By News One March 26, 2010

From San Jose Mercury News: <br>

ST. LOUIS — "Dear Pastor," the letter began. "The U.S. Census Bureau needs your assistance, as community leaders, to help us fill crucial positions in order to carry out a fair and accurate count in the 2010 Census."

The March 10 letter was sent by the Rev. James Morris, pastor of Lane Tabernacle Christian Methodist Episcopal Church in St. Louis, who also represents the 58th Missouri House district as a Democrat.

Morris' letter asked pastors to recruit people in their congregations to apply for census jobs.

"This will help in providing your community with its just share of federal resources," Morris wrote.

U.S. Census forms began arriving in mailboxes last week, and census officials are asking people to fill out the 10 questions on the form and mail it back by April 1. Those homes that don't send the form back by then can expect a visit from an "enumerator," a census worker who will go door-to-door asking the same questions that are on the original form. Morris wants to make sure those temporary jobs — which start at $17 per hour — are filled by people in his neighborhoods.

The Rev. Anthony Witherspoon, pastor of Washington Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church in St. Louis, received Morris' letter, and took it to heart. "He asked us to tell the people what the census is for, and to spread the word that this is an important thing for our community," Witherspoon said.

So he's doing his part — discussing the census with congregation members, and printing census materials in Washington Metropolitan's bulletin.

Faith-based partners have been working alongside the U.S. Census Bureau with a two-pronged goal. The first is to ease fears that the census is a way for the federal government to gain access to their private lives. And the second is to raise awareness that increased participation in the census brings more federal money into their communities.

Ministers, especially among African-Americans, are seen as trustworthy sources of information, and the Census Bureau is relying on that relationship to get its message out.

As director of the U.S. Commerce Department's Faith Based and Neighborhood Partnerships program, Cedric Grant has been planning that organizational effort, leading the push to get religious organizations involved in promoting census participation.

At a roundtable discussion with community leaders last week at the Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis, Grant said that while church leaders have helped get the word out during previous censuses, the 2010 partnership with religious organizations has been "the most robust" ever.

"Like anything else, you get better as you go," Grant said.

He said U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke led eight town hall and roundtable meetings with leaders of several faith traditions around the country between last June and this February.

That kind of access to a Cabinet member shows the promise the Census Bureau believes faith-based leaders have in getting the bureau's message out to their flocks, Grant said.

The message is so important, faith leaders say, because of what's riding on the final census count.

About $400 billion in government funding is allocated each year to states, counties and cities based on population. The money goes to about 140 programs, including school lunches, senior citizen services and highway construction.