Over the past few months, Groundwork Lawrence has been working with a network of community partners to make sure every person in Lawrence gets counted in the 2020 census. Lawrence is a community that is historically undercounted, which means that in past census years, large numbers of residents weren’t included. Not only does this mean the City receives less money to run vital public programs, but it also means that the community as a whole could be underrepresented in our state and federal government, giving us less power in the lawmaking process.
Every 10 years, as mandated by the U.S. Constitution, the federal government counts every person throughout all 50 states and 5 territories. This is more than just a population count--the census determines how many representatives a state gets in congress and how federal money is appropriated to the states, cities, and towns. This affects funding for schools, hospitals, roads, public works, and other vital programs.
As of April 16, an estimated 51% of the state’s population had responded to the census. The City of Lawrence, however, was even lower and, at 35%, had the second worst response rate in the state. We can change this with your help.
Community resources are available on the We Are/Somos Lawrence census page. We are working with our partners across the city to reach out to the community, answer questions about the census folks might have, and provide support to ensure a complete count. At the beginning of April, every home received an invitation to fill out their census form online. Some households also received a paper form of the census with the option of mailing in their answers instead of answering online. And you can complete the census via phone.
If you have not already done so, please fill out your census using whatever method works best for you, and tell your friends, family, and neighbors to do the same.
If you have questions, or if your organization wants to be part of the outreach efforts, please contact us. Together, we can work to ensure everyone in Lawrence is counted, and ensure that our community gets the resources we need.