DuPage Counts! hosts first event

A local group promoting census turnout next year is holding its first outreach event Wednesday at College of DuPage.

The event, sponsored by the newly formed DuPage Counts!, is scheduled for 7 p.m. at the West Commons Room of Building K on the Glen Ellyn campus. DuPage Counts! is hoping to attract government officials, social service directors, heads of homeowner associations, religious leaders and generally anyone else who regularly has an audience of large groups of people.

The key strategy behind the movement is to reach out to immigrants who are typically undercounted in the census, said DuPage Counts! spokeswoman Ginger Wheeler.

The impetus for the campaign is to ensure federal funding of social service programs aren't reduced by an undercount of the area. Funding is often tied to population counts. Another reason for the push is to keep the county from losing congressional representation. Since 1960, Illinois has lost six seats in Congress. Two seats were lost after both the 1980 and 1990 counts.

DuPage Counts! is made up of several League of Women Voters groups throughout the county in conjunction with the Citizens Advocacy Center, COD and the county.

The U.S. Census Bureau will begin mailing out the short form questionnaires in mid-March 2010. It is the shortest census questionnaire in U.S. history, officials said. It generally only asks for the number of people living in the house as well as their ages, races, genders, marital status and relationship to owner of the home. The questionnaire also asks if the house is being rented or is owned. It also asks Hispanic respondents to detail their origin, said Steve Laue, an information specialist at the bureau's regional office in Oak Brook.

"If it is not returned within the first month we will reach out by phone and if we're unsuccessful there, then we'll attempt a personal visit," Laue said.

The bureau has recently begun what is dubbed the "American Community Survey" in an effort to keep an ongoing tab of the country's demographics. This survey replaces what was previously called the "long-form census" that went out every 10 years. The new survey is mailed out to 3 million households every year, Laue said. The first batch of results from the new survey are expected next year, Laue said.

Laue also said the bureau is making a concerted effort ahead of the upcoming census to partner with local groups like DuPage Counts! in order to push for compliance. For more information on those partnerships or starting one, visit 2010.census.gov/partners.