Interior and Census Partner for Census 2020 Outreach to Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Communities

WASHINGTON - U.S. Department of the Interior Assistant Secretary, Insular and International Affairs, Douglas W. Domenech is pleased to announce an important partnership with the U.S. Census Bureau, and together have planned a series of webinars for the public in an effort to spread the word about the upcoming United States decennial census that begins on April 1, 2020.

“Accurate data regarding Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander communities and all communities in the United States is critical to shaping our collective future,” said Assistant Secretary Domenech. “We are specifically focused on Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander communities with whom our offices work on a regular basis and will host a webinar that focuses specifically on efforts to count Americans in the U.S. territories of American Samoa, Guam, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands and the U.S. Virgin Islands.”

The U.S. Department of the Interior’s (DOI) Office of Insular Affairs (OIA) and the Office of Native Hawaiian Relations (ONHR) are partnering to support and echo Census efforts to ensure that everyone is counted in 2020, and to allow for better targeting of DOI resources in serving the Native Hawaiian community, U.S. citizens from the U.S. territories, and individuals from the freely associated states who reside in the United States as provided for under the Compacts of Free Association.

The schedule of upcoming webinar sessions follows below. Join discussions via webex: https://departmentoftheinteriorinsularaffairs.my.webex.com/meet/tanya_joshua. Use meeting number: 795 329 131.

1. PARTNERING WITH CENSUS – Tuesday, January 28, 3 p.m. Eastern Time (ET)

Anna Owens, Deputy Chief, National Partnership Program, U.S. Census Bureau
Kawe Saafi, Portfolio Manager, Native Hawaiian Pacific Islander (NHPI) Portfolio, National Partnership Program, U.S. Census Bureau

2. COMMUNICATIONS OUTREACH TO NATIVE HAWAIIAN AND PACIFIC ISLANDER COMMUNITIES – Thursday, January 30, 4 p.m. ET

John K.S. Aeto, President, The Kālaimoku Group

3. PRIVACY AND THE CENSUS – Thursday, February 6, 4 p.m. ET

Michael Hawes, Senior Advisor for Data Access and Privacy, U.S. Census Bureau

4. OVERVIEW OF THE 2020 CENSUS QUESTIONS ON RACE AND ETHNICITY AND PLANNED DATA PRODUCTS – Thursday, February 13, 3 p.m. ET

Rachel Marks, Senior Technical Expert on Population Statistics, Population Division, U.S. Census Bureau
Paul Jacobs, Survey Statistician, Racial Statistics Branch, Population Division, U.S. Census Bureau

5. THE CENSUS IN THE TERRITORIES – Thursday, February 20, 5 p.m. ET

Jennifer Kim, Ph.D., Assistant Division Chief, Content, Translation, Puerto Rico and Island Areas Operations, Decennial Census Management Division, U.S. Census Bureau

6. THE CENSUS AND THE MILITARY – Thursday, March 5, 3 p.m. ET

Presenter: TBD

The full webinar schedule with detail and how to participate may be found on the OIA website.

For more about the 2020 Census, visit https://www.2020census.gov/.

For more about the Office of Native Hawaiian Relations, visit https://www.doi.gov/hawaiian.

For more about the Office of Insular Affairs, visit www.doi.gov/oia or follow @ASIIADomenech on Twitter.

The Assistant Secretary, Insular and International Affairs, and the Office of Insular Affairs carry out the Secretary of the Interior’s responsibilities for the U.S. territories of American Samoa, Guam, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Additionally, OIA administers and oversees federal assistance under the Compacts of Free Association to the Federated States of Micronesia, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, and the Republic of Palau.

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