More than a month after accelerating publicity for census counting efforts, city officials and community leaders are reaching out to “hard-to-count” residents.
The clock is ticking on the count: According to the U.S. Census, the goal is to collect all Census information by Sept. 30 for processing by Dec. 31, as required by federal law.
Mandated in the U.S. Constitution and vital to assuring federal funding flows to communities, the census is conducted every 10 years. Lynn in past census counts have had poor participation in some neighborhoods. But City Clerk Janet L. Rowe said the city response rate stands at 59.2 percent compared to the 65.7 percent statewide response rate.
Rowe said local census organizers are taking a multi-pronged approach to pushing up the percentage.
Rowe said more than 200 people are committed to encouraging census participation through “social media blasts” publicizing the census’ importance and outreach efforts.
City youth workers are dropping brochures printed in 15 languages and including census reply telephone numbers and online reply options.
“They have distributed more than 20,000 to date and are still going,” Rowe said.
Rowe also said Lynn public schools Compliance Officer Charles Gallo, with the support of Superintendent Dr. Patrick Tutwiler, partnered with U.S. Census Specialist Dr. Phil D’Agati this week to provide a U.S. Census Mobile Questionnaire Assistance Team at the school administration building on Bennett Street.
“The team is assisting parents to complete the census while they are outside waiting to register their children for school. The census team is using iPads and adhering to COVID-19 precautions. We hope this will be a success,” said Rowe.
She also said New American Center representative Michelle Guzman is hosting census outreach events on August 16 and 22nd at Compare Market and Price Rite in Lynn.
Rowe said Leading through Empowerment Opportunities is sponsoring a lawn sign event to publicize census participation with signs available by contacting Lillian Romero, [email protected]
The city is also organizing automated “robocalls” to residents featuring census completion reminders.
“We have been trying to get the message out that each year billions of federal funding goes to hospitals, fire departments, schools, roads and other programs, all based on the census. Lynn is looking to get their fair share and we can only get that by being counted. Please spread the word that Lynn is all in — answer your census,” said Rowe.
According to the U.S. Census, households can still respond now by completing and mailing back the paper questionnaire they received, by responding online at 2020census.gov, or by phone at 844-330-2020.
Census takers are hired from local communities. All census takers speak English, and many are bilingual and they are trained in COVID-19 safety measures.
Census takers are easily identified by a valid government ID badge with their photograph, a U.S. Department of Commerce watermark, and an expiration date on the badge.
