Census workers take a breather in Miami

But the Fort Myers office – which is in charge of counting residents in Lee, Collier and Hendry counties – has retained 400 enumerators to repeat interviews with 5 percent of households.

The interviews are part of the 2010 census’ quality assurance phase, which was created to verify that every resident was counted once and in the right place. The phase, which also involves confirming about 30,000 vacant homes in Lee, Collier and Hendry, will end in September.

At that point, work for the once-a-decade census will be completed and the slight employment boost to Southwest Florida’s slumping economy will be over. Lee County’s unemployment rate fell to 12.5 percent in May partly due to the hiring of 1,600 new census workers. The jobless rate rose to 13 percent in June.

Read more at the News-Press.

The 2010 Census is over, but many are still talking about the new technologies that were used for the count this time around.

Gail Thomas is vice president for state and local government at Microsoft, and explains that she and others at the company worked on a project called MyFloridaCensus, which helped the state of Florida count citizens during the Census.

She tells Fed Cloud Blog all about the goal of the tool.

Read more at FederalNewsRadio

In June, the Miami Urban League held its final Census outreach event, a town hall meeting with local leaders at which they reported the results of their individual outreach efforts. As a member of the Miami-Dade Complete Count Committee, the League has led a local push to get every Miamian counted in the 2010 United States Census. It’s crucial that Black communities take the Census seriously, since every person missed in the count costs approximately $1,500 in resources. If thousands of people are “counted out,” that means millions of dollars in lost federal spending on our communities.

Below is a gallery of the League’s previous Census canvas, which took place on April 24th.

Miami – The Urban League of Greater Miami has been working to improve underserved communities in Miami-Dade County since 1943. The 2010 Census Count is the latest project for which the League has been working to bring in millions of critically needed dollars to these devastated communities.

Our Census Support Team has been successful in increasing the 2010 Response Rates from 53 percent – 69 percent in our service areas (West Little River, Liberty City and Brownsville/Allapattah). Still, the count is far from complete. For every citizen not counted we lose $1,000 – $2,500 for services to our communities. Therefore, we aim to reach a 95-100 percent response rate.

On Saturday, June 19, 2010 at 3:00 pm, the Miami Urban League will hold its final 2010 Census outreach event. We have invited various organizations which serve the Miami-Dade Black Community. During the Town Hall Meeting we will recognize those with the highest local and national response rates. We invite you to participate in our Town Hall Meeting as well, which will be held at:

Miami Urban League
Arthur McDuffie Family Enrichment Center
8400 NW 25th Avenue
Miami, FL. 33147

Please R.S.V.P. to Barbara Howard no later than June 17, 2010

For more info:

Contact:
Barbara Howard
Miami Urban League Census Outreach Coordinator
(786) 506-5426
bhoward11@bellsouth.net

This past Sunday was “Census Sunday” in several churches across South Florida. Black churches in Florida, and across the country are uniting to make sure their parishioners, and all African-Americans, are counted.

The South Florida effort has brought black legislators and religious leaders together for the cause:

“The faith community must make sure that as many people are counted this census time. The last ten years we were under counted, and that means we were under represented,” said R.B. Holmes, Pastor of Bethel Missionary Baptist Church.

Nationally, the race is on to ensure that the African-American response rate to the 2010 Census matches the national rate.

Statewide, 72 percent of households so far, have received and returned their Census forms.

On Saturday, April 24, 2010, the Urban League of Greater Miami, Inc. held a press conference  to highlight the crucial need for Black community leaders and citizens to stand up and be counted in the 2010 U.S. Census.

After the press conference, the League sent a cadre of volunteers into the Liberty City, West Little River and Brownsville/Allapatah neighborhoods to complete its last big outreach push to get a complete count for the Census, which translates into millions of critically-needed dollars for our community.

The Miami Urban League has been providing services to these areas for over 50 years and recognizes the importance of getting a complete count in this historically disadvantaged and underserved community.

We have partnered with the Tim Hardaway Foundation and Florida Memorial University to provide information to the community that everyone must be counted in order to access the millions of dollars in federal funds.  We have invited all Black elected officials, Black community, civic, and faith-based organizations to participate in this last big push to inform residents of the importance of the U.S. Census.

On May 1, 2010, the U.S. Census Bureau began sending hundreds of enumerators door-to-door to gather information from households.  The Urban League encourages everyone to mail their Census forms in before enumerators knock on their doors, to help minimize the cost to all taxpayers for collecting this vital information.

But if a Census worker does knock on your door, please answer all of their questions accurately. Your input can directly affect your community, and there’s no better way to have an impact than to STAND UP AND BE COUNTED!

For more information, contact the Urban League of Greater Miami at 305-696-4450 or call Barbara Howard, Urban League 2010 Census Outreach Coordinator, at 786-506-5429.

By Sonia Morgan

It’s beginning to sound like a cliché, but it cannot be emphasized enough that “we can’t move forward until you mail it back.”

In short, it means money and power.

The 2010 Census, for African Americans and Caribbean Americans in particular, is a way to improve and increase the resources available in our communities. Blacks are considered a “hard to count” group and so special effort has been made to not only get the word out, but to encourage Blacks to participate.

Having an accurate count is essential since the census data is used to determine how billions of federal dollars are allocated every year for services including hospitals, senior centers, schools, roads and other infrastructure. Without an accurate count, the government cannot adequately provide for the people – which means some communities will have to make do with whatever the government allots to them based on the count.

Additionally, there is strength in numbers. Therefore we weaken our political and economic clout when we are undercounted. How can we establish ourselves, especially Caribbean Americans, as a formidable voting bloc and a viable economic market when our numbers are incorrect? We cannot afford to count ourselves out, which is why there has been a push for Caribbean Americans to indicate their country of origin on the Census form.

There is much riding on the accuracy of the 2010 Census; and at a time when we have a president whose policies are focused on reviving the middle class, improving education, reforming healthcare and generally improving social wellbeing, African Americans and Caribbean Americans need to take advantage by participating in the process.

Sure, the ads are in newspapers, they are broadcast on radio and television; and a number of elected officials and community leaders have taken up the cause to encourage participation in the 2010 Census. But there are many Blacks and other minority groups that are still reluctant to participate.

It could be out of fear – fear that the information is not private and will be used for unfavorable reasons. While this fear is understandable, it has to be assuaged, since the information collected in the census is confidential and it is illegal for it to be given to any organization or other government agencies.

Then there is the general apathy. Some people are uninterested because they do not know, or do not care about what having an accurate count means.

Census Bureau director Robert Groves said to date, just about 65 percent of households have mailed back their census forms. Currently, Florida is lagging behind the nation with about 35 percent – Miami showing the lowest returns. This is unacceptable.

If you have not mailed back your census form as yet, now is a good time. The deadline for mailing in the 2010 Census, April 22, is fast approaching and the only way to avoid having a census worker come to your home is to fill it out and mail it back.

Do it now; it takes 10 minutes. This is one time when you cannot afford not to be counted.

Sonia Morgan is the Assistant Editor of the National Weekly newspaper. She can be reached at smorgan@cnweeklynews.com or at 954.739.6618.

By T. Willard Fair

Black Miami, I am so tired of our leadership dropping the ball on opportunities to empower our people.

Every 10 years, the U.S. Census Bureau conducts one of the most important programs in our nation. It sends out a questionnaire meant to count every person in every household in every community.

This decennial enumeration decides the allocation of federal funds to states and local areas for the next ten years. It also determines our political representation and our socio-economic marketing influence

The 2000 Census had a 16 million undercount and was so horrendous that it led to the loss of millions of dollars in federal funds and under-representation of Black and other minority populations in Congress and state Legislatures.

This year, the 2010 Census was supposed to be better. It was supposed to ensure the total involvement of the minority community in its efforts to improve the accuracy of the count.

President Barack Obama established an historic precedent and broke a 200-year tradition by taking the Census Bureau out of the Department of Commerce and placing it under the White House.

He gave it a budget of $15 billion (triple the last Census budget) and put over $600 million into an outreach campaign. This campaign was aimed at getting thousands of organizations, news outlets, minority leaders and school children to spread the word and preach the gospel about the importance of the Census.

The Census Bureau talked about getting “trusted voices” involved. The NAACP launched its “Yes We Count” 2010 Census Participation Program and my leader, Mark Morial, President of the National Urban League was appointed to serve as chair of the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2010 Census Advisory Committee.

But then something went terribly wrong. The Congressional House Information Policy, Census and National Archives Subcommittee grilled Census staff as to why the Black Press of America, the National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters and others were complaining that the Black media got very little of the multimillion-dollar advertising campaign dollars.

In Florida and especially in Miami Dade County, the Black media got virtually crumbs. The State of Florida allocated $420,000 in a communication campaign for Blacks and then did the same thing the White House did – awarded the advertising dollars to a large multinational white agency.

The Urban League of Greater Miami, Inc. received a small Ford Foundation grant through the National Urban League to reach the hard-to-count (HTC) Blacks within the Liberty City, West Little River and Brownsville/Allapattah areas which we had serviced for over 50 years and which has been identified by the U.S. Census as one of the hardest to count areas in Florida.

We began to search for additional dollars for our outreach campaign. Much to our disappointment, we got little or no response from our Black elected officials, our Black organizations, or our Black faith-based institutions.

We even applied for the State of Florida’s Census communication dollars and got nothing – neither did the NAACP, nor any of the Black ad agencies that applied.

While the Hispanic piece was awarded to a Hispanic agency, the Black piece was awarded to a white agency. What does that say to us – about what the powers that be think about our ability to mobilize us?

We joined Miami Dade County Mayor Carlos Alvarez’ Complete Count Committee (CCC) and attended the Mayor’s kickoff of his outreach campaign at the African American Cultural Arts Complex in the heart of the Liberty City Black community, several weeks ago. Almost none of the Black leadership showed up – it was us, Mayor Shirley Gibson and a few county staff people.

As early as last October, then Miami Mayor Manny Diaz (Mayor of ALL Miamians) called the Miami Hispanic leadership together and created a local campaign with Univision “Ya es hora! Hagase contrar!” (It’s time, make yourself count). Not one Black leader was there.

I applaud the Mayor for taking care of his community, but my question is who’s taking care of our community?

Taking the Mayor’s lead, the Hispanic Media “saturated” their communities with radio/TV and print ads, while Black-owned and operated media in South Florida are complaining that “We haven’t seen a dime”.

But where are the resources for the Black media from the Black leaders? Where are our Black preachers, our Black leaders, our Black organizations – the 100 Black Men, the Deltas, the Omegas, etc., etc., etc?

Mayor Shirley Gibson (also co-chair of Mayor Alvarez’ CCC) has taken the leadership in the City of Miami Gardens Census count and has worked closely with the Miami Urban League to get all of our Black folks counted. But all attempts to reach out to other Black leaders have neither generated concern nor funding for outreach.

Democrat, Republican, Black, white, Hispanic – seems like nobody cares about us. But the real issue is why aren’t we as Blacks just as concerned about getting counted as everyone else seems to be? Where is our coalition?

The Pew Hispanic Center survey shows 9 out of 10 Hispanics intend to participate in the Census. Where is the survey for Black folks? It seems 9 out of 10 Blacks either don’t know or don’t care about the Census.

So if we don’t care, why should anybody else?

At the end of the day, when 9 out of 10 Hispanics are counted and only 1 out of 10 Blacks are counted, I guess we will do what we always do – wait until the process has been completed, complain that the process was unfair, and then scream “racism”.

That seems to be the only thing we know how to do. When will we learn how to get ahead of the game and stop being left behind?

—–

T. Willard Fair has been the President and CEO of the Urban League of Greater Miami, Inc. for the past 46 years.