Thousands of North Texas families have not responded to the U.S. Census, so the nonprofit organization The Concilio continued its Census outreach through block-walking last night with 20 volunteers and staff in Bachman Lake, currently the most undercounted neighborhood in the city of Dallas. With the recent news of data collection ending a month early, The Concilio is doubling efforts to get the area counted. To date, the organization has reached almost 42,000 households in Dallas County through outreach with its families, phone banks and block-walking. Last night’s efforts reached nearly 240 households.
On Aug. 3, the Census Bureau issued a statement stating that it “will end field data collection by September 30, 2020…self-response options will also close on that date to permit the commencement of data processing. Under this plan, the Census Bureau intends to meet a similar level of household responses as collected in prior censuses, including outreach to hard-to-count communities.”
Florencia Velasco Fortner, The Concilio president and CEO, said, “We want to encourage all families to be counted, especially as state numbers are tied to funding and representation for many of the programs, schools and services that benefit them.”
Self-Reporting Statistics as of 8/4/20:
Bachman Lake area response rates: 24.36%-29.98%
Dallas County Response Rate: 58.6%
Texas Self-Response: 57.9%
National Self-Response: 62.9%
Responses to the 2020 U.S. Census questionnaire will allocate funding for everything from schools, hospitals and roads to emergency response and disaster relief. As of July 22, only 57.9% of Lone Star residents had completed their questionnaires, making Texas 39th among the 50 states. This low response rate endangers billions of dollars in future funding and the state’s representation in Congress.
Residents can self-respond to the Census online at https://my2020census.gov/ or over the phone in English by dialing 844-330-2020 or in Spanish at 844-468-2020.
About The Concilio: The Concilio, a nonprofit that helps parents unlock the potential in their children and communities, has been serving Latino and other diverse North Texas communities in a culturally relevant way since 1981. The event is part of a larger campaign by The Concilio that also includes census outreach at area food distributions and apartment complexes, as well by social media, text and phone to some of the hardest-to-count areas.