Every 10 years, the U.S. government conducts its national census. Given that the last count took place in 2010, the U.S. Census Bureau has started gearing up for the next, scheduled for April 1, 2020.
The last regular meeting of the Borough of Palmyra Council included a presentation by Jennifer Jones Hamilton with the New York office of the U.S. Census Bureau. She is a partnership specialist assigned to the Trenton area office that covers all of South Jersey from Trenton to Cape May County.
“I am the representative that’s responsible for spreading the census message to all the communities in the area,” said Hamilton at the meeting.
Since she will continue to work with the borough leading up to the census, Hamilton said she would like to establish a partnership with Palmyra to make sure everyone is properly counted.
Hamilton said such a partnership would involve establishing a structured plan for the upcoming census, facilitated by a Complete Count Committee.
“That is merely a group of people in Palmyra that get together and say, ‘We understand the importance of every person who lives in Palmyra to be enumerated in this census. We understand that if everyone is not enumerated in the 2020 census, we could lose money in our city, and in our town and in our state,’” said Hamilton.
According to Hamilton, information garnered from census data is used to appropriate over $275 billion of federal funding per year to cities like Palmyra.
“That, quite simply, is your buy-in to have a Complete Count Committee,” said Hamilton.
Using access to federal funding as an example, she stressed the importance of gathering data as accurately as possible.
According to Hamilton, during the last census in 2010, children under 5 years old were not enumerated correctly. As a result, some programs that service children and parents of young children, like SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program), were not as well funded in as many areas as they could have been.
“We frown on that because it’s our job as a census bureau to count everyone once, only once and where they are,” said Hamilton.
The upcoming census brings with it full- and part-time job opportunities as well. Hamilton announced that the Census Bureau will be seeking applicants for administrative, office, clerk and personnel jobs.
“This is a vast undertaking, in fact, this is the largest undertaking that the federal government conducts, to count everyone in the United States, so they are going to hire a lot of people and we want to hire people from this community,” said Hamilton.
When asked by Mayor Michelle Arnold what residents can expect when it comes to the 2020 census, Hamilton replied that for the first time in history the census will be able to be completed online
“We are glad to be able to offer that technology. This is the first time you’re going to be able to go to our website, as soon as the census forms are ready, and you’re going to be able to fill it out online,” said Hamilton.
She added the option to submit census information over the phone will still be available for those who do not wish to submit their forms online. If neither of those options solicit a response, a census form will be sent by mail that can be filled out manually and sent back.
“If we don’t get that census form back in the mail, that’s when we put the boots on the ground and people will go out and the enumerator will knock on your door and try to count you door-to-door,” said Hamilton.
Information on the upcoming census, including employment opportunities, can be found online at 2020census.gov.
