In theory, the decennial undertaking of the U.S. Census seems easy enough: make sure every person is accounted for, in the right place, exactly once. In practice, however, the elaborate and time-consuming process is met with formidable obstacles, even in the best of times.
As the past year saw millions of Americans face some of the most trying circumstances in recent memory, the 2020 U.S. Census called for added diligence and amplified outreach efforts to ensure that historically disenfranchised groups of people, including houseless persons and undocumented immigrants, were included in the data used to redraw congressional district lines and allocate federal funding across the country.
In order to encourage residents in “hard-to-count” areas to participate in the 2020 Census, Santa Barbara County officials and the Santa Barbara Foundation launched the Complete Count Committee (CCC) with “the goal of developing and implementing effective outreach strategies while maximizing resources.”