they will emphasize that every answer provided to the census is confidential and they wont ask about immigration status more that has not always been something that were all proud of he said the 2020 census began tuesday in rural areas of the state and the alaska census working group a coalition of nonprofits government agencies and businesses said they will be hitting the ground running promoting the count and answering any questions alaskans may have about the questionnaire listen for free every weekday on apple podcasts google podcasts spotify the abc news app or wherever you get your podcasts start here offers a straightforward look at the days top stories in 20 minutes alaska in january is cold and icy and its population is spread out over 665000 square miles but thats not going to stop a group of advocates from ensuring every resident living in the state is accounted for gabriel layman the chairman of the group told abc news start here podcast it was critical that they get an accurate count of the state which is set to collect 32 million annually in federal funding based on the census data youre talking about peoples that have a very long history of engagement with the tribal government trump announces end of fight to add citizenship question to census he noted that he and his team will be frank and informative with residents about the 10question form this report was featured in the tuesday jan 21 2020 episode of start here abc news daily news podcast the first americans to be counted in the 2020 census s show more gregory bullap in alaska its often much easier to get around by snow machine when the ground is frozen than to try to navigate that environment which tends to be very wet very soft when the ground is not frozen layman said layman acknowledged that some alaskans particularly the indigenous community have had a strong distrust in the government and his groups challenge is to help them understand the census will help them in the long run theres a really good vibe on the ground he said although the census rolls out for the rest of the nation in march the count has traditionally begun in rural alaska months earlier because residents in those areas tend to leave in the spring for fishing and hunting grounds overall layman said he is confident this years census participation will be high and their efforts will encourage more alaskans to help get the word out layman said the frozen january ground surprisingly gives census outreach teams easier terrain to traverse a family prepares to leave after services at the st peter fisherman church jan 19 2020 in toksook bay alaska more what you need to know before 2020 census starts in alaska that money is used for everything from maintaining our airports in remote communities to ensuring that children have school new nutrition programs so that that allocation he said