BP Adams, Brooklyn Community Foundation enlist local nonprofits to boost census count

September 22, 2020 Editorial Staff

Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams. Photo: Paul Frangipane/Brooklyn Eagle

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The Office of the Brooklyn Borough President is partnering with the Brooklyn Community Foundation and allocating funding to 20 sub-grantee nonprofits to increase the count for the 2020 Census, especially in neighborhoods that currently have low response rates relative to the previous census ten years ago.

Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams on Friday announced $493,216 in long-awaited state funding to support those partnerships.

With under two weeks left before the enumeration ends, only 57 percent of Brooklyn’s households had responded to the census as of September 15th — the lowest response rate of any borough in the city.

“Brooklyn’s nonprofit community — the most trusted Census messengers — fought hard for this funding and we are proud to help deploy this critical support to bolster their essential work in advance of the 2020 survey deadline,” said Brooklyn Community Foundation President and CEO Cecilia Clarke. “As founding members of the Brooklyn Complete Count Committee, we have long recognized that making Brooklyn count 100 percent in the 2020 Census is a matter of racial and social justice for our communities, to ensure that everyone gets the resources and representation they are owed.

“We are grateful to New York State for its investment in getting Brooklyn to the finish line,” she continued.

President and CEO Cecilia Clarke of the Brooklyn Community Foundation. Photo courtesy of the Brooklyn Community Foundation

Brooklyn is considered the hardest-to-count county in New York State. Roughly 80 percent of Brooklynites live in hard-to-count neighborhoods, making it critical that every effort be made to reach out to Brooklyn residents who haven’t responded to the Census.

Ensuring a complete count is essential to make certain that Brooklyn and New York City as a whole receive their fair share of federal representation and resources for transportation, health care, education, and more.

“The future of Brooklyn and our city is on the line in this year’s Census. The twin economic and public health crises of COVID-19 have underscored the importance of making Brooklyn count so we can get the federal resources and political representation our borough needs to aid our recovery process,” Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams said. “Brooklynites: if you haven’t yet filled out your Census form, you have until September 30th. It takes ten minutes, but the impacts will be felt for the next ten years. Let’s get this done.”

The organizations acting as sub-grantees who will carry out advertising and outreach work in Kings County include the following organizations: