Responding to concerns raised by members of Congress and civil rights advocates — including The Leadership Conference — the Justice Department confirmed this week that information collected by the Census Bureau in the 2010 population count will remain confidential and is not subject to sharing or disclosure under the Patriot Act.

As the Census Bureau gears up to conduct the 2010 census, Rep. Silvestre Reyes, D. Texas, has introduced a resolution that designates March 2010 as Census Awareness Month to encourage all people in the United States to participate so that the decennial count is fair and accurate.

A recent Pew poll on attitudes toward the upcoming census revealed that nine in 10 Americans considered the decennial count as either "very" (60 percent) or "somewhat" (30 percent) important. But the poll also found that, even though respondents rated the census as highly important, this did not necessarily mean that there would be greater participation.

As part of the "Make Yourself Count" Census 2010 campaign, The Leadership Conference Education Fund is working with partner organizations for a "day of action" on December 22 to mark 100 days until the 2010 census begins and to raise awareness in traditionally hard-to-count communities about the importance of participating in the census.

The "day of action" will focus on outreach through faith-based communities. In a webinar, representatives from Georgia Association of Latino Elected Officials (GALEO), Center for Pan Asian Community Services, Inc. (CPACS) and the Atlanta Urban League discussed how local organizations are incorporating faith-based messaging into their census outreach efforts and identified best practices for strategies that have been successful in educating and engaging traditionally hard-to-count populations on the importance of the census. The speakers also highlighted what groups can do to integrate census outreach into existing programs and activities during the week of December 22.

As part of the 2010 population count, the Census Bureau is planning to hire more than one million temporary workers nationwide. 

The initiative is intended to ensure that the hardest-to-count populations – including communities of color, children, persons with disabilities, and people who speak a language other than English – are fully counted. Available positions include census takers, crew leaders, supervisors, and administrative personnel.

The Leadership Conference on Civil Rights Education Fund (LCCREF) has partnered with four national civil rights organizations, and will be working closely with local organizations in 13 key areas around the country, to encourage census participation among hard-to-count populations. LCCREF is urging residents to apply for positions with the Census Bureau to help count their communities. As temporary census employees, residents will have an opportunity to play an important role in making sure that their communities are fully counted in the 2010 census.