In November, Newark hosted high school seniors from across the region for a Census Awareness Day event. By educating the youth who often act as interpreters for their immigrant parents and adult family members, the Urban League Guild of Essex County and the New Jersey chapters of the Urban League Young Professionals are looking to get more families, particularly immigrant and undocumented members of the community, to be counted in 2020.
But if community members, especially young people, don’t understand the benefits of the census, “we already have a roadblock,” Monique Fletcher told TapInto Newark. Monique, the president of the Urban League of Hudson County and North Star Academy teacher, said that she overheard students saying neither they nor their parents knew what the census was, and why events like the one mentioned above are important.