Native Americans Partner With US Census

National and Local Organizations Help Increase Awareness as 2010 Census Partnerships Grows to 200,000

Outreach Efforts Greatly Surpass Number of Partners in 2000

WASHINGTON, --The Red Lake Band of Chippewa Indians has become the 200,000th partner for the 2010 Census, the U.S. Census Bureau announced today. The number of partners supporting the 2010 Census exceeds the 140,000 that signed on to support the 2000 Census. To date, partners have donated 35,088 training locations, saving taxpayers an estimated $338.5 million in rent.

The Red Lake Nation, based in Red Lake, Minn., joins a long list of local and national organizations and corporations, as well as other American Indian -- Alaska Native nations, working to promote participation in the 2010 Census.

"The role our partners play in spreading the message that the census is easy, important and safe to participate is invaluable," said Census Bureau Director Robert M. Groves. "Partners motivate people to fill out and mail back their census questionnaires -- an important role not only because of the local impact the census has, but also because every one percent increase in mail response saves taxpayers about $85 million."

Partners play no role in official census operations and do not conduct the census. They use their own resources to promote the census with employees, customers, members and the public. Many also provide training space, free of charge, for the thousands of workers who will be hired to conduct the census. Census partners are not paid to promote the 2010 Census but do so to help their communities be counted.

Many other partners send emails to their constituents, publish newsletters and post census information on their Web sites. Some translate census promotional materials into different languages, and others provide training space for thousands of census workers.

The vast majority of census partners are community-based organizations such as churches, neighborhood associations and service clubs. However, national organizations such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Congress of American Indians, the United Way and AARP have also signed on to promote the 2010 Census, along with corporations such as Walgreens, Best Buy and Target. Media partners have signed on to support the once -a-decade campaign as well to help increase awareness levels, and include BET, Univision, Telemundo, Radio One and MTV Networks, to name a few.

The 2010 Census partnership program builds on the success of the 2000 Census program. Many of the partners from 2000 have already signed on for the 2010 Census. The Census Bureau's extensive partnership program -- more than 3,000 staff reaching out to organizations at the local level -- has enabled thousands of other organizations to learn about the census and get involved. To equip these partners to spread the word, the Census Bureau provides a host of materials, toolkits and other resources online at http://2010.census.gov/partners/.

CONTACT: Public Information Office, +1-301-763-3691, pio@census.gov

SOURCE U.S. Census Bureau