PartnershipResearchSupporting Statement Part B-2011-03-18

SUPPORTING STATEMENT

U.S. Department of Commerce

U.S. Census Bureau

Census Partnership Program Focus Groups and Interviews

OMB Control Number 0607-XXXX

Part B – COLLECTIONS OF INFORMATION EMPLOYING STATISTICAL METHODS

1. Universe and Respondent Selection

Of the approximately 250,000 partners who participated in various degrees in the Partnership Program for the 2010 Census, only 808 partners are considered "National" in scope and reach. Certain minority and racial/ethnic groups are associated historically with lower than average census participation rates; thus, those National partners that focused on these historically "Hard-To-Count" groups are the main target of the data collection efforts. The numbers of such National level partners targeting specific minority and racial/ethnic groups are listed in the table below:

Targeted Businesses and Not-for-Profit Groups with Various Special Populations Served	Number of Businesses	Number of Not-For-Profits	Totals
African American	3	29	32
Asian and Native Hawaii and Other Pacific Islander	4	33	37
Hispanic	5	34	39
Afri-Caribbean	1	3	4
American Indians or Alaska Native	0	3	3
Other Than Race/Ethnicity	230	116	346
Total	243	218	461

Other than race and ethnicity, there were a variety of other special populations that national partners regarded as their special populations served, including faith-based communities, gay and lesbian individuals, homeless service providers/advocates, immigrants, migrant seasonal farm workers, older/seniors, rural communities, small business owners, small local governments, university and college students, veteran communities, and women’s organizations. The follow table lists the national partners in the table above whose target populations included foreign-born/immigrants:

Targeted Businesses and Not-for-Profit Groups with Immigrants as a Special Population Served	Number of Businesses	Number of Not-For-Profits	Total
Foreign-born/Immigrant	5	24	29

The "Foreign-born/Immigrant" targeted businesses are included in the In addition to these National Partners, the remaining ones can be categorized as depicted in the table below:

Categories of National Partners	Number
Uncooperative Prospect National Partners
Business	6
Not for Profit	1
Other	4
Subtotal	11
Miscellaneous
Faith-based	46
Labor Unions	28
Trade/professional Association	23
Other	239
Subtotal	336
Total	347

An examination of the Integrated Partner Contact Database (IPCD), containing information on all partners in the program, shows that National partners are concentrated in just a handful of large cities, including Washington, DC, New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Atlanta. In constructing the focus groups, we will ensure that no competing business organizations are in the same group. Focus groups will be constructed to obtain participants from all of these subgroups at several different cities around the country.

In addition to the focus groups, interviews will be conducted with individuals representing National partners who either cannot attend the sessions based on scheduling, travel, or other issues; who are located in locations other than the five cities where focus groups will be held; or represent uncooperative businesses. The availability of individual interviews for respondents who cannot attend a focus group will strengthen our ability to reach out to all of the racial/ethnic partner groups of interest.

The collection has not been conducted previously.

2. Procedures for Collecting Information

This will be a one-time collection of data. The methodology for selecting participants is discussed above in the response to Question 1, under the "Partnership Research" section. Because this is a qualitative data collection and statistical analysis will not be performed on the data, we cannot specify a degree of accuracy needed for the purpose described in this application.

3. Methods to Maximize Response

We will invite 18 individuals to participate in each of the focus groups. Based on our use of Census-supported invitations and follow-up communications with targeted individuals within the organizations, we believe we will obtain over a 80% response rate yielding approximately 15 participants for each focus group. For the 30 individual interviews, we will identify 50 respondents who represent Partners who are not located in the focus group cities or who represent noncooperative organizations or who were unable to attend the focus groups. We will engage in an integrated communication strategy including prenotification letters indicating Census support for the interview and will continue to attempt to contact these respondents to complete the interview. We anticipate that we will be able to obtain 30 completed interviews for a 60% response rate. We understand that this effort will not collect data that can be generalized to the population in a statistical sense. Our report will include a clear advisory that the data represent only the individuals involved in the groups/interviews. The data, however, will be useful to evaluate proposals for the design of future iterations of the program..

4. Tests of Procedures or Methods

The Focus Group protocol and the telephone interview protocol for the Partnership focus groups for this proposed data collection effort were adapted from a focus group protocol pre-tested with the teachers and administrators for the Census in Schools Research project.(See Appendices A through H).

5. Contacts for Statistical Aspects and Data Collection

Dr. Zhiwei Zhang was in charge of the statistical design and the site and participant selections. Dr. Zhang’s contact information is:

Zhiwei Zhang, Ph.D.

Fellow and Chief Managerial Statistician

ICF International

9300 Lee Highway

Fairfax, VA 22031-1207

(Office) 703-934-3638

zzhang@icfi.com

Focus Group and Interview data collection will be supervised by:

Diane Boyd, PhD

Project Manager, Survey and Evaluation Research

ICF International

9300 Lee Highway

Fairfax VA 22031-1207

(Office) 703-934-3721

dboyd@icfi.com

Agency Contact:

Michelle Green

U.S. Census Bureau

4600 Suitland Road

Suitland, MD 20746

(Office) 301-763-6541

Michelle.c.green@census.gov