Census promoters seek to reach Hispanic families through tech-savvy youngsters

Census campaign targets tech-savvy Hispanic youth

LOS ANGELES — Groups pushing for robust Hispanic participation in the 2010 census announced a new campaign Thursday that aims to reach the hard-to-count demographic through its smart-phone-toting youngsters.

The “Be Counted, Represent” campaign offers music downloads and a chance at concert tickets to cell phone users who share their e-mail addresses and phone numbers with organizers and forward information about the census to their friends.

Principle organizers Voto Latino and the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund stress in their messages that undercounted areas risk losing funding for transit, infrastructure and other needs, as well as political representation.

They hope those messages promoting participation in the count will zip throughout the social networks of youngsters who can persuade their parents to fill out and return their census forms.

“You’re looked at by many, many, many people as being powerful when it comes to money that they can line their pockets with,” actress Rosario Dawson, a Voto Latino co-founder, told teenagers gathered in the library of a predominantly Latino high school. “When it’s money that can line your pockets, no one ever says anything. But we’re saying something.”

The campaign offers a package of 25 music downloads curated for a young Hispanic audience to cell phone users who share their zip codes, e-mail addresses and cell phone numbers with the program’s organizers. The downloads include songs by such artists as Pitbull, Mos Def and Morrissey.

Users can get also get songs by taking census quizzes on a smart phone application that they download.

If they invite their friends to download the application, they’re entered into a raffle for tickets to a “secret concert” to be held in the Los Angeles area in April.

Anyone can participate, although the campaign is aimed at teens and 20-somethings.

“If young people understand how important it is to participate in the census, they will urge their families to get involved as well,” said Antonia Hernandez, president of the California Community Foundation, which is helping fund the campaign. “An accurate count is vital because it will mean more resources for the neediest people in our community.”