Census 2010: A New Portrait of America

Complete Count Committee Convening

We spent last Friday in Spokane participating in the Seattle Region's Complete Count Committee Convening for the 2010 Census. Representatives from WA, OR, ID, Northern CA and AK gathered to learn about the census and how to make sure everyone is counted.

CISC's contribution was to share our efforts on how we have tried to encourage our traditionally undercounted communities to participate. From T-shirts to chopsticks to fortune cookies to presentations at the international conference of Chinese Immigrant Service Agencies, we continue to try to let people know why it is important to be counted:

1. For every person not counted, our community loses $1,400 in federal dollars each year.
2. We need to count all residents - citizens and non, documented and not - so we can have adequate representation in government, and services for our community.
3. The census is safe - personal information cannot be shared with immigration, police, housing authorities, or the IRS.

For more information on why it's important to be counted, go to http://2010.census.gov/2010census/why/index.php

A Census is in Your Future

This week, long time CISC supporter Tsue Chong Company, maker of Rose Brand fortune cookies and noodles, hosted a tour of their factory to celebrate a new partnership promoting the 2010 Census.

They will be producing cookies featuring census messages starting in February. Their delicious cookies come in a wide array of flavors like apple, strawberry, almond and many, many more!

Probably the coolest thing was watching the fortune cookie machine spit out cookies at the rate of 8,000 per hour - and of course the samples!

Lion Dancing through Chinatown

Sunday, Mak Fai's Kung Fu Club performed 5 hours of lion dances at 50 businesses throughout Chinatown/ID. They helped raise over $4,000 for CISC programs.



Volunteers and staff also helped spread the word about the 2010 Census, passing out t-shirts and chopsticks and telling people about the importance of being counted.

A big thanks to all for a job well done!

2010 Census

Also today, CISC hosted a press conference in conjunction with the Organization of Chinese Americans - Greater Seattle Chapter, and the US Census Bureau.

The purpose was to help kick off the 2010 census and make sure our community members know the importance of being counted.

Speakers from a variety of community groups were in attendance, all highlighting the need for an accurate count.

CISC applauds the work the Census Bureau is doing and is a proud partner in our 2010 Census count efforts!


Check out the video here!

2010 Census Briefing

This afternoon CISC and the Organization of Chinese Americans - Greater Seattle chapter teamed up to brief the community on the 2010 census.

We're now less than one year away from the big count and CISC is working actively with other partners to educate our community on the importance of being counted.

Did you know that for every person counted by the census, as much as $800 comes from the federal government to the local community each year?

And the individual information collected stays confidential for 74 years. It doesn't get shared with immigration, housing authorities, welfare agencies or police.

For more information, click here. And stay tuned for more updates as we get closer!