Grants target boosting Woonsocket participation in 2020 Census

Woonsocket RI

29 January, 2020

11:37 AM

Description

Local nonprofit organizations, town governments, libraries, schools, houses of worship and community-based groups have until Jan. 31, to apply for at least $125,000 in grants to encourage residents to participate in the 2020 Census. The goal is to protect the roughly $3.8 billion a year that Rhode Island receives in federal funding for education, health care, housing and more based on Census data. "These Census outreach grants are an essential tool to build the grassroots effort that will help us achieve our goal of ensuring that every Rhode Islander is counted," said state Health Director Nicole Alexander-Scott, who co-chairs Rhode Island's Complete Count Committee. "The work to ensure that every community in every ZIP code in Rhode Island is fairly and accurately represented must be community led." This will be the second round of funding from the Rhode Island 2020 Census Fund. Three Woonsocket nonprofits -- NeighborWorks Blackstone River Valley (NWBRV), the Museum of Work & Culture and Thundermist Health Center -- were among the 26 organizations that shared nearly $300,000 in the first round. Their focus is increasing Census response rates for residents from groups that have been historically undercounted and are vulnerable to an undercount in 2020. NWBRV received $18,000 for outreach and education. It will focus on the Fairmount, Constitution Hill and Main Street neighborhoods, which have more than 4,000 households. "We've worked in our target neighborhoods for over 30 years and are counting on our personal relationships with many neighbors and community institutions to help boost our area's response rate significantly," Joe Garlick, executive director NWBRV plans to contact residents of its affordable housing developments during the spring and summer, to include Census information as it conducts its tri-annual 'Community Impact Measurement Survey," to allow residents without access to the internet to complete Census forms on-line in its Homeownership Center on Front Street and to distribute information and provide on-line access at its 10-week "Levitt Amp" free concert series in River Island Art Park this summer. "All of our work in these neighborhoods would not have been possible without the federal resources that flow into Woonsocket because of the Census," said Garlick. Donors to the Rhode Island Census 2020 Fund include local philanthropist Bhikhaji Maneckji, Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode Island, Neighborhood Health Plan of Rhode Island, the Nellie Mae Foundation, the Service Employees International Union 1199 New England, the Rhode Island Foundation and United Way of Rhode Island. The Rhode Island Foundation administers the initiative working in partnership with the Rhode Island Complete Count Committee. "Grassroots organizations realize how crucial it is to engage their communities on the Census and they went all in on the first round. The volume and quality of the responses made for a very difficult review and selection process," said Jessica David, executive vice president of strategy and community investments at the Foundation. "We're grateful to the funding partners who are supporting this effort, and to the many local groups who will do the on-the-ground organizing in order to turn out their communities in 2020," she said. For more information about applying for a grant, visit rifoundation.org/censusgrants.