Organizations get ready to count for census

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There’s a lot happening in 2020 — what some say is the start of a new decade, the presidential election, and a redesign of Bronx buses, in some form, going into effect.

It will also be the year of the census, the decennial count of every man, woman and child in the country.

Census data is used to fund state and federal programs, and helps determine how many elected officials a state will send to the U.S. House of Representatives. And whether it’s filling out a form on your own or welcoming a census worker to your door, counting up each person might sound simple, but it’s rather quite complicated.

In fact, a decade ago, only 63 percent of New York City’s population responded to the census, far behind the national average of 76 percent. That means federal funding was only allocated for those 63 percent, leaving little for the remaining 37 percent who, despite not being counted, were still in need of funding and services.

To counter that, the City University of New York, Mayor Bill de Blasio, and city council Speaker Corey Johnson joined forces to create Complete Count, a program which granted $19 million to more than 100 community organizations across the city, giving each of them a boost to develop their own census programs.

Mosholu Montefiore Community Center, located on DeKalb Avenue just past the eastern edge of Van Cortlandt Park, received $150,000. MMCC already provides services for children, teens, immigrants and senior citizens — groups that tend to be more commonly undercounted.

“We have a pretty large ESL program,” said Jackina Farshtey, MMCC’s chief of staff of her center’s English as Second Language program. “We’re trying to support people who don’t necessarily speak the language. They’re going to have the census in 16 different languages if you call in.”

The organization plans weekly information sessions explaining the importance of the census and how it will work. The programs will make clear that personal information gathered in the census cannot be passed on to other government agencies, a concern for many immigrant families in the area, said MMCC support services director Lenora Sealey.

“We’ll explain what it does in the government,” Sealey said. “How it affects us in terms of getting money for our neighborhood, the House of Representatives, and all of that stuff.”

Five criteria were used to choose grant winners: geography, demography, overall reach, capacity and quality of proposals.

The track records of each organization applying also was taken into account, said Alyson Tarek, the grants program manager for the Census 2020 program at the mayor’s office.

“We want to make sure that every single neighborhood was being reached,” she said. “Especially those communities that had a historic undercount.”

The committees, Tarek added, wanted to reach both community organizations and direct service providers.

“Mosholu Montefiore is a large social services agencies that provides services from cradle to grave for a lot of historically undercounted groups,” Tarek said.

Variety of outreach efforts also is important — from knocking door-to-door, to talking with families visiting the food pantry.

“It was really looking at a mix so we have layers across the city,” Tarek said. “No matter who you are or what you do, you understand that you are a New York resident and you should be counted.”

This summer, the U.S. Supreme Court prevented the Trump administration from adding a question about citizenship status to the 2020 census. Just the threat of the question has been enough to discourage people from filling out their form, however.

“They don’t want to share that information with anyone,” Sealey said. “Not on their (food) pantry application, nothing.”

People think that opening their door, signing forms, and giving up information could threaten themselves and their families.

“The Trump factor is huge,” Sealey added.

Complete Count focused on local organizations that served communities speaking various languages, and celebrating myriad  cultures. Having a liaison who already is a member of the community and can meet census subjects with deeper understanding is crucial to spreading important information about the census.

MMCC also is planning to work directly with people on how to fill out their census forms during their day-to-day programs. They’ll promote it through a  social media campaign in places like Facebook and Twitter in the weeks leading up to the start of the census count in April.

Social media can reach an entirely different audience than the people who walk through MMCC’s doors every day, Sealey said. Getting the message out to younger people can make a difference, especially when they bring that information home to their parents, who might otherwise be reluctant to participate.

“The whole point of this is that New Yorkers rely heavily on government programs,” Farshtey said. “If we do not get full participation, that impacts us. That 62 percent, if we can get that up to 80 percent, even 90 percent, it’s more representation.”

2020 census, Jackina Farshtey, Leonora Sealey, Alyson Tarek, Mosholu Montefiore Community Center, Kirstyn Brendlen

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