WASHINGTON – AARP has teamed up with the U.S. Census Bureau to release public service announcement (PSA) videos in 18 Asian languages to help Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) communities with limited English proficiency participate in the decennial headcount.
Titled “What is the 2020 Census?” and “How Do I Take the 2020 Census?,” the videos contain bite-size information on the tangible impacts of the census and ways to complete the questionnaire online, by phone or by mail.
“It’s vital that the census be as complete and accurate as possible so everyone, including Asian American and Pacific Islanders, is represented and receives their fair share of public funding for important priorities,” said Daphne Kwok, vice president of multicultural leadership for AAPI audience strategy at AARP. “AARP is proud to provide 2020 Census outreach information in 18 Asian languages so members of those harder-to-reach communities can participate, because not being counted in the census serves no one’s interest.”
AARP is ramping up support for the decennial census by securing partnerships with media outlets that have a strong influence among AAPI audiences. Comcast, Nielsen, and LA18 KSCI-TV are among the first to partner with AARP to promote the 20-second Asian-language PSA videos beginning this month until the end of the census enumeration period. The partnership was supported by TDW+Co, the official Asian American communications and outreach partner for the 2020 Census.
“As we embark on the first digital census, Comcast is proud to partner with AARP and the U.S. Census Bureau to encourage census participation across hard-to-count communities, particularly Asian American and Pacific Islander communities. The 2020 Census is critical in determining the allocation of federal resources that can help improve the quality of life for underserved communities,” said Dalila Wilson-Scott, senior vice president for community investment at Comcast Corporation and president of the Comcast NBCUniversal Foundation.
“Nielsen’s census outreach effort, Project TrueCount: Counting Everyone is Good for Everyone, has made a priority of partnering with organizations that are highly regarded and trusted nationwide so our messages have the greatest impact,” said Don Lowery, senior vice president of community engagements at Nielsen. “AARP perfectly fits that description and we are delighted to work with them on promoting a fair and accurate census count.”
“KSCI-TV, LA18 is proud to partner with AARP in airing these multilingual public service announcements to better educate our Asian community about the 2020 Census,” said Dennis Davis, general manager at LA18 KSCI-TV. “It is integral for our community to see that taking the census is safe and understand the significance of being counted so that we can receive proper funding for various programs. We are grateful that AARP has taken the extra step in ensuring that our non-English speaking community is well informed.”
AARP’s PSAs have already begun airing in markets where Chinese, Hmong, Korean and Vietnamese are more prevalent. Visit aarp.org/Census to learn more about AARP’s work with the 2020 Census, or to access and download the PSA videos for each language (Bengali, Burmese, Chinese, Gujarati, Hindi, Hmong, Japanese, Khmer Cambodian, Korean, Lao, Nepali, Punjabi, Tagalog, Telugu, Thai, Urdu, and Vietnamese).