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Why It's Important
It is vital that every person in our region gets counted for the 2010 Census. Every 10
years as mandated by the U.S. Constitution, the Census determines the distribution of more
than $400 billion in federal funds each year. For every person not counted, our region will
lose more than $11,500 in federal funding in the next decade.
The Census is used to determine:
- boundaries for state and local legislative and congressional districts
- locations for retail stores, schools, senior centers, hospitals, job training
centers, new housing developments and other community facilities
- funding for infrastructure like bridges, tunnels and other public works projects
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Hard-To-Count Communities
“Hard-to-count” census tracts are communities that the U.S. Census Bureau considers difficult
to enumerate or had low response rates for the previous 2000 Census. Nearly one-fifth of the
population lives in hard-to-count census tracts.
Based on an in-depth analysis of information from the census in 1990 and 2000, the Census Bureau
has identified underlying demographic and socio-economic indicators that contribute to a lower
rate of returned census questionnaires. Some are housing-related such as vacancy rates, percentage
of renters and students, and number of people living in a household. Some are related to economic
factors like unemployment, poverty and public assistance. Other indicators include earning less
than a high school education and having limited English language proficiency.
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What the Community Foundation is Doing to Help
Silicon Valley Community Foundation has committed $250,000 to outreach efforts to ensure
a complete count of all people in our region. We have awarded a series of small grants to
18 nonprofit organizations conducting outreach in hard-to-count census tracts. For the month
of March, the community foundation is highlighting the importance of being counted through a
billboard and bus advertising campaign in San Mateo and Santa Clara Counties. Read our
press release for more details.
We are also partnering with Voto Latino to launch the "Be Counted, Represent!" campaign to
encourage young Latinos to pledge their participation in the 2010 census.
Learn more about how to get involved.
Our offices in Mountain View and San Mateo will be a "Be Counted" site, where you can pick
up Census questionnaires. Be Counted sites and questionnaire assistance centers will be set up
throughout our region to provide help in filling out census forms. For more information,
please contact your local County Census Coordinator.
For San Mateo County visit
For Santa Clara County visit
More 2010 Census Resources
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