North Atlanta District Sponsors Census 2020 Training

On Saturday, November 2, the North Atlanta District Lay Organization, the Social Action Commission of Big Bethel AME Church, and the Laura Turner WMS of Big Bethel AME Church hosted a Census Training workshop at Big Bethel AME Church in Atlanta. Presenters from the U.S. Census Bureau facilitated the workshop. Attendees from the district, conference, and community were present.

The main focus of the workshop was sharing how the Census affects communities and the importance of making sure everyone is counted. The facilitators discussed the need for Complete Count Committees, which are the active groups that undertake to get the information out to the community. The goal is to establish 10,000 CCCs in the state of Georgia. Big Bethel’s Social Action Commission and the Laura Turner WMS joined with the North Atlanta District to form a local CCC.

There are certain well-defined steps formulated by the Census Bureau that the Committee plans to take. They include selecting a chairperson to receive information from the Census, contacting local government agencies to partner with the Committee, visiting City Hall to get information about the Census, forming subcommittees to work with the various agencies in the community, advertising the Census and displaying Census information, and attending Neighborhood Planning Units meetings to get information out to the various neighborhoods.

We are currently in the Education Phase of the Census timeline, which lasts until the end of the year. January-February 2020 is the Awareness Phase. The Motivation Phase runs from March-May 2020. The Reminder phase is from May-June 2020. The Thank You phase starts on July 1, 2020. The 2020 day of the Census is April 1. The heads of the three organizations will begin meetings soon to organize an action plan for the North Atlanta District.