Pan American Concerned Citizens Action League, Inc. (PACCAL) through a grant from the Asian American Federation has launched a massive campaign for Filipinos to  mail back their Census 2010  Survey forms.  PACCAL outreach workers and volunteers wearing uniform Census 2010  T-Shirts  and equipped with Census flyers, posters and giveaways are pounding Jersey City streets to increase the return of the Census survey forms by Filipinos in Jersey City.

In the last Census ten years ago, the Filipinos in Jersey City were so undercounted.  One proof was that the Greenville section showed more Filipinos residing there when Westside Avenue actually has triple the Filipino population in Jersey City.  Last April 10, during the March to the Mailbox campaign, PACCAL members, volunteers and a group of youth marched on the streets of Montgomery St. and  on Westside Avenue going door to door in the heavily populated Filipino areas.  On March 27^th, PACCAL already had a blitz on Newark Avenue’s Filipino business district.

Virgie Alvarez, observed during her outreach:  “It takes me awhile to convince  some of our kababayans to fill out the forms.  Sometimes it is because they are afraid it might harm them or sometimes, they are just too busy and don’t care. “

Linda Mayo, PACCAL Executive Director said: “Census participation by Filipinos is really so important if we want to have a voice in the government.  The benefits of being counted is so vital for our community because it determines the distribution of federal funds and resources which affect each one of us in our community.  If we have the numbers, we can have a voice in the government. “

Betty Buenviaje, and Rose Javier, PACCAL President and Vice President respectively joined the campaign in talking and convincing every Filipinos they meet on the streets to return back their forms.  There’s still time to mail it back, they both said. Although the April 19 Census deadline is passed, it only means that Census enumerators will be knocking on doors of those who did not return back their Census survey forms.

Starting May 1^st, Census enumerators will visit residences who have not returned their Census forms.  Some residences that will be visited by enumerators may have already returned their forms.  However, either the forms are still being processed or still on the way. Whatever the case, if the enumerators knock on your doors, please be cooperative or else they will keep on coming back to your address. It is alright to have duplicate information sent than nothing at all.

PACCAL’s  message to the Filipino community: Mail it back! Mail it back! Mail it back!