Harris County Housing Authority Census 2010
Client: Harris County Housing Authority (HCHA)
Project: Public Relations | Community Engagement Census 2010 (One World served as the minority partner on this project)
Objective: To increase Census participation and response rate within Harris County's hard-to-reach communities
Strategy: We developed and implemented – in only a matter of months – an extensive engagement campaign to ensure the county’s success. Specifically, the team was responsible for:
- The creation of a strong, but simple campaign message - Power in Numbers - to encourage residents to participate
- The development of the Complete Count Committee comprise of Harris County community and political leaders to distribute the message and encourage support from civic, business and faith-based communities
- The implementation of traditional and non-traditional media strategies
- The execution of door-to-door block walk teams to specific census tracts with lower response rates to encourage participation and explain the benefits
- The engagement of residents throughout the county at large public events (i.e. FM 1960 St. Patrick's Day Parade).
Our success came from the incorporation of an integrated public engagement and marketing strategy. Our diverse team was able to communicate the County's message to mass and targeted hard-to-reach audiences while building community-wide acceptance and participation.
Result: Final Census counts were tallied and national findings were presented to President Obama in December. According to official data from the U.S. Census Bureau, Harris County recorded 71 percent and previous Census participation at 69% Media results from February 2009 through June 2009 yielded coverage in more than 30 outlets, spanning print, TV, radio and online channels.