October 2, 2019
Lake County Announces 2020 Complete Count Committee to Ensure Accurate Census Count
On Tuesday, Sept. 10, the Lake County Board voted to create a 2020 Complete Count Committee (CCC), a Special Advisory Group established to provide direction and advice to ensure an accurate 2020 census count of Lake County residents.
The CCC will strategically focus on addressing hard-to-count areas of Lake County, including minority populations, low-income households, immigrant populations, populations with language barriers and young children.
Federal and state governments determine the distribution of grants to county and local governments using the population statistics collected by the decennial census.The census data is also used for the redistricting of congressional and state legislative districts.
Businesses use the census data to decide where to invest in growth and economic development, which creates local jobs. The data is also useful for planning for future infrastructure needs, such as hospitals, schools and housing, and is essential in the implementation of social services and for emergency planning.
"It is critical that every single citizen in Lake County be counted to ensure we receive all the state and federal grant money we are entitled to, and so Lake County citizens are appropriately represented at the state and federal levels," said Lake County Board Chair Sandy Hart. "The CCC will be working closely with state and local governments, community-based organizations and the Federal Census Bureau to identify budget resources and establish local work plans to ensure every person is accounted for."
The CCC consists of seven Lake County Board Members, five mayors from of Lake County municipalities and representatives from many local organizations. The responsibilities of the committee include establishing relationships with independent organizations such as nonprofits, civic and community groups, schools, and religious institutions of all faiths, to encourage all organizations to work together to ensure an accurate census count.
The CCC will also prepare a report after the census detailing its efforts and the results.
The 2020 United States Census begins on April 1, 2020.
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