Supporting the 2021 Census in Slovakia and Poland

The Carpatho-Rusyn Consortium of North America is a voluntary coalition of the North American Carpatho-Rusyn cultural organizations. Among other goals, the Consortium organizes and supports efforts surrounding Carpatho-Rusyns during the Census in the United States. This year, the Consortium asks for your support as countries in the Carpatho-Rusyn homeland – especially Slovakia and Poland – hold their censuses this year. Our Carpatho-Rusyn community is most vibrant when our community is strong and supported in the homeland, and increased numbers of Rusyns in the censuses in Slovakia and Poland this year will increase the visibility of Carpatho-Rusyns in those countries, helping organizers measure impact and gain critical support for programming to support continued language and cultural revival.

We hope you’ll use this as an opportunity to connect with your friends and relatives both in the Carpatho-Rusyn homeland, and here in North America. Share with your personal networks why it’s important to you to be part of the global Carpatho-Rusyn community.

We’ve created some tools to help you start the conversation:

• a letter in English, Slovak, and Rusyn and a letter in English, Polish, and Lemko that you can mail or email to your friends and relatives in those countries, encouraging them to claim their Rusyn nationality and mother tongue or Lemko nationality and mother tongue on this year’s census;
• this video, explaining why the census is important for the Carpatho-Rusyn community all over the world;
• images optimized for all the major social media platforms (Slovakia: Facebook, Instagram Feed, Instagram Stories, Twitter & Poland: Facebook, Instagram Feed, Instagram Stories, Twitter or download them all at once).

All of these can be sent as they are, or you can make them your own! We also encourage you to follow and share social media supporting the census in Slovakia (web, Facebook, #smerusyny) and Poland (web, Facebook, Instagram). Share with #rusyncensus to make it easier for everyone to find!

In every census since 1989, the number of Rusyns in Slovakia has grown, as has the number of Lemkos in Poland. This is our chance this decade to help grow those numbers even more.