Russian-speaking emigres in San Francisco participated in the census in record numbers this year.
Jewish Family and Children’s services made sure of it.
To stress the importance of filling out one’s census form, the agency mailed out 16,000 informational pamphlets, handed out fliers at various classes, and put up posters at markets and apartment complexes.
And to help get the forms filled out, JFCS operated a bilingual assistance center and a hotline.
The goal of the project: making sure the native Russian speakers in San Francisco and the Bay Area are accurately represented when the census is counted.
The collection of forms wrapped up Friday.
Approximately 30,000 emigres from the former Soviet Union live in the Bay Area, but that’s only an estimate until the new census is counted.
The count might result in more federal, state and municipal documents being printed in Russian, and it might result in more funding for the local Russian-speaking community, as well.
“Just the fact that there were no census forms in Russian was a motivating factor in getting people to want to fill out their census,” said Olga Giller, the coordinator of the S.F.-based JFCS census outreach effort.
“Maybe in 10 years, they’ll print the census in Russian.”
The program was funded by the California Complete Count Campaign, which had received an allocation of $24.7 million from state coffers to give to local organizations for census-outreach projects.
In the last census, California was reportedly undercounted in many minority communities, costing the state federal dollars that should have gone to education, senior care and other areas.
“The [CCCC] was looking at particular populations that might be hard to reach, and we were more than happy to participate in the process,” said Gayle Zahler, the director of emigre services at JFCS.
Working with the emigre community was familiar territory for JFCS, which claims to have resettled about 91 of every 100 immigrants from the former Soviet Union who now reside in the Bay Area.
Emigres “look to JFCS in times like this to give them answers because they trust us,” Giller said.
Zahler estimated that about 90 percent of the Bay Area immigrants from the former Soviet Union are Jewish.
The JFCS census outreach effort, however, was targeted at Jews and non-Jews alike.
Pamphlets, letters and fliers implored people to fill out their forms and explained why it was important. Many of the emigres were familiar with the procedure, having participated in a previous Soviet Union census.
JFCS held talks and workshops in locations where large numbers of emigres are found: language classes, senior centers, certain apartment complexes, and programs at Jewish Vocational Service or the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco.
Many of the emigres live in the Richmond and Sunset districts of San Francisco, although seniors are scattered throughout the city, many in low-income housing complexes.
The outreach targeted seniors because many have trouble with English. Since census forms are not printed in Russian, they needed assistance.
They were, however, able to take a look at a sample form in Russian — as well as one in Yiddish or 60 other languages — at questionnaire assistance centers operated by the Census Bureau in many neighborhoods.
A small number of emigres expressed mild suspicion about the census, or about letting enumerators into their homes, according to Zahler.
“Some of the older people have limited language ability, and coming from a culture where the role of the government has not been a positive one, they were a little concerned about confidentiality,” she said.
“It was nothing major. We just explained what it was all about.”