A coalition of more than a hundred advocacy and business groups along with government officials are calling Monday, April 1st the Census 2020 Day Of Action.

The goal is to improve participation in next year’s US Census, but the efforts are already underway.

“Good morning” Narbada Chhetri said, greeting commuters at the Jackson Heights MTA hub.

Chhetri advocates for the Nepali community in Queens.

She’s working with community groups at 74th Street and Roosevelt Avenue and passed out flyers, stressing the importance of the next U.S. Census.

“Nepali interpreter,” Chhetri said, “we want in the hospital in-person, not only the on-line.”

She says if the 2020 count is close to accurate in determining the number of people who speak Nepali, the government will hire more interpreters, which for her friends and family, might mean the difference between life or death.

“She was suffering from one critical disease,” Chhetri told NY1 about a colleague, “and she was not able to explain how she is suffering and she asked for an interpreter and there was no interpreter.”

The population count is used to determine federal aid. President Trump wants to add a question about citizenship, but so far courts have struck that down.

“It is going to the supreme court on April 23rd,” Make The Road New York Deputy Directly Theo Oshiro said. “But the fear is already out there, right a lot of the damage has already been done because they’re worried about this potential citizenship question.”

The advocacy group Make The Road New York worries undocumented immigrants will be even more leery of taking part in the census resulting in an undercount and less federal dollars than the city and state are entitled to.

“This is the most important Census in our lifetime,” explained Real Estate Board of New York Senior Vice President of Government Affairs Reggie Thomas.

The Real Estate Board of New York which represents building owners, joined with eight other organizations requesting $40 million in this year’s budget for Community Based Organizations to assist with Census outreach.

“40 million dollars isn’t anywhere near enough given the stakes that are at hand, we're talking about billions, potentially tens of billions of dollars that are at stake if we don’t have a full and accurate census,” said Thomas.

“There really is a palpable fear,” said Oshiro.

Make The Road New York would likely be one of those funded organizations to try to convince people to be counted.“Many of our folks wonder what will happen with their information once they fill it out and send it off,” said Oshiro.

With or without that extra state money Chhetri is determined to do what she can.

“We are the marginalized the community,” she said “We are invisible and this 2020 we are going to get accurate count.”

The Governor’s Office tells Spectrum News, NY1, it strongly supports ensuring a complete count for New York State and the funding to support this effort is part of budget negotiations.