Work: Currently a Design Manager at Meta.

Education: Currently a Ph.D. student in Design at Carnegie Mellon University. I earned a Master's in Strategic Design & Management from Parsons School of Design. I also earned a BS in Entrepreneurship and a BA in International Studies from the University of Utah.

Next Case

Census

The Challenge

How do you go beyond political misinformation and distrusting the government when it comes to driving participation in the 2020 US Census?

The Insight

Six out of every 10 children of color are not counted for in the census. New York City lost $1.8 billion due to a significant undercount in 2010.

The Solution

The transdisciplinary process birthed the "Census Benefit Calculator": a personalized web app that helps immigrant parents gain insights and access to federal funding.

Date

August - December 2019

Role : Design Lead

  • Design Ethnography
  • Design For Emotions
  • Visual Design
  • Prototyping
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The US Census
The decennial census is the most inclusive civic activity in our country, covering every person in every household. The U.S. Constitution ( Article 1, Section 2 ) requires an accurate count of the nation's population every ten years. Moreover, the census is integral to our democracy. The data collected every 10 years affect our nation’s ability to ensure equal representation and equal access to important governmental and private sector resources for all Americans, including across racial and ethnic lines. Census results are used to: allocate seats and draw district lines for the U.S. House of Representatives, state legislatures, and local boards; target more than $800 billion annually in federal assistance to states, localities, and families; and guide community decision-making affecting schools, housing, health care services.
Background
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The 2010 Census
The 2010 Census reported 308,745,538 people in the United States. The most populous city in the United States at that time was New York City, habited by 8,175,133 people. The people that participated the most in the 2010 census were 30-year-olds, both male and female.
History Of The Census
Thomas Jefferson led the first census in 1790. It had six questions: the name of the head of the family and the number of persons in each household sorted into five categories. The 1790 census documented 33,131 people in the Big Apple, which put it just ahead of Philadelphia as the most populous US city.

My first step is to understand the arena. Understanding the scale and importance of changing scale with people I am working with from zooming in to individual experiences ( down in the details) or zooming out ( as if I’m up 30,000 feet) to observe system issues in order to identify patterns and leverage points for intervention.

Ethnographic Research

Mary Sesay-a Queens Resident

Community Research

African Organizations in New York (AO from Bronx & Queens)

Advanced Group Research

Census Workshops, Census Summit, ABNY, Queens Library, Rubinstein Census Bureau color of change

Objective
To identify the challenges and pain points of immigrant commuties in NYC
To assess attitudes & identify potential motivations to participate in the 2020 Census.
To identify incentives among immigrant parents that might overcome to barriers to participate in the 2020 census.
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Objective
To identify the challenges and pain points of immigrant commuties in NYC
To assess attitudes & identify potential motivations to participate in the 2020 Census.
To identify incentives among immigrant parents that might overcome to barriers to participate in the 2020 census.
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Phase 1: Journalistic Research)
Research Topic: Hard To Count Population
Hard to count populations are among the most vulnerable in the city: immigrants with limited English, people of color, the undocumented, lower-income, and young children.
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In-Person Field Interviews
I visited Washington Square Park to engage people for field research. Before going I used research readings to formulate questions to help guide my interviews:
What do you know about the census?
Have you ever participated in the US census?
Did you fill it out on paper or online?
How do you feel about the census being all-digital? Did you know about it?
If you were to fill the census questions, do you prefer mail-in or digital? How many people do you think don’t have access or choose not to use the internet in America?
Do you know of anyone who refuses to use the internet for personal reasons?
What sorts of people will you like to hear from to improve your interest around the census? --Elected members or family?
Online Interviews: Instagram Live
Given the nature of social media influence on our daily lives and my follower count, I decided to host a forum regarding the census. I talked to my followers through live chat and a survey through Instagram stories.
In this online research, I had no specific questions in mind and instead wanted to create a discursive environment where people could participate, validate some assumptions, and unveil new issues.
Key findings about the Census:
  • Many people assume only citizens take the census.
  • People think they will be fine with the digital census, but their parents or grandparents will have trouble
  • Some parents prefer not to mention details of their kids to the government
  • Digital divide (digital vs mail-in arguments): Minorities and rural whites will be affected by the digital divide.
  • Illegal immigrants are afraid to participate because they fear the government will know who they are and where they are.
  • The digital census could help immigrants who speak different languages if the questions are translated
Census Workshops
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The workshop was performed in the Queens library so field workers could discuss potential problems preventing people from participating. The library has become a safe space as people with no access to computers or the internet can take the census there both digitally or manually by filling out the form. In the workshop, we identified some potential fears our community members have and accessibility issues if they take it online.
We talked about some potential risks or harms that could occur from people completing this census in a public space like the library. What support does our institution already have in place to create a safe environment for its constituents and what is their capacity to implement those?
Hearing from Census Workers
Many workers highlighted the fact that accessibility will be a big concern for people who are computer illiterate or may not be proficient in English. These potential risks guided our discussions as with questions like: How can we bridge gaps of the digital divide and what role can the library play in that for the communities? What kind of cybersecurity practices can be guaranteed with the digital census?
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Hearing from Census Workers
Many workers highlighted the fact that accessibility will be a big concern for people who are computer illiterate or may not be proficient in English. These potential risks guided our discussions as with questions like: How can we bridge gaps of the digital divide and what role can the library play in that for the communities? What kind of cybersecurity practices can be guaranteed with the digital census?
We had other stories from library workers about the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raiding libraries for illegal immigrants and how that could deter immigrants from taking the census in the library. We discussed safety precautions; namely how library staff members are not obligated to answer any of the questions asked by ICE if it involves pointing out illegal immigrants.
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We had other stories from library workers about the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raiding libraries for illegal immigrants and how that could deter immigrants from taking the census in the library. We discussed safety precautions; namely how library staff members are not obligated to answer any of the questions asked by ICE if it involves pointing out illegal immigrants.
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Hearing from Census Workers
Many workers highlighted the fact that accessibility will be a big concern for people who are computer illiterate or may not be proficient in English. These potential risks guided our discussions as with questions like: How can we bridge gaps of the digital divide and what role can the library play in that for the communities? What kind of cybersecurity practices can be guaranteed with the digital census?
We had other stories from library workers about the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raiding libraries for illegal immigrants and how that could deter immigrants from taking the census in the library. We discussed safety precautions; namely how library staff members are not obligated to answer any of the questions asked by ICE if it involves pointing out illegal immigrants.
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Outreach Interviews
Nation
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Dr. Ron Jarmin Deputy Director , Census Bureau

Incentivizing behavior change, Looking out for foreign interference in the census.
“Being specific about the impact that the Census has on ensuring that communities get their fair share, both in federal dollars and for specific programs, serves as a very compelling reason to participate in the Census.”

State
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Jennifer Edwards Senior Director of Digital Engagement and Democracy, Color of change

People of color are the least to recognize the importance: they are becoming hard to count. Communities want to see people who are like them as trusted messengers. Lower-income minorities are more at risk.

City
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Kelvin Pollard NGO's / CBO's University

Focus on the bottom-up volunteer-driven network to drive awareness. Counting the homeless in an ad hoc manner. Bouncing back post citizenship effect.

Phase 2: Challenge Mapping

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The Focus: New York City Hard To Count

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  • New Yorkers lost two congressional seats in the 2010 census. Projected to lose another two congressional seats if not everyone is counted in the 2020 Census.
  • For every resident who fails to respond to the census, New York City loses $3,000 in federal aid per year.
  • New York City lost $1.8 billion in federal grants from the last census due to undercount.
Workshops
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ABNY

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Queens Library

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Black women and 2020 census

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New York City workshop Insights

Hard-to-count populations are among the most vulnerable in the city: immigrants with limited English, people of color, the undocumented, lower-income, and young children.

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From gaining more insights we then identified many hard to count populations. We soon realized the intersectionality in identities of people that are among the hard-to-count populations. To narrow our research we needed to identify who to focus on. We decided to identify the most vulnerable that is within reach in the short time we have to finish the project

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Why the focus on children?

  • More than half a million kids in NY state at risk of being undercounted
  • Nearly 160$ in fed spending for children programs based on the decennial census.
  • 73% of children living in hard-to-count census tracts had low census response rates in 2010. Factors like poverty and income levels affect the chance of children being missed.

HMW encourage a sense of responsibility to parents that can lead to young children being counted?

Kids?

Ignored

Undercounted

The child lives in a house that rents or recently moved
Some branding material talk on census do not mention kids
Confusion to count kids? From what age

Funding for snap Nactional lunch Program CHIP
Special educations grants (disabilities and for public ed.)
Head start (grants to NGO-disadvantaged families) Foster Care Chikd care and dev fund
Funding inequity, Future representation

Ignored

Undercounted

The child lives in a household that is large, multigenerational, or includes extended or multiple families

The child lives in a household that is large, multigenerational, or includes extended or multiple families

The child lives in a household that is large, multigenerational, or includes extended or multiple families

The child lives in a household that is large, multigenerational, or includes extended or multiple families

The census form does not mention to include kids (specifically of all ages).
Question framed accounts for confusion-undercount.
Fear among illegally living situations to reveal their living structure

Efforts to spread awareness on community leaders. Complete count committee dependant to raise awareness

Target of systemic operation

The child lives in a lower income household

The child lives in a non-English or limited-English speaking household.

The child lives in a household of recent immigrants or foreign-born adults.

Hide undercount most likely to be: People of color Linguistically isolated households

System built for oppression comtinuing over the period of time.

  • Problem

  • Componenets

  • Effect

  • Key Findings

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Phase 3: Challenge Mapping

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Zooming in: Children of Minorities

The Census overlooks more children of color. Undercount of children from birth to age 10 in the 2010 Census by, race or ethnicity.

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Source: Urban Institute

System Insights through Research

  • Impact
  • Cause
  • Engagement

2020 Census

Participate in the census through parenst/guardians,are dependent But are not informed at school or at home

Are deemed too young to participate, unable to make decisions for oneself

Kids undercounted as predicted by the experts based of 2010 census data

Inequitable distribution of federal funding across NYC

Gap / Opportunity

Unaware of the implications of undercount on their child future
They are not given a chance to participate or have an option

HMW engage the ecosystem around kids to get them involved?

Mid Term

The census is a thing of the past children potentially begin to understand cicic responsibility and citizen only

Census marketing and coberage is almost obsolete and passive, its not on the news+ not as frequent as the elections

Long Term

Are potentially aware of the Census, but still have to participate through their parents/guardians, continue to be dependent.

Legally not allowed to participate, mostly are financually dependent

Federal funding promised distributed inequitably

Precedent Matrix: What are the gaps in existing advocacy groups for Census?

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Zooming in further: Minority children - Children of Immigrant

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Nearly 40% of the 8.6 million people who live in New York City were not born in the United States of America

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Phase 3: Field Interviews & Case Study

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Who

African Organizations in New York (AO from Bronx & Queens

Marie Sessay And Daughter - Aisha
Focus on Marie Sessay Story
Lived in NYC for 4 years
Single mom with two children
Immigrated from Sierra Leone
Works as a manager at a food restaurant and as a nursing assistant
Supports 3 households including her own

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What

Talked with 20 immigrant families from 9 African nations

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Where

Randall Island ParK
Participants homes

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Tool Used

Google survey
Invision
Semi-structured Interviews
co-create workshops

Key Insights During Case Study

Show Relevance of federal funding in their lives

Many people don't know what federal funding is tied to. Share the programs people access every day to show relevance.

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Show Relevance of federal funding in their lives

Many people don't know what federal funding is tied to. Share the programs people access every day to show relevance.

Distrust with the government is rooted in their past

Many come from countries where distrust in government is very standard and are reluctant to give any information to the government.

Wheel of Reasoning (WOR)

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What kinds of behaviors show up within the IC in NYC?
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“I work 2 jobs just to have enough money to be broke”

Marie Sesay

“I do not trust the government. I never have, even in Africa”

Marie Sesay

Understanding Immigrant Archetypes & Civil Engagement
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The Innocent
Familiarity stage
This refers to the security and familiarity of the immigrant’s country of origin. Often, the environment becomes too small and suffocating, pushing immigrants to move away.
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The Orphan
Disorienting stage
At some point in the journey, immigrants are often forced to do things they never imagined doing. They must get along with people and customs that surprise them.
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The Warrior
Energy Stage
After journeying through feelings of helplessness and orphanhood, the warrior archetype gives immigrants the energy to get up after they fall. It encourages them to find the strength that their new context demands and gives them their hope back.
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The magician
Sense-Making
Making sense of the journey of the immigrant: it gives them the wisdom to be grateful for both the good and bad times they went through since it all helped them along the way.
Civil Engagement phase

Reflexive Activities: Turning Insights into Opportunities

Observations

Parents used smartphones at the park

Their children used smartphones

Families were technology savvy

Many families are single parents

Others were married and their partner lives in another country which they came from

Many had multiple jobs

People from my birth country were more open

Many said it's hard to see benefits by participating in the census

Few wanted to fill the census together

Insights

A digital divide is not necessarily correlated to poverty

The financial burden is placed on poorer people here in the states

Open to giving data to a trusted messenger rather than the government

Observations

Design interventions can be digital for a specific target people not for all

Design intervention could focus on the benefits they can get if they participate in the census

Design interventions will focus on advocacy groups or trusted messengers

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Hypothesis

Can the risk of losing federal funds outweigh the risks of distrust towards the government?

Ecosystem Map

Resource Providers

Financial
Census bureau

Human
CSOs, NGOs, NPOs, Volunteers, Libraries

Knowledge
Digital Equity Lab, GAO, Universities, Tech companies, Census XP, city gov.

Networking
PRB

Networking
Census GIS experts, Tech companies, Census bureau

Competitors

Other documents (voter’s id, driver’s license) surveys such as ACL, Group Accommodation survey, etc

Your Big Idea

Census Calculator

Key Partners

NPOS, NGOs, Libraries, Communities, Universities, Parents , Teachers

Wider system influence

Federal Govt, Bipartisan politics, systemic oppression, socio-cultural bias, privilege

Beneficiaries

Online and offline populations, privileged/unprivileged, children, students, etc.

Barriers - opponents

Not knowing your role/not Politics, Misinformation caring

IMPACT

To provide a platform or tools that inform parents about the census benefits, and to help them gain insights and access to federal funding

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A Transactional Exchange
What became evident was parents were more likely to reevaluate their participation in the census when told it will help provide school lunches, educational assistance, health care assistance, transportation, affordable housing, and other necessities immigrant parents and their children will need to get a strong, prosperous, and healthy future.
Census Benefit Calculator
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The Product Goal
Our main goal is to provide an efficient 10-minute conversation to field workers with tools that inform people about the census benefits.
Census Benefit Calculator
The Census Benefit Calculator helps immigrant parents gain insights and access to federal funding for their community to alleviate and address the challenges they face by tying the issues of low wages, expensive rent, healthcare, overcrowded schools, etc. to the issues many immigrants and their children face daily, incentivizing their participation in the census.
How it works
  • Enter your State
  • Enter your zip code
  • Specify a range for your income
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  • Enter the number of children you have and their ages
  • Get matched with federal programs you kid can benefit from based on your income.
  • Then once people are convinced, they can browse through secondary resources on how to apply for these programs and how to participate in the next census
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Enter the number of children you have and their ages.
Get matched with federal programs you kid can benefit from based on your income

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Short Term Scale

Vehicle to target immigrant communities

  • Social Media
  • Advocate Groups
  • Census field workers/enumerators

Target Shareholders

Advocacy Groups & Field Workers

  • People Trust People

Target Beneficiaries

  • HTC Immigrants communities
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Potential Partners

Color of Change
Rubenstein
ABNY
Countallkids.org

Key Activities

Managing platform
Preparing for census participation
Accessing income & standard of living
Countallkids.org

Key Resources

Online platform
Social Media

Key Activities

Raise awareness for
federal funded
community programs

Financial Literacy

Customer Relationships

Digitally savvy parents

Channels

Web app
Social media messaging
Community involvements

Customer Segments

Lower income families
Advocacy groups
Immigrant communities
Single parents
Married parents

Cost Structure

501C3
Staff

Revenue Streams

Donations

Potential Partners

Color of Change
Rubenstein
ABNY
Countallkids.org

Key Activities

Managing platform
Preparing for census participation
Accessing income & standard of living
Countallkids.org

Key Resources

Online platform
Social Media

Key Activities

Raise awareness for
federal funded
community programs

Financial Literacy

Customer Relationships

Digitally savvy parents

Channels

Web app
Social media messaging
Community involvements

Customer Segments

Lower income families
Advocacy groups
Immigrant communities
Single parents
Married parents

Cost Structure

501C3
Staff

Revenue Streams

Donations