By Bonnie DeShong
Every 10 years the U.S. Census is taken. This has been a law since 1790 when The U.S. Constitution gave Congress the directive to count every person living in the newly created United States of America, and to use that count to determine representation in the Congress.
Skip ahead many years to 2020 and, with the lack of civics classes, quite a few people do not understand the need for, or the reason behind, completing the Census questionnaire. Because of the low turnout in 2010, many Black, brown, and immigrant communities were not counted and received less money that would have been put into schools, hospitals, community infrastructure, programs and political representation just to name a few things.
To increase awareness and the 2020 count, the government allocated dollars to non-profit partners to go into the community and educate the residents to give them the understanding how completing the census would benefit them.
These non-profit agencies were doing great jobs connecting to the residents of the community by having rallies, going into senior homes, distributing flyers, hosting townhall meetings, meeting at colleges, and giving instruction on filling out the forms online, until the COVID-19 pandemic hit. With the stay-at-home order and not being able to communicate with one another, things came to a halt while agencies tried to come up with another virtual way to get the message out. There are virtual townhall meetings, social media campaigns and newsletters being emailed. However, the momentum slowed significantly. So many people do not have access to social media or the virtual world.
We are now in the fourth month of COVID-19 and as things are opening up a little the agencies are slowly getting back into the streets.
I am proud to say that I am a part of two agencies that are in partnerships that are working hard to enlighten our communities to be counted. South Central Community Services, Inc., is part of the Black Community Provider Network. SCCA services the Chatham, Avalon, and part of the South Shore areas. PLCCA, Inc., is partners with the Counting on Chicago Coalition and services Maywood and the western suburbs.
We are masking and gloving up and joining the peace marches, distributing food and masks, putting fliers in doors to make sure that our undercounted communities are aware of what completing the Census really means to them.
COVID-19 almost killed the mission, but it did not. We will be counted; we will have a voice in what happens in and to our communities; and we will have a positive future for our children.
Complete the 2020 Census by visiting www.2020census.com. It is confidential.
Until next time, keep your EYE to the sky!
