The Fort Worth League of Neighborhood Associations had its first meeting of 2020 on March 5th at University Christian Church.
The most intense period of the 2020 Census is about to begin. We were fortunate to have Chris Carathers, a Partnership Specialist with the Census Bureau, as our guest speaker. He reminded us of the value to Texas of a complete count and offered some things we can do to help.
He mentioned that the census is a constitutional requirement. The data is used for representation in the US House of Representatives and to allocate federal resources based on population. The share of 435 representatives each state gets is based on population. With the growth Texas has experienced in the last ten years, it is likely we will gain several seats in the House. Also, in Fort Worth, the Census data will be used to draw ten City Council districts.
Hundreds of billions of dollars are allocated for schools, hospitals, roads, public works, and other vital programs based on census data. An incomplete count costs an area its full allotment of federal funds.
Chris said his main role as a Partnership Specialist is to foster partnerships in the community to help get the word out and help break down any barriers that may exist toward the Census. Neighborhood organizations are one of the type of groups that can help plan and host events that will improve the accuracy of the count.
Chris showed us a great video about the census: 2020 Census: What is the Census? The Census website (2020Census.gov) has a huge amount of helpful and interesting information, and he demonstrated the Response Outreach Area Mapper that shows typical response rates in each US census tract. Chris gave an excellent presentation and we all left with renewed interest in the census.