FORT WORTH COMPLETE COUNT COMMITTEE FOR 2020 CENSUS
Every decade, the U.S. Census Bureau asks residents to complete a questionnaire and provide valuable information that allows us to document our population and households. This information will be used for determining congressional seats, and redistricting and distributing more than $675 billion in federal funds. These funds support state, county and city programs that impact housing, education, transportation, employment, healthcare and other public policy.
At Tuesday’s work session, the Fort Worth City Council received an informal report concerning this topic in the city.
In Fort Worth, the information gathered during the 2020 Census will be used for redistricting and to determine two new City Council districts.
To prepare for this national initiative, the City of Fort Worth has selected community members to serve on the city’s Complete Count Committee (CCC).
The role of the Complete Count Committee is to:
*Influence members of the Fort Worth community to complete the 2020 Census
questionnaire in a timely and accurate manner.
*Utilize the CCC’s knowledge, expertise and influence to increase census awareness in the local community.
*Optimize the outreach to historically under-counted populations.
*Increase cooperation of residents with census workers.
“We’re very much looking forward to a successful effort to get all of our residents to participate,” Assistant City Manager Fernando Costa said, adding that immigrants are often the hardest to reach for projects such as this.
“They need to understand the census is completely confidential. Their information will not be shared with any federal agencies,” Costa said.
The Fort Worth 2020 Census CCC co-chairs, appointed by Mayor Betsy Price, are District 8 Councilwoman Kelly Allen Gray and District 2 Councilman Carlos Flores.
Committee members, selected by Gray and Flores, will work on sub-committees covering six different areas. These include:
*Government – Assists in all activities between the census bureau and the local
government and identifies resources for CCC activities.
*Education – Facilitates census awareness for local schools from pre-kindergarten through 12th grade, as well as post-secondary education institutions in the area.
*Faith-based – Creates and coordinates activities and materials that can be used by any faith-based institution in the promotion of the 2020 Census awareness and participation.
*Media – Creates and facilitates ways to get the census message to all community
residents, utilizing all available sources such as social media, newsletters, fliers, local
festivals, radio, television and newspapers.
*Community-based organizations – Collaborates with community organizations to inform residents of the importance of participating in the 2020 Census.
*Business – Disseminates information about census job openings. Information will include the number of jobs available, types of jobs available and the locations of testing and training sites. Assist with getting local businesses to share census information with
employees.
Sub-committee participation is open to any interested citizen.
The CCC will continue to meet monthly through the April 1 launch date.
“The purpose is to inform residents about the importance of the census, increase confidence, and achieve an accurate count of historically uncounted residents in Fort Worth,” Flores said. “Councilmember Kelly Allen Gray and myself are excited to serve as Co-Chairs of the CCC. “Our community and region benefits the most when the census counts everyone.”