We Cover Ground, One Door at a Time

In 2020, Valley Forward conducted education and outreach services for the decennial Census Cout. We recruited and trained 25 bilingual college students to inform our most rural communities about the Census. The Student Interns helped fill out their household census application to bring needed resources to their neighborhoods. Valley Forward was the first Central San Joaquin Valley organization to resume in-person outreach after the COVID-19 Pandemic started. Our Student Interns braved the pandemic and extreme wildfire air quality. We adapted, strategized, and persevered to ensure our most vulnerable communities were counted on the Census to receive their share of resources for years to come.

• 25 Students

• 4 Months

• 100,000 doors knocked

• 65,000 individual text messages sent

• 980 census applications completed

• ~$55M in resources secured for the neighborhoods where we completed the census applications

In winter of 2020, Valley Forward partnered with the Central Valley Partnership and Alianza Ecologista, two environmental justice non-profit organizations, for our Public Lands Advocacy research. Our team of five Student Interns collected surveys to understand the relationship between San Joaquin Communities and Public Lands and how to strengthen advocacy efforts to protect those lands. The target communities were low-income residents and college students. The outcome presented that transportation and costs were the main barriers to accessing public lands such as lakes, rivers, parks, and forests.

• 5 Students

• One month

• 520 conversations

In Fall 2019, Valley Forward significantly advocated for the Schools and Communities First ballot initiative for the 2020 elections. Our precursor role involved collecting signatures from registered voters to help this initiative qualify for the 2020 election. We also conducted education and outreach about this to our communities to raise awareness of the importance of this initiative because of the resources it would bring to our education system and K-14 students. We recruited a team of 10 bilingual student interns to collect the signatures.

• 10 Students

• 3 Months

• 2,700 signature collected