San Diego County residents should expect to see an official 2010 Census form in their mailbox sometime next week. Census organizers say they've been working all year for this moment.
They say the message is simple, everyone needs to be counted once where they live.
Organizers have been trying to spread the word but next week it will be up to residents to fill out their census forms.
Spokesman Robert Barboa says census workers will be sent out to count people who don’t return their forms.
“We will create a non-response follow-up,” Barboa says. “That's when we have enumerators come to your home and either help you fill out the questionnaire or we'll fill out the questionnaire for you.”
Borboa says they've been working hard to reach out to certain immigrant populations to gain their trust. They've also been trying to pinpoint hard-to-reach communities.
“There are many people that have been recently displaced because of foreclosure. They may be living out of an RV, they might living out of a car, they may be living in a homeless shelter. So if that's where they are currently, then that's where they should be counted,” he says.
Census findings help government officials determine where to distribute billions of dollars in funding. Borboa says most San Diego County residents should have already received a mailer to remind them of the importance of filling out their forms.
Organizers say Latino communities missed out on billions of dollars in government funding after the last census because not enough Latinos were counted.
Organizers launched one of the largest public awareness campaigns in U.S. history so that won't happen again this year. The campaign includes a program called Census In The Schools.
Borboa says census materials and information have been sent to school districts so children of immigrant families can educate their parents. Borboa says they're also focusing on teenagers.
“If you are 15 years old and older, you are allowed to fill out the census forms (for parents). So we wanted to engage that high school segment, to let them know how important this is.”
