SF Urban Film Fest and YBCA present Count Us In: Showing Up For the Census Right Now, a virtual conversation about the importance of the Census for San Francisco and the Bay Area. Despite the contentious history of the Census, it remains a critical tool for local and national change. The conversation will unpack how Census participation connects to the urgent matters at hand: the senseless violence and oppression of the Black community and the necessary dismantling of a police force that perpetuates the inequities of our nation. The conversation will also center the power of the Census in supporting political representation, public resource allocation, identifying and counting communities, and how the Census addresses police brutality.
Panelists include community leader Del Seymour, founder of Code Tenderloin, a barrier removal and workforce development non-profit that aims to remove barriers for economic well-being obstructing underserved communities in San Francisco; Tyra Fennell, the CEO of Imprint City, an organization activating underutilized areas within neighborhoods through arts projects that encourage increased foot traffic in support of local merchants; and Robert Clinton, city wide Census project manager for the San Francisco Office of Civic Engagement & Immigrant Affairs (OCEIA). The panel will be introduced by YBCA CEO Deborah Cullinan and moderated by Professor of Philosophy at the University of San Francisco and SF Urban Film Fest Humanities Advisor, Ron Sundstrom.
Count Us In: Showing Up For the Census Right Now is part of YBCA’s Come to Your Census: Who Counts in America? digital art and civic experience. This collaboration with Art+Action is part of the COME TO YOUR CENSUS campaign—powered by San Francisco’s Office of Civic Engagement and Immigrant Affairs (OCEIA)—which hopes to mobilize the public to take the 2020 U.S. Census to be counted to receive their fair share of funding and political representation for the next decade.