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NATIONAL —The Black Futures Lab is engaging Black communities in New York to participate in its Black Census Project as part of its efforts to collect 200,000 responses from across all 50 states and identify the issues, needs, and ideas that must be addressed for Black communities to thrive.
“If you want to take a pulse on what is happening with the country at large, listen and be responsive to Black communities,” said Alicia Garza, principal and founder of Black Futures Lab. “As we head into 2024, it is critical that we engage Black communities early and often. Every day, policy is being made about us, without us. This survey will help change that.”
The Black Census is a survey-style questionnaire that can be quickly and easily completed online at blackcensus.org. Through October, Black Futures Lab is conducting outreach by phone and text, placing digital ads on social media, and doorknocking in communities across the nation.
Results from the Black Census will inform the Black agenda 2024, a legislative roadmap for how to make Black lives matter in public policy. The data from the Black Census will be used to influence and impact all institutions and decision-makers who are or should be engaging Black people. The data will also inform the priority issues highlighted by candidates and their campaigns in the upcoming 2024 general elections.
“We are our best messengers on what we want, experience, and need,” said Garza. “The Black Census is historic and important—join us and participate so that your voice can be heard, your experience seen, and your needs counted.”
The Black Census Project, first launched in 2018 and then again in 2022, has engaged communities that are typically under-represented in traditional surveys and policy making. In 2022 and 2023, Black Futures Lab has collaborated with more than 40 Black-led grassroots organizations, over a dozen national media partners and Black influencers to survey LGB+ communities, trans communities, incarcerated Black people, Black immigrant communities, and Black people in rural areas.
Over 30,000 Black people from across the country participated in the first Black Census Project in 2018. The Black Futures Lab used the results to identify pressing legislative and policy priorities, turning the survey into a national, state, and municipal policy platform to guide 2020 Presidential candidates as they devised strategies to earn the support of Black voters.
Personally identifiable information will not be collected, and all participants can opt into becoming a part of the Black Futures Lab supporter community. Some participants who complete the survey will be eligible to receive a $20 gift card.
About the Black Futures Lab
The Black Futures Lab works to make Black communities powerful in politics, so that we can be powerful in the rest of our lives. The challenges facing Black communities are complex — and the solutions require innovation, experimentation, and Black political power. We build the capacity of our communities to govern, we include Black people in the decisions that impact our lives, and we combine technology and traditional organizing methods to reach Black people anywhere and everywhere we are, ensuring that none of us get left out or left behind. For more information: www.blackfutureslab.org
