pray as Moses did, Lord, teach us to number our days, that we may our hearts unto wisdom.”

This message is a reminder, a word of warning or, caution for those who are so busy living from day to day they forget how completely fragile and uncertain life is. Simply stated by James, our lives are only a mist, a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. Here today and gone tomorrow; here one minute and gone the next.  Decide today to give yourself over to the will of God, letting each day count for eternity. “Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while He is near.”  Proverbs- 1:24-28; 27:1; 29:1 warns us that we are not to wait too late about making our decision of commitment to God and to receive forgiveness for our sins. Don’t take a chance and think that you will have time to get saved or repent later on in life. For Hell is filling up fast with people who thought that they would repent later on in their life. Some of them, like you, had heard the Gospel: were convicted by the Holy Spirit and Word of God; and had expected to get saved “SOMEDAY.” Unfortunately, for them, their “SOMEDAY” never came. According to Christ, it is absolutely imperative and important for us to be transformed if we desire to enter into God’s Kingdom. Decide today to give yourself over to the will of God, letting each day count for eternity. Allow God to have His way with you. “Whereas ye know not what shall be on tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appeareth for a little time, and then vanishes away.  

“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.” 

Be awed by God’s eternity. Be humbled by life’s brevity.

“This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death… Now choose life…” Deuteronomy 30:15-20.

SAN BERNARDINO – Early this week, the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors adopted a resolution suspending evictions and foreclosures for properties within the unincorporated areas of San Bernardino County. The resolution does not exempt tenants from paying rent, nor does it restrict a landlord’s ability to recover rent, nor does it apply to evictions based on illegal activity or “nuisance.” This resolution applies to residential and commercial properties and is in effect through April 30th, 2020. The termination date may be extended by the Board of Supervisors but cannot exceed the date of May 31st, 2020 per Governor Newsom’s Executive Order.

The Board’s resolution is in direct response to Governor Newsom’s Executive Order (N-28-20) issued on March 16th, 2020, that allows cities and counties to suspend evictions during the COVID-19 pandemic. The resolution ensures that businesses, landlords, and tenants understand their rights and responsibilities during the COVID-19 crisis. Under the resolution, no one can be evicted for failure to pay rent as a result of being impacted by the COVID-19 crisis, including:

• Job loss or layoff
• Loss of hours or wages
• Missing work due to illness
• Out-of-pocket medical expenses

“These are unprecedented times, and I thank the Governor for allowing local government to take action to stabilize their own communities,” said Vice Chair Supervisor Gonzales.

“Due to circumstances beyond their control, many county residents have lost their jobs, closed their businesses, and may be facing substantial medical expenses with unforeseen consequences from sheltering in place. We must do everything within our power to enable our residents to overcome these hardships. I am proud that every city will be able to act on its own behalf to best meet the unique needs of their communities” added Supervisor Gonzales.

The Board also adopted a resolution to strongly recommend utility service providers (gas, water, electric, telecommunications) impose moratoriums on service disconnections and late fees for non-payment until at least April 30th, 2020.

For information about the coronavirus crisis, visit the County’s coronavirus website at wp.sbcounty.gov/dph/coronavirus. New information and resources have been added and the site is being updated daily. The public can also contact the coronavirus public information line from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday at (909) 387-3911, or email the County at coronavirus@dph.sbcounty.gov.

Governor signs executive order to expand health care workforce and staff at least an additional 50,000 hospital beds needed for the COVID-19 surge

Medical doctors, nurses, respiratory therapists, behavioral health scientists, pharmacists, EMTs, medical and administrative assistants, certified nursing assistants all needed

Governor Newsom: “If you have a background in health care, we need your help. Sign up at healthcorps.ca.gov”

SACRAMENTO – Governor Gavin Newsom today launched a major new initiative to expand California’s health care workforce and recruit health care professionals to address the COVID-19 surge. Health care professionals with an active license, public health professionals, medical retirees, medical and nursing students, or members of medical disaster response teams in California are all encouraged to join the new California Health Corps.

Interested medical and health care professionals are encouraged to visit healthcorps.ca.gov for more information and to register for the California Health Corps. Medical doctors, nurses, respiratory therapists, behavioral health scientists, pharmacists, EMTs, medical and administrative assistants, as well as certified nursing assistants are encouraged to step up and meet this moment to help California respond to the outbreak.

The Governor also signed an executive order that will temporarily expand the health care workforce and allow health care facilities to staff at least an additional 50,000 hospital beds the state needs to treat COVID-19 patients. A copy of the Governor’s executive order can be found here, and the text of the order can be found here.

“California’s health care workers are the heroes of this moment, serving on the front lines in the fight against this disease. To treat the rising number of patients with COVID-19, our state needs more workers in the health care field to join the fight. If you have a background in health care, we need your help. Sign up at healthcorps.ca.gov,” said Governor Newsom.

“Outreach to unemployed health care workers and under-employed foreign medical graduates will help build the workforce needed to fight the pandemic — and also create new opportunities and jobs for Californians struggling with unemployment,” said California Labor Secretary Julie A. Su.

“California must continue to prepare our health care delivery system and make sure it has every resource to respond to a potential surge in COVID-19 patients. California’s most valuable resource is its people and I join the Governor in calling on all medical professionals to join the fight against COVID-19,” said California Health and Human Services Secretary Dr. Mark Ghaly.

More ways for Californians to support their communities and request assistance are outlined on the California Volunteers website serve.ca.gov. For more information on the state’s response to COVID-19, visit covid19.ca.gov.

In celebration of Women’s History Month, Black PR Wire, Inc., in partnership with Women Grow Strong will present a powerful webinar entitled “Sistas Who Succeed.”  This national webinar is free and open to the public and takes place on Monday, March 30, 2020 from 2 – 3 p.m., ET.

“We are very excited to present this dynamic online event,” says Bernadette Morris, president/CEO of Black PR Wire and Women Grow Strong, Inc. “We have an all-star line-up of successful professional women who are ready to impart powerful and meaningful words of wisdom that will help empower and inspire us all.”

The Sistas Who Succeed webinar will feature a candid conversation from business and community leaders who will share their best practices and success stories on building a successful business; overcoming obstacles and more.  The all-star line-up of presenters include (pictured above, left to right):

Cheryl Procter-Rogers, APR, Fellow, PCC, MBA, MA,Senior Consultant and Certified Master Coach for A Step Ahead PR Consulting and Coaching

Aisha Becker-Burrowes, Manager, PR and Strategic Communications, Essence Communications, Inc.*

(*invited)

Dr. Cheryl L. Holder, MD – Program Director, Florida International University College of Medicine; and Associate Professor

Dr. ML Taylor, Author, Speaker, & Purpose Pusher

Althea Harris, President/CEO, Harris Global, Inc. will present and be the session’s moderator.

-more-

Black PR Wire & Women Grow Strong’s “Sistas Who Succeed” FREE Webinar

Page Two

The webinar is free and open to the public, but advanced registration is requested.  To sign up, click the evite link. Once registered, you will receive the calendar evite with the GoTo Meeting link and call in number.

As an added bonus, the first 50 registrants for the webinar will receive a 50% discount on all BPRW services in April and May.  And all additional registrants will receive a 20% discount on all BPRW services as well.

Black PR Wire delivers its clients’ press releases, video and audio news releases, electronic video messages and electronic newsletters to key reporters, writers, and influential grassroots, social and civic community leaders throughout the country.  Black PR Wire also provides specialized services including direct media calls and product placement pitching as well as audio, video and e-newsletter development and distribution. The company’s service center has compiled and owns a comprehensive and continuously updated database of Black media and organizations throughout the country and the Caribbean, and has direct contacts with hundreds of Black and minority media outlets, community, social and civic groups and affiliates nationwide. The company’s database holds a comprehensive listing of over 1,200 Black-owned publications and media and includes a comprehensive listing of key Black journalists throughout the United States and the Caribbean.

Women Grow Strong, Inc., (also known as WINGS for Women in Need Growing Strong), is a not-for-profit support group that serves to help develop, build and sustain women’s contribution, purpose and goals in society.

For more information and to register for the “Sistas Who Succeed” Webinar, call 877-BLACKPR or visit www.blackprwire.com.

WHO:  Black PR Wire and Women Grow Strong present “Sistas Who Succeed” Webinar

WHAT:  A candid conversation from business and community leaders who will share their best practices and success stories on building a successful business; overcoming obstacles and more!

WHEN: Monday, March 30, 2020 ? 2 – 3 p.m. ET

COST:  FREE but advanced registration is required

WHERE:  Click on the link to register (via Evite) http://evite.me/UJ9PfGt3ZH

and the GoToMeeting Link and call in number will be sent to you

FOR MORE INFO:  Contact Black PR Wire at 1-877-BLACKPR

In the time of Coronavirus, the State’s diverse communities are told that participation in the U.S. Census is still crucially important, aside from safe and secure

By Pilar Marrero, Ethnic Media Services

The U.S. Census self-response phase went live on March 12, and civil rights leaders of diverse ethnic groups came together to remind their communities of the many legal and privacy protections guaranteed by federal law for people to participate in the decennial count.

They also encouraged them to continue to “self-respond” by phone, online or mail and outlined the steps they will follow to continue to reach out to hard-to-count communities, addressing at the same time the health emergency of the Covid-19 as an additional challenge in Census 2020.

“We encourage our communities to sanitize and self-respond”, said Jeri Green, 2020 Census Senior Advisor for the National Urban League.

The leaders emphasized that most Americans are now able to self-respond to the Census in the privacy of their own homes without having to meet a Census taker or enumerator. For example, people can go to https://2020census.gov/ and answer nine questions (seven for every person in the household other than the one filling out the questionnaire). They can also respond by phone or in printed form.

Several organizations have mounted massive campaigns to help their communities maximize their participation, given that the data collected by the US Census is used in the distribution of resources, funding of services and political representation through drawing of districts for Congress, State Legislatures, etc.   

Beth Lynk, Census counts campaign Director for The Leadership Conference Education Fund said the Census is “one of the most urgent civil rights issues facing the country and right now every person in the US has a chance to ensure a fair and complete count to all communities”.

Knowing that many in their communities have privacy concerns on the use of the data they will be sharing with the Census, the leaders reminded that the information has extraordinary levels of legal protection.

John Yang, president and executive director of Asian Americans Advancing Justice pointed to the laws that govern the use of the data given to the U.S. Census Bureau as “the strongest privacy protections allowed in the United States”.

Asian Americans are among the communities where there are many undocumented immigrants and mixed-status households, which creates mistrust towards the government and could affect a complete count. Every person living in the United States by April 1 must be counted, and that includes undocumented immigrants.

“The confidentiality provision known as Title 13 prevents the government from using the Census data for any purpose other than the statistical one”, said Yang. “More importantly, the bureau and its employees are not allowed to share the data with any other government agency or officials for any reason”.  

Certain information gathered by the Census cannot be published for 72 years, such as the name of the individual, business or organization, address or telephone number. Another layer of laws prohibits the use of data in any way against the individual who responded.

Yang pointed to their hotline for the Asian and Pacific Islander Community in several languages as a crucial resource to answer questions: 844-2020-API or 844-2020-0204.

Other communities share the same privacy concern. This is a very important issue in black communities, said Green, of the Urban League, whose 90 affiliates are hard at work reassuring their members of the security of the data and the importance of participation.

“We are fighting to ensure that the black population, including immigrants, lose no ground, be it economic, political or in civil rights”, she emphasized. “The stakes are too high, please go to makeblackcount.org to learn more about our efforts”.

Lycia Maddox, Vice President of External Affairs for the National Congress of American Indians (which also includes Alaska Natives) said that the tribal nations across the country present a special challenge due to restrictions they have imposed on access to their lands, due to the Coronavirus.

“These communities often have no access to online and broadband to self-respond, and these new security measures make it impossible for enumerators to visit them and it delays mail delivery”, Maddox said. “We are as we speak working with different networks to come up with plans, and to increase community outreach and advertising”.

Lizette Escobedo, Census Director for the National Association of Latino and Elected Officials (NALEO) invited Latinos to call the bilingual Spanish-English hotline 877 ELCENSO or 877 352-3672 where there will be live paid operator answering questions and watching for reports of potential scammers or disinformation.

The organization has trained 3500 Census Ambassadors to assist the community in 15 states in filling out the Census and has launched two national campaigns, “Hágase contar and Hazme contar” focused on the larger Latino community and children younger than four, which experienced a large undercount in the 2010 Census.

Additional paid media campaigns will remind people that there is absolutely “NO CITIZENSHIP QUESTION” in the Census and addressing “fears of data privacy and cybersecurity”.

An additional ad campaign targeting Latina Millennials who are English-dominant was launched 2 months ago.

“Ensuring an accurate count seems like a heavier lift as every day happens folks have mentioned, we are committed to working with national local and media partners to do what we can to ensure that Latinos are heard, seen and counted this 2020 census”, she added.

 In the face of the Coronavirus pandemic, organizations are revising the way they conduct the outreach to maintain community safety,

“Several grassroots organizations are moving to phone banks and text banks because the table opportunities are very restrictive right now and we want to exercise caution”, said Yang. “We are also leaving drop off literature in supermarkets, community centers, and clinics”.

Ditas Katague, from the California Complete count office, said that the state of California has spent more than all the other states combined to reach out to the hardest to count populations and ensure everyone participates.

“The investment is unprecedented, a total of 172.2 million dollars and is larger than all other states combined, we are on a league of our own”, said Katague. “We have unique challenges, a diverse population, and a large geographic size. We have 120 partners throughout the state and we are coordinating the largest mobilization of partners in our state´s history”.

The leaders reiterated that their overall goal is that every Californian understands that the Census is not only “safe and secure”, and vital for the future of all the communities. “The goal is to ensure that everyone is invited and able to participate in the 2020 Census”, said Beth Lynk of the Leadership Conference.

“We know that we are all focused on the health of ourselves, our loved ones, and our communities, and with 16 weeks until the scheduled 2020 ESSENCE Festival of Culture, we wanted to provide an update to our community and partners regarding our plans in light of coronavirus/COVID-19.

Our first priority will always be the safety and well-being of our Festival-goers and everyone who contributes to making the ESSENCE Festival of Culture such an enriching, entertaining and incredible experience, and we will continue to evaluate the situation and use all available resources and intelligence to that end. We are closely monitoring the unfolding developments and updated information from the World Health Organization (WHO), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), public health agencies and our partners in the City of New Orleans and State of Louisiana.

Based on the latest information, including increasing public health interventions and measures being implemented domestically and internationally, and the considerable amount of time to assess and respond to developments between now and July, we are planning to proceed with the 2020 ESSENCE Festival of Culture as currently scheduled, July 1-5 in New Orleans. Still, as a precautionary and proactive measure and with health as the foremost consideration, we are also identifying and securing alternate dates to ensure that we can adjust as quickly and seamlessly as possible in the event that circumstances require. Should that happen, we will honor all tickets sold for prior scheduled dates.

In the meantime, we are excited to share more about our daytime empowerment programming and our nighttime concert line-up — including headliners Bruno Mars and Janet Jackson — as we celebrate the 50th Anniversary of ESSENCE and look forward to seeing everyone in July.

‘ESSENCE is a multi-cultural, multi-generational treasure in the City of New Orleans and this year, with the return to Ghana, we’ve come full circle,’ said Mayor LaToya Cantrell, Mayor of New Orleans. ‘However, with the commemoration of our past, we must lean on wisdom and sound judgement to shape our future. Public health and public safety will always remain top priorities. As we continue to monitor the spread of COVID-19, know that we are taking every precaution to operate in the best interest of the attendees who make ESSENCE what it is.’

ESSENCE will continue to provide updates to our valued community of Festival-goers and partners regarding any new developments.”