|
|
U.S. Census Resources
From the Desk
of Massachusetts President Pro Tempore Senator Stan RosenbergIn the coming weeks you will be hearing a lot about the U.S. Census. As I'm sure you know, our national Constitution requires that every 10 years the Census Bureau count every resident of the United States.
It is extremely important that everyone participate in this effort because, as C.N. Le, a professor at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, has stated: " . . . an accurate count of the U.S. population forms the basis for many important but often overlooked political, economic, and social decisions . . . that end up affecting our daily lives."
For example, information obtained by the Census Bureau will help determine how more than $400 billion of federal funding is invested each year on such things as senior centers, hospitals, education, housing, transportation, emergency services, schools, job training centers and public works projects. All of those things are important for our quality of life.
Furthermore, it is estimated that for every individual not counted, more than $2,000 per year in direct federal aid to a community is lost. When that figure is stretched over the 10-year cycle of the census, it's easy to see why it's important for every person to be counted.
Census information is also important because it will be used by our government to re-draw the state's Congressional districts and districts for seats in the state House of Representatives and the state Senate.
It is especially important for western Massachusetts residents to participate in the census because the number of Congressional seats we will have is dependent on the accuracy of our count.
As the chairman of the state Senate's Redistricting Committee, it will be my job to make sure that western Massachusetts is not shortchanged in any way. But I'll need your help. And you can help by spreading the word that there's a lot at stake in this year's census.
According to the Census Bureau, here's what will happen over the next few months:
March 2010: Census forms will be mailed or delivered to all households in the country.
April 1st, 2010: National Census Day. — Use this day as a point of reference for sending your completed forms back in the mail.
April-July, 2010: Census takers visit households that did not return a form by mail.
December, 2010: By law, the Census Bureau delivers population information to the President for apportionment.
March, 2011: By law, the Census Bureau completes delivery of redistricting data to states. This is when my Redistricting Committee will start work in earnest.
Further Information
New Information on the Upcoming CensusThe first link, below, is a two page summary that provides the basic "who, what, when, where, why and how" of the upcoming census and includes FAQs and information about obtaining assistance materials (in 59 languages!) as well as support for those with visual impairments and the deaf and hard-of-hearing.
http://2010.census.gov/partners/pdf/factSheet_Older.pdf
The toolkit -- see link below -- contains more information about the census and promotes partnerships with the census bureau to maximize the completion of the census surveys.(There are large display "awareness posters" noted on page #14.)
http://2010.census.gov/partners/pdf/toolkit_Older_Overview.pdf
It is in our (collective) best interest to make sure that all seniors are counted!
— Thanks to Emmett Schmarsow, Program Manager for Councils on Aging and Senior Centers, Executive Office of Elder Affairs 2010 MA Senior Citizen Participation Update — Flyer
A Profile of Older Americans — 2009
|
|
