San Antonio/Bexar County CCC

The CCC was established by a partnership between the City of San Antonio and Bexar County. The Mayor of San Antonio gathered 20 community stakeholders to begin strategizing what would become the Count Me In! 2020 Census campaign.

The CCC was funded by the City, County, San Antonio Area Foundation, Hogg Foundation, and Texas Counts Pooled Fund. The sub-committee structure worked well for the CCC, representing business, education, media, and more.

During the peak of the pandemic, the CCC developed creative strategies to engage with HTC communities, such as running Census bilingual ads at gas station pumps, purchasing receipt space at Family Dollar and Dollar General, leaving Census door hangers at households, and organizing a myth-busting campaign on local radio to dispel fears over the citizenship question. These strategies effectively engaged with the area’s HTC communities, including Hispanic communities, documented and undocumented immigrants, and residents with low income.

The CCC also provided mini-grants to community organizations, such as the San Antonio Food Bank, actively doing work in HTC communities. Local colleges were also highly engaged with the CCC, and St. Philip’s College and the University of Texas – San Antonio were represented in the CCC’s steering committee.

The CCC is proud of their strong presence in the media, earning more than 150 articles and interviews, as well as radio ads, social media, and a user-friendly website with free downloadable resources in English and Spanish. The CCC notes that Census Champions from across the U.S. utilized resources from the Count Me In! website and replicated its user-friendly format for their own Census campaigns.

A major strategy to help promote Census self-response was the Suburban City Coalition, a group of 26 suburban cities overseen by Bexar County. Each city conducted Census outreach including banners in the community, distributing Census fridge magnets, placing Census decals on public works and law enforcement vehicles, and planning socially distanced events.

San Antonio is also known as “Military City, USA” since there are five active military installations in the area. Soldiers, their families, and other military personnel were targeted as HTC populations due to the transient nature of the residents in the area. Special outreach events were planned by the CCC’s Government, Military & Veterans sub-committee.