Re: Kings County Census Committee Volunteer Opportunity
Dear Community Partner, The U.S. Constitution mandates a headcount every 10 years of everyone residing in the 50 states, Puerto Rico, and the Island Areas of the United States. This includes people of all ages, races, ethnic groups, citizens, and noncitizens. The first census was conducted in 1790 and one has been conducted every 10 years since then. The population totals affect funding in our community, and data collected in the census helps our decision makers know how our community is changing. Approximately $675 billion in federal funding is distributed to communities each year.
Everyone counts and directly relates to Federal Funding and representation we receive. For every Californian missed during the Census 2020 count, the State is estimated to loose $1,950 per person, per year, for 10 years, in federal program funding.
HOW CAN YOU HELP? We need volunteers for our Steering Committee and would like you to consider joining our Kings County Complete Count Steering Committee for the 2020 Census. The Complete Count Steering Committee is a volunteer committee established by Kings County to increase awareness and motivate residents to respond to the 2020 Census. This committee serves as a “census ambassador” group that plays an integral role in assisting the County in making the best effort possible to ensure a complete and accurate count of the community in the 2020 Census. Success of the census depends on community involvement at every level, and Kings County and the U.S. Census Bureau cannot carry this 2020 Census effort out without key stakeholders such as yourself.
Please join us to participate in a planning meeting on Thursday, May 23, 2019 from 10:00am-12:00p at the Kings County Board of Supervisors Chambers, 1400 W. Lacey Blvd. Hanford, CA. The meeting builds on the progress that was initiated at a February 14th meeting where a core group of leaders representing the cities and County including the County Administration, County Job Training Office, and the County Community Development Agency, have committed to develop a local shared vision and strategy to achieve the goal of “counting everyone once, only once and in the right place.” Together, with your participation, we will dive deeper and further to explore the opportunities and challenges to ensure all of Kings County is counted.
As you may know, there are unprecedented challenges facing the U.S. Census Bureau as it prepares to undertake the 2020 Census that potentially could negatively impact many of our hard-to-count populations in our county. They include: • Homelessness Population
- • Young Children Ages 0-5
- • Elderly
- • Veterans
- • Individuals facing language barriers
- • Individuals with limited or no internet access
Local groups and organizations like yours are highly important and trusted messengers in our community, and your participation would greatly enhance communication and outreach especially to hard-to-count (HTC) communities as we encourage participation in the 2020 Census. We look forward to hearing from you and hope that you will accept our invitation to participate in Kings County’s Complete Count Steering Committee.
We will have a representative from the US Census Bureau at this meeting who help the Kings County Complete Count Steering Committee by providing an overview of Census efforts to come, and some training to those who wish to participate on the Committee. Please RSVP at this link for the meeting by May 20th, 2019.
If you have any questions or concerns, please reach out to me at (559-852-2377) or at (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.). We look forward to you joining us!
Warmly, Kyria Martinez, County Administrative Office
