2010 Census: Immigrant Community Participation

Posted by on March 01, 2010

The 2010 Census: Immigrant Community Participation

in partnership with the United Way of Southeastern Pennsylvania

Join us on Thursday, March 11th, 2010 4:00pm – 5:30pm
At the United Way of Southeastern Pennsylvania, 1709 Benjamin Franklin Parkway, Philadelphia

In mid-March, census form will begin to arrive at our homes.  The census count will determine how over $400 billion dollars is allocated each year, as well as political representation.

Immigrant communities are considered hard to count, due to language and cultural barriers, and fears of immigration enforcement.  Join us on March 11th to hear how immigrant communities and government officials are responding.  Learn about bi-lingual forms and other language assistance, community based resources, and census jobs.  Pick up materials to bring back to your community, and learn how to respond to concerns about confidentiality and the call for a boycott.

Speakers:

Zeina El-Halabi is the Executive Director of the Philadelphia Arab-American
Development Corporation (PAACDC), which serves as a Questionnaire Assistance Center and a testing site for census job applicants, and provides outreach to churches and mosques in the community.

Anuj Gupta is the Chief-of-Staff/Deputy Commissioner – Department of Licenses & Inspections. He has done extensive work on the City’s language access program and coordinated other efforts to attract new immigrants to Philadelphia including the International Philadelphia workgroup. The City launched Philly Counts in November to raise awareness of and boost participation in the 2010 Census, particularly among the city’s hardest to count residents.

Julissa Gutierrez is the New York Director of Civic Engagement for the NALEO Educational Fund, which is sponsoring the Ya Es Hora Hagase Contar campaign, to promote a complete count among Latino communities through community education.

Christopher Chaplin is Co-Chairman of the Philadelphia Caribbean Complete Count Committee which is partnering with the African Complete Count Committee for a series of community events March 12-14. He is also Co-Chairman of Team Jamaica Bickle and works in the communications field, including as Co-Publisher of Caribbean World News.