2010 Census Meeting

NANAY Hosts a “Be Counted” Census Meeting

Miami, Florida - September 18, 2009

NANAY is partnering with the U.S. Census Bureau and the Organization of Chinese Americans (OCA)-South Florida Chapter to increase the Asian community’s awareness and participation in the 2010 Census.

On September 12, 2009 at 1 pm, OCA-South Florida Chapter and NANAY hosted the South Florida Asian Census Complete Count Committee meeting at the NANAY Community Center – 915 NE 125 Street, North Miami, FL 33161 to promote the importance of 2010 Census to the Asian community.

attendees

Article I, Section 2 of the Constitution of the United States requires that the Census Bureau count, every ten years the total number of people in the United States, regardless of citizenship. The next count will occur on Census Day, April 1, 2010.

Every household will receive a Census 2010 form with 10 questions that will take about 10 minutes to complete.

“As an active and trusted advocate in the Asian community, NANAY plays a vital role in our outreach efforts to ensure that every Asian in Florida is counted,” said Dr. Joy Bruce, President of NANAY and Governor’s Appointed Member of 2010 Sunshine Census Complete Count Committee. “Asians are considered among the Hard to Count (HTC) constituents that historically have been undercounted for various reasons, including linguistic barrier, distrust in government and shifting migration patterns.”

Winnie Tang, President of the OCA-South Florida Chapter, enlightened the Asian community regarding the importance of completing the census forms "so that we can receive benefits, funding and services that will help empower our community and ensure that our needs are being met,” She emphasized the importance of Census as source of statistical data about the Asian com munity that can be used as supporting document, so that our needs can be adequately addressed by the local and federal government Winnie Tang, is also Partnership Specialist and Team Leader for the
Florida Asian Community Team, Partnership and Data Services Program of the US Census Bureau - Atlanta Regional Census Center.

“ Everyone living in the United States should fill out the census regardless of citizenship,” said Dennis Murasaki, Vice President of OCA-South Florida Chapter. “By law, all of the individual answers given in the Census are confidential. Their responses and information canno t be shared with any person or any government agency such as the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) or the Internal20Revenue Services (IRS).”

“This is an important civic and constitutionally mandated event that will shape our future over the course of the next decade,” said Evelyn H. Bruce, Executive Director of NANAY Housing Resource Center. “We need everyone's cooperation and help, especially for our state, to receive our share from the $400 billion federal funding so we may continue to provide community service and housing assistance programs in South Florida and beyond.”