The Greater Owensboro Chamber of Commerce will announce during Thursday’s Rooster Booster breakfast, that Daviess County Judge-Executive Al Mattingly and Fiscal Court have authorized the creation of a Complete Count Committee to ensure every resident is counted in the 2020 US Census.
That committee has met twice to begin the planning stages of the April 1, 2020 launch of the national census campaign.
Greater Owensboro Chamber of Commerce Membership Development and Marketing Manager Jaclyn Graves said the Chamber is a community partner with the committee.
“We want to encourage businesses to think of different and creative ways to get the message out about the 2020 Census,” Graves said. “As a Chamber, we are making sure we use our voice to make the community aware of how important it is because of the funding.”
One Kentuckian failing to complete the Census equates to $972 per year that the state loses in federal funding for program like Medicare, foster care, adoption and school lunch programs. Over 10 years, that means $9,720 per person.
2010 US Census reported a Daviess County population of 96,656. The Chamber plans to stress the importance of Daviess County’s 2020 census in order to ensure the population exceeds 100,000, which would potentially mean more than $32 million in additional state funding over the next 10 years.
Sanders said he hopes committee members can attend Thursday’s Rooster Booster. Around 50 representatives of public and private agencies who serve children and families that are typically underrepresented were invited to sit on the committee. Sanders said attendance for the last two meetings has been between 35 to 40 people with at least 25 agencies present.
“It is important that the entire business community understands the importance of the Census,” Sanders said. “This data will determine business infrastructure planning and money from the state to add needs that are valuable to our community.”
Sanders said he hopes that business owners will spread the word of the Census to their employees, helping raise the profile of the Complete Count Committee.
“The Census will kick off one year and three days from Thursday’s event,” Sanders said. “It takes early planning for strategy to be in place.”
