Published on: Wednesday, December 09, 2009

By Justin Karp

As 2009 winds down, the Census Bureau is gearing up for its busiest year in a decade – the 2010 Census, and they’re counting on you to help make their job easier.

The bureau recently opened local offices in LaPlata, Largo and Catonsville.

A campaign to start informing Americans about the importance and ease of participating in the census will start en masse in January, according to Nunzio Cerniglia, an assistant regional census manager. “We want to reinforce the message of the census and reach out to those responsible civic individuals to get the word out,” he said.

The last head count took place in 2000, which counted more than 300 million people in the United States, according to the Census Web site.

The effort employs some of the most sophisticated and technical and operational tools as well as a workforce of 1.4 million temporary employees to count every man, woman and child.  Census results are the basis for congressional representation as well as the distribution of federal, state, and local funds totaling more than $400 billion a year.  Census Day is April 1, 2010.

The main goal of the campaign is to let people know how easy, safe and important participating in the census is. Cerniglia said that filling out your form is not only required by law but only takes about 10 minutes.

“If you’re living in a community, we need for you to take part,” he said. “If their children are in the schools; if they need hospital care, they need to participate and know that it’s safe.”

Yvette Nunez of the Census Bureau said the census does not require you to share your social security number or be a documented U.S. citizen.

The main goal of the census is to make sure that representation in Congress is proportionally representing the population, Cerniglia said.

Facilities and services such as transportation, job training, health care, schools and emergency response all receive proportional funding based on the results of the census.  “Whatever the state needs appropriated for distribution comes from an accurate population count,” Cerniglia said.

Along with the 2010 Census comes the need for an enormous number of temporary workers to fully complete the job.

Cerniglia said that getting involved requires contacting your local bureau office and taking a 30-minute exam after screening.

“It is 10 minutes and 10 questions, and it lasts 10 years,” he said.

To get involved in helping the Census Bureau, the toll-free phone number to start the process is 866-861-2010. For more information visit www.2010census.gov.