Early in 2021, the Ventura County Community Foundation connected with Kathleen Kelly Janus, Senior Advisor on Social Innovation to Governor Gavin Newsom, about the State of California’s plan to reactivate 2020 Census Complete Count Committees (CCC) to support outreach and education to hard-to-count communities on the importance of being vaccinated and to combat misinformation.  

To that end, just two weeks later, we held our first meeting with this dedicated group of trusted messengers. 78 organizations were in attendance in both Spanish and English.  And just recently we convened a second meeting to continue to move outreach strategies forward. Our Complete Count Committee members made it clear how urgent these efforts are needed in Ventura County and will be able to replicate the success of their Census outreach efforts.