Census committees are forming across the county

<p>The census is coming next year and leaders from local communities want to make sure every resident is counted.</p><p>Officials from the United States Census are traveling across the country and meeting with community officials to form committees made up of leaders in cities and towns with the goal of getting America counted and getting local community leaders involved in the effort.</p><p>Leaders from nearly every town and city in Johnson County have met with census officials to form what the census has dubbed &quot;complete count committees&quot; in their areas.</p><p>The United States Census is a full population count conducted every decade that is mandated by the United States constitution. Population numbers can have national, state and local impact.</p><p>For example, census numbers are used to determine the number of representatives a state has in the U.S. House of Representatives. Numbers are also used to determine how federal funds are allocated to local communities, according to the 2020 Census website.</p><p>The committees are formed to give local community leaders roles in making sure the people in their cities and towns are counted, according to the website.</p><p>Census leaders have targeted areas that may need more response than what was seen in the last census a decade ago, said Norm Gabehart, Whiteland town manager.</p><p>Most of the committees in the area are still forming and more can be added at any time as representatives from the census continue to reach out to communities. </p><p>The committees will typically be filled with local leaders who can help reach out to subsections of the population that might not initially be responsive to the census, said Greg Wright, controller of Greenwood. </p><p>Greenwood’s committee will likely be made up of senior citizens, members of the Sikh community and other minority communities who will find ways to let people know how important the census is, Wright said. </p><p>&quot;The idea is to get those people involved early so they can share the message of ‘please respond to this,&quot; he said.</p><p>Local community leaders understand federal, state and grant funds are at stake with the census count and want to make sure their communities have the most accurate count possible so they can have those funds available, community leaders said.</p><p>&quot;We get one chance of getting this right for the next 10 years,&quot; Wright said. &quot;A lot of our funding is dependent on that and that money will be used for the next 10 years.&quot;</p><p>Committee members will explore marketing techniques that will let them target the most amount of people, Gabehart said.</p><p>All of the committees are in the early stages. Some, such as Greenwood, are waiting for directives and materials from the census before going much further in forming, Wright said.</p><p>In New Whiteland, all of the work that would be done in the census committee is being done internally, as town employees work to reach out to residents with information about the census. Employees plan on posting about the census on their social media sites and placing flyers in utility bills, said Maribeth Alspach, New Whiteland’s clerk-treasurer.</p><p>&quot;Every person counts and we just have to be sure every person in every house is counted,&quot; she said.</p>