City shares plans for 2020 census count

Officials ask for help with outreach, committee efforts

The next national census is coming up in 2020, Community Development Director Laurie Lineberry reminded the Yuma Planning and Zoning Committee during the July 23 meeting.

“So you’re going, ‘OK, it’s 2018, what’s the big deal?’ We have actually been working on it for a year so far. There’s a lot of background that has to happen, and one of the pieces is outreach,” Lineberry said.

Jennifer Albers, a principal planner for the city, then asked the commissioners for help in identifying outreach strategies or members in the community who can join the Complete Count Committee, which will be charged with conducting outreach.

The official census day is April 1, 2020, when area officials hope everyone in Yuma County will be counted.

“It’s very important that Yuma gets the best representation and the best count possible,” Albers said, explaining that school funding and the city’s state-shared revenues depend on the population.

The problem is that historically some segments of the population have been undercounted, including children, foreign-born individuals and foreign-language speakers.

“We want to make sure we are all counted, regardless of citizen status or age,” Albers added. “We want to make sure we get the best count possible because it’s how we know what we need to know.”

Members of the Complete Count Committee will identify programs or communities to target outreach efforts, such as farmworkers who are here for a longer amount of time than they have been in the past, sometimes even into May.

“If our farmworkers are here

on April 1, they should be counted in Yuma, not in California, where they may be going next,” Albers said.

Efforts will be made to ensure that members of the farm community receive their census questionnaires and that they are able to answer the questions.

The committee will also reach out to religious communities for help in assuring their members that their information will be protected. Albers noted that residents usually trust their churches.

Those interested in participating in the Complete County Committee will be invited to attend a training with U.S. Bureau of the Census staff on Aug. 27 in Yuma.

“We don’t anticipate the time commitment to be huge,” Albers said, noting that the committee will meet on a “semi-regular basis” to identify programs and strategies.

Yuma will have the help of a census partnership specialist but that person will also be covering much of Arizona, “so it’s really up to us to get the word out and get those people counted,” she said.

Last month, the City Council approved a resolution supporting the establishment of the 2020 Census Yuma County Complete Count Committee, with the goal of increasing response to the census. The committee will be made up of a cross section of community representatives recommended by each jurisdiction. Yuma County is requesting recommendations for members from each jurisdiction within the county.

The U.S. Constitution mandates a complete count every 10 years of every person living in the country, including all ages, races, ethnic groups, citizens and non-citizens.

The population totals from the 2020 Census will also determine the number of seats each state has in the House of Representatives, will be used to redraw state legislative districts, and will determine funding for programs, projects and state-shared revenues.