The Daviess County Complete Count Committee (DCCCC) will meet for the final time Friday ahead of the 2020 Census. The DCCCC said they’ve worked incessantly to come up with ways to reach the undercounted areas of the county and will use Friday’s meeting to discuss these different activities.
DCCCC Chairperson Keith Sanders said the ideas being discussed were contrived by the DCCCC over the last few months and are ready to be implemented in the near future.
“[The ideas] the committee created are established upon a resolution from Judge-Executive Al Mattingly and Daviess County Fiscal Court to create awareness for the Census,” Sanders said.
One of these ideas entails a partnership between the Daviess County Public Library and the Owensboro-Daviess County Senior Community Center, where a Genealogy Day will be held for seniors.
This event will promote the 2020 Census because, as Sanders explained, “To get much done [with genealogy], you have to go back to the Census.”
Seniors will have the opportunity to submit their Census form either online or by phone during the event, he added. The goal for DCCCC is to get as many people as possible to respond before the end of April.
In 2010, Daviess County saw an 82 percent Census response rate to the initial questionnaire. That percentage was higher than surrounding cities of Evansville, Louisville, Bowling Green and Lexington, but Sanders said he hopes for a 90 percent initial response rate this year.
To achieve Sanders’ goal, the DCCCC came up with another idea to host Census activities at various neighborhoods and schools across the area, focusing primarily on neighborhoods with historically low Census response rates.
“We hope to have events where there’s a lot of cooperation and collaboration, where folks can come out in March and have access to the internet and file online,” he said.
The Census questionnaire will be available online for the first time this year, and Sanders said the library has been great about explaining that to the community. The online Census questionnaire only contains 9-10 questions, Sanders said.
Friday’s DCCCC meeting is at 9 a.m. on the first floor of Audubon Area Community Services, located at 1700 West Fifth Street. The meeting is open to the public and Sanders said it serves as a great opportunity for anyone who has questions about the 2020 Census.
