Press Releases
02/21/2019
LT. GOV. BYSIEWICZ, CONGRESSMAN HIMES & MAYOR GANIM LAUNCH BRIDGEPORT’S 2020 CENSUS COMMITTEE
(HARTFORD, CT) – On Thursday, Lt. Governor Susan Bysiewicz joined Congressman Jim Himes, Mayor Joseph Ganim, State Representative Chris Rosario, and other community leaders for the Bridgeport Counts: Census 2020 Kickoff— a launch of the city’s local complete count committee to help direct the city’s efforts in the upcoming 2020 Census.
“Governor Lamont and I are focused on economic growth and the 2020 Census will play an important role in that regard because businesses look to census data when determining future locations,” Lt. Gov. Bysiewicz said. “We want every person to be counted but in order to achieve that we need cities and towns to prepare as well. Every community faces its own unique challenges in achieving an accurate count for the census so it’s critical that municipalities create local complete count committees. I applaud the City of Bridgeport for being a leader in this effort by launching their committee today. Over the coming weeks and months, I’ll be traveling across the state working with our members of congress to encourage every town and city – no matter the size – to form their own complete count committee.”
Since 1790 the U.S. Census Bureau has attempted to count every U.S. resident, providing critical data on the nation’s population that helps form public policy and has a major impact on every community – including how our schools are run, the quality of our transportation system, resources needed for our law enforcement to operate, and much more.
“I encourage all Bridgeport citizens to participate in the Census,” Mayor Ganim said. “It is very important that every resident in our city be accounted for accurately in order for individuals, and Bridgeport to be eligible to receive federal government funds.”
On February 4, Lt. Gov. Bysiewicz launched the state-wide Connecticut Complete Count Committee (CCCC) to inform and help direct the State's efforts in the upcoming 2020 Census. State Representative Christopher Rosario of Bridgeport, serves as co-chair of the state-wide Connecticut Complete Count Committee.
“As co-chair of the CT Census Committee, I am pleased that I will be playing a major role as there is nothing more important than an accurate census count for the equitable distribution of government resources,” Rep. Rosario said. “This is important because many times people are afraid of responding to the census – so this will be a one-on-one effort with the people most trusted in our neighborhoods. I take this responsibility very seriously and I am committed to working hard for as accurate a count as possible.”
"Bridgeport is Connecticut's largest city and yet many of our neighborhoods have Census response rates of less than 50 percent,” said Maria Zambrano Viggiano, Bridgeport City Councilwoman and co-chair of the Bridgeport Census Complete Count Task Force. “Our local Complete Count Task Force will engage various community leaders and stakeholders across Bridgeport to ensure we reach everyone in our city, especially our hard-to-count residents. We cannot let the national climate of fear and marginalization dictate the level of resources and opportunities Bridgeport receives.”
One of the goals of the state-wide committee was to assist municipal governments with forming Local Complete Count Committees (LCCC) to promote and encourage response to the 2020 Census in their own communities.
Bridgeport has been a leader in this effort by passing a resolution to officially create a Complete Count Taskforce/Committee in October 2018. The group has been meeting since late 2018 and their resolution language has been shared with other cities such as Stamford who are creating LCCC’s.
The U.S. Census Bureau is now accepting job applications at census.gov/fieldjobs.
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Contact:
Juliemar Ortiz
Juliemar.ortiz@ct.gov
860-524-7346 (desk)
860-278-6809 (cell)