CaribPR Wire

CaribPR Wire, NEW YORK, NY, Weds. April 8, 2009: CaribID, the movement to get an accurate count of Caribbean nationals in the U.S. by the Census, was the lone Caribbean organization that on Tuesday joined New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg at his 2010 Census kick-off.
The city announcement by the mayor was held at the Queens Public Library in the diverse area of Jamaica Queens, home to many Caribbean residents, and featured many representatives from the African, Asian, African American and Latino communities.
Bloomberg on Tuesday officially announced the appointment of Stacey Cumberbatch as the City Census Coordinator while telling the media and community organizers gathered that NYC has the highest percentage of `hard-to-count` residents in the country.
He stressed that for 2010, the city is hoping for a 100 percent response rate, working closely with the U.S. Census Bureau Regional Office, key city agencies and community organizations, cultural and educational institutions, faith-based organizations, labor unions, immigrant advocacy groups and others. 
Bloomberg reminded those gathered that facts are dependent on numbers and it’s the numbers that determine how annual federal funds are distributed to New York City to fund schools, counter-terrorism and security efforts, and social service organizations. Elected representation at the federal, state and local levels is also determined by the Census, he said, while revealing that in the 2000 Census, the response rate in the city was 55 percent, well below the national average of 67 percent. For the significant Caribbean communities in Queens, Brooklyn and the Bronx, the response rate was at 35 percent, well below the city average. Addressing the concerns of many undocumented immigrants, the mayor reiterated that a key component to the city’s outreach effort will be informing the public that under federal law, the personal information collected by the Census is entirely confidential, and cannot be shared with any federal, state, or city agency. Mayor Bloomberg was joined at the announcement by top members of the New York/NY Census, including Lester A. Farthing, the U.S. Census Bureau’s New York regional director.
`The partnership and collaboration taking place now in 2009 with the Census Bureau and Mayor Bloomberg’s Census Office will prove to be invaluable in reaching our goal of getting the most accurate count in 2010 for New York City,` said Lester A. Farthing, the U.S. Census Bureau’s New York Regional Director.  `We want residents to know that the 2010 census is easy, it’s safe and it’s important; by law, answers provided to the Bureau cannot be shared with any other agency or person, and this will be the shortest questionnaire ever.`
`The Census is a critically important issue to our City and I want to thank the Mayor for focusing on it by establishing the NYC 2010 Census Office, with the mission of ensuring that all New Yorkers are aware of the upcoming 2010 Census and encouraged to participate,` added Cumberbatch. `I look forward to working with the regional census office, City agencies and communities across New York City to do everything we can to ensure every New Yorker is counted.` 
The mayor earlier in the day signed an executive order to create the NYC 2010 Census Office.
For more on CaribID and the movement and how you can be an ambassador in the process, log on to www.caribid2010.com .