Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams is urging Brooklynites to attend the next 2020 Census Job Fair slated for Feb. 5 at Brooklyn Borough Hall.
Adams said the fair is part of his #MakeBrooklynCount Initiative, a collaboration with the US Census Office and local community-based organizations “to ensure Brooklyn is accurately counted in the upcoming 2020 Census.”
According to Pastor Gilford Monrose, the St. Thomas-born director, Faith-Based & Clergy Initiatives, Office of Brooklyn Borough President, the upcoming job fair will “provide information to those interested in becoming a census worker.”
He said benefits include “a flexible work schedule, good weekly pay, and paid training.”
The Feb. 5 fair takes place from 1:00 pm to 7:00 pm.
In 2018, Adams partnered with the Brooklyn Community Foundation to launch the Brooklyn Complete Count Committee, an alliance of organizations whose collective aim is to increase representation in the 2020 Census among traditionally undercounted communities such as the elderly, low-income, undocumented and young individuals, as well as those whose first language is not English, Pastor Monrose said.
He also said the Faith-based sub-committee is looking for faith leaders and whose committee is responsible for creating and coordinating activities and materials that can be used by faith-based institutions in the borough “to promote 2020 Census awareness and participation.”
Earlier this month, more than 160 community partners joined Mayor Bill de Blasio and City Council Speaker, Corey Johnson in kicking off NYC Census 2020 Complete Count Campaign.
Deputy Mayor for Strategic Policy Initiatives J. Phillip Thompson, NYC Census 2020 Director Julie Menin, Council Members Carlos Menchaca and Carlina Rivera, City University of New York (CUNY) Executive Vice Chancellor and University Provost José Luis Cruz, and hundreds of advocates, service providers, representatives from labor and major civic institutions, and city officials joined in the launch of what was described as “the nation’s largest and most diverse coordinated municipal campaign to achieve a complete and accurate count in the 2020 Census.”
“New York City has been on the front lines of the resistance against the Trump Administration and ensuring every New Yorker gets counted is central to that fight,” said Mayor de Blasio. “No matter how hard the federal government tries to silence our diverse voices, we still stand up and be counted.”
“A complete headcount in the 2020 Census is crucial for the future well-being of our city,” said Johnson. “We have to get this right to ensure we receive the proper federal funding for our schools, our roads, our health care, our public housing, and more.
“This is our once-in-a-decade opportunity to show the federal government that we are here, and that we count,” he added, stating that the City Council “pushed hard to make sure we allocated $40 million in the current budget for the efforts to count every New Yorker, because every New Yorker matters.”
Johnson said that community-based organizations are “our trusted partners in this effort and will ensure that we reach every community across the five boroughs.
“Let’s get a complete and accurate count and receive the federal funding we need and deserve,” he urged.
Mayor de Blasio and Menin also announced that the city will invest $3 million in community and ethnic media advertising to ensure participation among the city’s most historically-undercounted communities.
According to the Office of the Mayor of New York City, this figure represents the largest such investment by the city in local and community media for any campaign to date.
The office said that the census campaign will be advertising in a minimum of 16 languages, including several languages spoken by New Yorkers with high levels of limited proficiency in English.
“The NYC Complete Count Campaign represents a historic and unprecedented partnership between a mayoral administration, the City Council, CUNY, and 157 community-based organizations across all five boroughs, as well as the city’s three library systems, labor unions, and civic and private institutions of many types,” the Mayor’s Office said.
