By Shandon Phan

As America is gearing up for Census 2010, Vietnamese American community leaders and organizations are mobilizing resources to improve awareness and participation among community members.

On March 15, Census forms began arriving in 120 million mailboxes across the nation. “Every family in America will receive its census questionnaire beginning in mid March. It is our duty to our country, our state, and our community to be counted,” said Dr. Nguyen Dinh Thang, Executive Director of BPSOS.

BPSOS staff and volunteers help spread the US Census 2010 message at the Asian Culture Center in Charlotte, NC. (photo of BPSOS)

Asking just 10 questions and taking about 10 minutes to complete, 2010 Census form is known to be one of the shortest and simplest ones ever. Yet, getting everyone to fill out their census forms and send them back to the government remains a challenge, especially among traditionally hard-to-count populations of minorities and low-income communities.

“Many Vietnamese Americans still hesitate to fill out and return census forms due to their suspicion of government or lack of knowledge about census in general,” said Dr. Thang. “BPSOS has been a national partner of the Census Bureau and work with various community partners, including Vietnamese-language media and faith-based groups, to send a strong and clear message that the census is safe and necessary for our community’s prosperity.”

As a national Vietnamese American community organization with a network of 11 branches and 18 office locations across the U.S., BPSOS has been mobilizing its resources to increase awareness and participation among Vietnamese Americans. From donating office space to be used as a Census Questionnaire Assistance Center to promoting Census at health fairs and community events to utilizing its vast Vietnamese-language media network of print, radio, TV and web channels to raise awareness, BPSOS is filling the gaps in outreach.

These outreach efforts are strategically important to the community’s welfare and political representation. For every person unaccounted for, the local community loses thousands of dollars of federal funding that could be used in schools, roads, hospitals, etc. Such efforts are even more important this year when state and local governments have significantly reduced their outreach budget due to the economic crisis. For example, in California where there is the largest concentration of Vietnamese Americans in the US, the state’s Census outreach budget has been reduced by more than 90%, allocating only $2 million this year, compared with $25 million back in 2000.

The economic downturn also caused many to lose their homes due to foreclosures, thus presenting another outreach challenge. To tackle the challenges, community groups like BPSOS are using their own existing methods of outreach as well as inventing new ones.

“Though our existing Vietnamese-language media have been effective in getting the message out to our community, we also recently partnered with and secured the support of Vietnamese American musical centers, such as Thuy Nga Paris By Night Production, to include our video public announcements about Census 2010 in their musical DVDs,” said Dr. Thang, Executive Director of BPSOS.

Mobilizing younger generation Vietnamese Americans to get involved may be another effective approach to increase community awareness and participation.

“Young Vietnamese Americans and community organizations and faith-based groups that work with them, such as Thieu Nhi Thanh The, Thanh Nien Phat Tu, Vietnamese Boy Scouts groups, can make a significant impact in ensuring that their families are accurately counted in Census 2010,” stated Van-Anh Nguyen, who coordinates Census Outreach effort at Asian Pacific American Legal Resource Center (APALRC). Based in DC with offices in Virginia and Maryland, APALRC is currently recruiting high school student volunteers to help with phone-banking and community outreach.

Census forms are due on April 1. Strict confidentiality laws protect the respondents and the information they provide.

For additional information regarding the Census and the outreach efforts in the Vietnamese American community, visit the Vietnamese American Outreach Census 2010 Campaign website at http://www.bpsos.org/en/census2010.