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‘Census Sermon Sunday’ Begins City’s Push for Complete Count
By KARL BIEMULLER
Editor
How important to Philadelphia is filling out and returning the 2010 U.S. Census form you’ll be receiving this week? Vitally important, says Patricia Enright: “It’s ten minutes for you, but it means millions of dollars for families and neighborhoods. “
Enright is the executive director of PhillyCounts, the city’s initiative to ensure that all Philadelphians will be “enumerated” – counted - in this year’s Census. And the reason the city is making that special effort is that literally millions of dollars in federal and state federal funds could be at stake.
Census Bureau spokesperson Monica Davis echoes Enright’s message. “I think it’s important that people understand the critical importance of the Census to their communities,” she says. “$400 billion [in federal monies] is allocated annually on the basis of the Census.”
That includes money for health programs, education, highways and railroads, LIHEAP – just about anything that federal and state tax dollars are allocated for. It’s all divvied up in large part on the basis of population, which means that the fuller and more accurate the head count is in Philadelphia – and the fewer people who are missed - the more money the city will receive in the future.
And don’t forget the determination of the number of congressional districts that each state will have in the future. That was the original (and remaining) purpose of the Census, established in 1790: to get an accurate count so that states could be fairly represented in the House of Representatives, where the number of seats to which a state is entitled is determined by a state’s population.
‘Census Sermon Weekend’
Thus, PhillyCounts is running a number of initiatives to raise public awareness about the importance of filling out the 2010 Census forms. It started last weekend with what PhillyCounts calls “Census Sermon Weekend.”
Hundreds of clergy and faith leaders pledged to reach out to their congregations during their services last weekend, delivering the message that filling out and mailing in the Census forms was important, simple, and safe.
Among them is Mt. Airy Church of God in Christ, 6401 Ogontz Avenue. This Sunday, said Elder Reginald Macon, the church was to host a Census Bureau representative at the 11 a.m. service to speak about the importance of filling out and turning in the census forms.
“We have been partnershipping with them from the beginning,”said Macon in an interview last week. “The last Census was in 2000; the response was awful. We know that billions and billions of dollars will be available if we respond, so that neighborhoods and communities and families can be blessed. We will also have a table in the lobby after the service.” He said that Mt. Airy COGIC would be following up in succeeding weeks not only with words but with reminders: “We’ll be passing out Census cups, pads, pens, keychains. We want to get this count done.”
Another center where the message was delivered was the Germantown Masjid, 4944 Germantown Avenue, where representatives from dozens of Philadlephia mosques and masjids, about 600 people in all, came to hear about the importance of the Census.
Brother Saadiq Jabbar Garner of the Germantown Masjid, who served as liaison for PhillyCounts to the masjids, said, “We got rained out a little bit but things went pretty good. Basically they really wanted to get the word out to get the word out to the Muslim community about the importance of the census … how it’s really to important, that it’s not something that just affects the Muslim community but everybody. This is the first phase - we’ll be aiding and assisting the campaign as it goes along.”
Enright says, “This is so very important, this announcement. Having the faith community standing behind the Census is more important than any Hollywood star could be. People have to trust the person who is delivering the message.”
Confidentiality assured
Part of that message is that information collected by the Census Bureau is kept completely confidential. It is never furnished to law enforcement agencies, immigration authorities, banks or employers. Davis says, “All census employees take a lifetime oath to protect the information we collect. Anyone who breaks that can be can be fined $250,000 and sent to prison. We take confidentiality very seriously.”
Census Day – the date by which forms should be returned – is April 1. Davis says, “If we have not received the forms by mid-April, we will start sending people door to door.”
Some areas are harder to count than others and have lower rates of participation in the initial Census form mail-in. One area that the bureau deems to fall in that category is Census Tract 240, which covers much of west-central Germantown. The reasons? It has a high percentage of apartment dwellers.
Davis says that there are many different factors in determining hard-to-count tracts, one of which is the proportion of renters in the area. “Often people assumed that the landlord will fill out the form,” she says. But it’s not so – all apartment dwellers must fill out the form for themselves and their families.
A simple form
This year’s form is a simple one for everyone, with only ten questions. It asks four general questions about whether the housing unit is owned or rented, its telephone number, how many people live there and if any others staying there on April 1 were not included. And there is a brief list of questions about individual household members, including name, sex, race, age and relationship to the person who owns or rents the residence.
If you need help in understanding and filling out the form it’s easily available. Enright says, “People should call 311 if they need help after they get that form. We have trained the 311 staff - they know the program, they know what’s happening and what to do. We will also have a sworn Census Bureau person on site there to answer questions.”
Many may remember the so-called “Long Form” that a selected sample of the population used to receive and that was much more lengthy and complicated. It is no more, says Davis: “The Long Form has been replaced by the American Community Survey. Some of the data is now collected and released on an annual basis. It’s just a sample, though; the 2010 Census is a complete headcount.” But if you receive both the 2010 Census form and the American Community Survey questionnaire, you must complete both and send them in.
Still hiring
The Census Bureau is still hiring, says Davis. “We need to hire about 6,000 people in the city of Philadelphia. That’s an estimate – we’ll know more closer to the end of April. It pays $17.75 hour for an enumerator. The hours are flexible – night, weekends, daytime –and there’s paid training. You can apply to be a crew leader, which pays $19.25 an hour. We are hiring people from all neighborhoods, people who know the neighborhoods well. For information call 866-861-2010, or visit www.2010census.gov. Right on the homepage there are links for job seekers to take practice tests.”
Enumerators will be fanning out across the city this spring and summer to seek out and count those who may have been missed or who did not send in their form. It’s a necessary job, says Davis, but if you need another reason to fill out your form and send it in, think of the money that you’ll save the government by mailing it and eliminating the need for someone to come to your door. “It’s a cost-saving measure for people to mail back the form,” she notes. “It costs 42 cents per form if it’s mailed back. If we have to send an enumerator, the cost is $57 per household. So it’s a huge saving to mail it in. Take the ten minutes and use the pre-addressed, pre-stamped envelope.”
Census Sermon weekend will be followed this Saturday by a barbershop and beauty salon tour by Mayor Nutter and city officials, says Enright, “… places where people gather. Then on April 27 there will be a big rally with all our block captains and we’re ‘co-branding’ the Census message at the city-wide cleanup on April 10.”
For more information about PhillyCounts, visit www.phillycounts.org or call 215-686-7594. For assistance and information with census forms call 311.
