Census 2010 (Part 1)

Naomi Bloch and Wil Gutierrez, who are both on the Montgomery County 2010 Census’ Complete Count Committee, attended this morning’s meeting of Montgomery County’s Complete Count Committee which took place at the Kensington Town Hall, 3710 Mitchell Street, Kensington.

The Mayor of Kensington, Peter Fosselman welcomed everyone and introduced the Complete Count Committee Co-chairs, Ambassador Connie Morella and former Congressman Mike Barnes and they in turn presided over the program which had the feel of a good old-fashioned pep rally as various speakers presented their research about the various areas of the county. Montgomery County’s goal is to have 100% of County its residents counted!

Many of the hard-to-count areas in the county were identified and now the challenge is going to be to make sure that every person in these diverse areas does, in fact get counted. The 100% count goal is critical because the amount of federal and state dollars the County receives for services is based on how many people live within the county. So, an undercount could short-change our county and limit its ability to provide essential human services that our close to one million residents requires.

Census questionnaires will be mailed or delivered to households throughout the county in March. Everyone is asked to fill out the TEN-QUESTION form and mail it back by April 1st. From May through July, Census workers will begin visiting any household that has not yet returned their form(s). And finally, in December 2010 the U.S. Census Bureau delivers the population count to President Obama.

These questionnaires are for statistical purposes ONLY and you can be certain that NO law enforcement official will receive any information given by you to the Census. The Census, by law is not allowed to share any personal information about you with anyone. So please be sure to fill out the ten question form and return it right away. And ask all of your friends and family members to do that same so that Montgomery County can receive its fair share of federal and state funds to provide essential human services to its residents.

If you speak more than one language and would like to help reach out to members in your community in order to help us with the 2010 Census, you can contact: www.montgomerycountymd.gov/census for more information. Thank you!