DANVILLE — East Central Illinois Community Action Agency received a $25,000 grant for local census activities.

And Census Coordinator Laria Robinson, whose position is temporary, has been busy ever since.

The grant for local census outreach came from the Count Me In campaign funded by 10 Illinois philanthropies, including The Boeing Co., The Chicago Bar Foundation, the Chicago Community Trust and other foundations.

Count Me In gave $1.2 million (26 grants funding 60 non-profit organizations throughout Illinois/12 cities outside Chicago) to conduct public education campaigns, community outreach, special events and other grassroots activities to boost census participation in hard-to-count communities that had low participation in the 2000 Census.

According to the Count Me In campaign, during every census, hard-to-count populations (low-income, African American, Asian, Latino, immigrant, children and non-English speaking communities) are at risk for undercounting.

Local community non-profits working through established networks complement Census Bureau efforts to encourage participation. There is little census funding for these efforts.

Robinson and other local volunteers started late last year with handing out brochures and spreading the word about the importance of the census at last year’s Power Blitz where about 1,200 people received the information; various group meetings; and through neighborhood canvassing to inform more than 300 households about the census.

“People were really receptive,” Robinson said.

“(The census) helps with job creation, just bringing in new businesses, hospitals, better roads, transportation systems …,” Robinson reminds residents.

Hot tract area

About 15-20 local officials formed a Complete Count Committee to address the city’s hot tract area. The hot tract area is where there was less than 50 percent response rate with the 2000 census. This area includes the downtown area and a large area south of Main Street from Gilbert to Buchanan Street.

The north side hot tract boundary is just north of Davis and Williams streets, with Gilbert Street the west border, Washington Street the east border north of Main Street and Buchanan Street and Perrysville Road the east border south of Main Street.

In this area, the 2000 final mail response rate was 44.7 percent. Total housing units totaled in 2000 were 1,140 with a population of 1,943.

Of those houses, 25 percent were reported vacant and 53 percent renter-occupied. Also, 29 percent of the residents were re-ported living below the poverty level.

Robinson said a local census goal is to raise the 63 percent census return rate in Danville Township by 4 percent with the 2010 Census.

Another group that helped spread the word about the census was the Danville Y-Teens (Young Talented Energetic Educated Natural Sisters).

The group, in collaboration with the Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc. Champaign-Urbana Alumnae Chapter, passed out bro-chures at Danville High School’s Black History program.

Alana Tinsley, Y-Teens adviser and member of the sorority, said the group is a public service organization.

She said the public needs to understand how “extremely important” filling out the census forms are.

“That’s how funds are allocated in our community,” Tinsley said.

She didn’t even realize the entire funding dependent upon census numbers, such as for schools and roads, until she read it on the census Web site.

“Turn (the census form) in. ‘We can’t move forward until you mail it back,’” she said, citing the Census Bureau’s slogan.

Response to the census is required by law. But residents may have trouble reading and understanding the form, Robinson said.

Questionnaire Assistance Centers now are open through April 19 at the ECICAA, Danville Public Library, city hall, Holy Family Catholic Church and other locations.

The centers are staffed with a census representative to answer any questions about the census form.

Census outlook

Now that the census forms have been mailed out, Danville Area Transportation Study Director Adam Aull thinks local officials worked well together to promote the census.

“I think we did a pretty decent job, and advertised locally …,” Aull said. “I worked on the big signs on the side of the (city) buses.”

He added that the importance of the census was discussed at several meetings, including neighborhood association meetings.

“I really feel we did as good a job as we could have to get the word out,” Aull said.

The city, using its computerized Geographic Information System, spent 70-plus hours in making sure the Census Bureau had all the correct addresses in the city.

Hundreds of addresses, as happened in other communities, too, had been skipped over or were missing.

“We hope they incorporated those,” Aull said. “We can only hope that they did take those.”

Aull hopes the city and county can raise the local census return percentage rate a little over the national 70 percent average.

Robinson said the Census Celebration planned for Thursday is a way to reward those who’ve taken the initiative to fill out the form. Others can receive help filling out their form at the event.

Vicki Haugen, local Complete Count Committee liaison for the 2010 Census, said when the CCC was first formed, it was to focus on the hot tract only. But it became evident that it needed to be a county-coordinated effort, which has been the goal.

Mayor Scott Eisenhauer added that the census information remains confidential and is not shared or sold to anyone else.

Robinson said the most personal information the form asks is if you own or rent your home.

She also reminds residents that if you’re not counted now, you’re not counted for 10 years. The census counts citizens living in the U.S. every 10 years. The census form should take less than 10 minutes to complete.

COMING UP

East Central Illinois Community Action Agency will present a Census Celebration from 4-7 p.m. Thursday at the David S. Palmer Arena. There will be games, food and prizes. Assistance also will be provided to residents needing help completing their 2010 Census forms. The event is free and open to the public. For more information, contact Laria Robinson, census coordinator for ECICAA, at 554-9146.