Thomas Breen photo
Lt. Gov. Susan Bysiewicz and City Librarian Martha Brogan at Thursday’s presser.
As the city and state prepare for the first-ever U.S. Census that can be filled out online, City Librarian Martha Brogan has positioned the library system to be an epicenter for computer training, education, and employment related to counting all New Haveners in 2020.
She got some help launching that effort Thursday morning.
Brogan joined Lt. Gov. Susan Bysiewicz, U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, and a host of other state and local politicians and nonprofit leaders for a press conference about the critical importance of the upcoming 2020 census. The presser, which was organized by DeLauro’s office, was held at the downtown branch of the public library at 9:30 a.m., half an hour before the library opened to the public.
Brogan pledged that the local library, in partnership with a network of 165 public libraries in Connecticut and 9,000-plus public libraries throughout the country, will do everything it can to host and promote census job fairs and to provide individualized training on how to fill out the census online, on paper, and by phone when the census becomes available in March 2020.
“What we all share in common is an ethos of making this a fair, accurate, and inclusive census,” Brogan said.
Asst. Regional Census Manager Lisa Moore, Community Foundation for Greater New Haven CEO Will Ginsburg, Special Assistant to the Mayor for Legislative & Intergovernmental Affairs Robert Reed, State Sen. President Martin Looney, Bysiewicz, U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, and Christian Community Action ED Bonita Grubbs.
Bysiewicz, who has been touring the state over the past two months as the head of Complete Count Committee for Connecticut, said that the state receives over $10.7 billion in federal aid every year for programs like SNAP, Medicaid, Headstart, CDBG, and WIC. That funding level is determined in large part by the state’s census count.
“For every person we miss,” she said, “that’s $2,900 in federal funding. So this is very key.”
For the first time in the census’s 229-year history, Bysiewicz said, Americans will be able to fill out the next census online. As hubs for computer training and internet access, Bysiewicz said, public libraries are positioned well to help educate residents about how to apply for U.S. Census jobs and how to fill out the census next spring.
Brogan said that nearly half a million people visit the city’s central library and four neighborhood branches in person every year, while over 320,000 people visit the library’s website annually.
“The library has a unique opportunity to serve as a hub for internet access and individualized training for respondents to reply to the electronic questionnaire,” she said.
Last month, she said, the local library hosted five census job fairs that saw 160 New Haveners come by to learn more and apply.
Ives Squared on Thursday morning, before the library opened.
Across the country, she said, librarians are using the hashtag #countonlibraries on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to promote census job and education opportunities on social medica.
“We expect our work to continue,” Brogan said, “and that will continue building awareness and knowledge about why the census is important, hosting more job fairs, offering computer training and access for online response, and also partnering with entities such as DataHaven and the .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) to teach community leaders and the public how to use census data effectively.”
Click here to learn more about census job opportunities in Connecticut.
Click on the Facebook Live video below to watch the full press conference.