Whether it’s with friends, family, neighbors, coworkers, classmates or just someone within earshot, it’s time to start talking about the upcoming Census.

The city and county have appointed a local committee to spread the word about the census in the public eye as much as possible this year.

Everyone is being encouraged to take the 10 minutes to fill out the 2020 Census come April 1.

Lubbock County Judge Curtis Parrish said there’s a lot at stake. The distribution of federal dollars depends on the Census count. District lines for Congressional seats down to the school board and local city council depend on the Census count. Businesses use the Census count to determine future storefronts. Governments and nonprofits use Census data to determine where resources need to be spent.

The distribution of dollars and drawing district lines are the two main talking points.

The U.S. Census Bureau says information from the Census determines how $675 billion is spent to support states, counties and communities.

Dwight McDonald, chairman of Complete Count LBK, said every uncounted person is a loss of about $1,500 per year in federal funds. These are funds for roads, hospitals, Medicaid and Medicare, housing support, and many other federal programs.

And out here in West Texas, fear is mounting that we could lose yet another seat in Congress, or even the Texas House. Parrish said Lubbock needs the numbers to back up the fight for representation.

So it’s important for everyone to be counted. However there are pockets of the community that are more difficult to reach. College kids are a significant example of that in Lubbock, and so the committee is wanting to get university officials, professors and students to talk to one another about the Census.

The 2020 Census is asking where people are on April 1. The question is, “How many people were living or staying in this house, apartment, or mobile home on April 1, 2020?”

So students at Texas Tech and Lubbock Christian University will be counted here in Lubbock.

At least they should be.

Low-income families, foster kids, homeless adults and anyone who’s too busy or uninterested in building a relationship within a community are hard to reach. So Census workers will be walking blocks, going to schools, visiting businesses and places of worship, to talk about the Census.

“A large segment of our society does not respond to the census,” Chairman McDonald said. “But we need to get everyone counted. It is important that we get a larger turnout in those hard to count areas than we have before.”

Mailers for the 2020 Census go out in March, and the census begins April 1, 2020. The 2020 Census should be easier than ever to fill out because it can be completed online.

Lubbock’s census office is still in need of workers. Contact information is available on the local website, completecountlbk.com.

Lubbock’s Complete Count Committee encourages anyone to get involved. They have posters to hang up in offices, information to pass out to neighbors, and video links that can be sent to anyone. The committee can be contacted through the website.

One of the hurdles is mistrust, particularly among some immigrants after the Trump administration’s push to include a question about citizenship status on the Census form. That effort ultimately was denied.

Census workers are trying to make it clear that all information is confidential — by law the information cannot be shared with other government agencies, including law enforcement.

Undocumented residents should fill out the 2020 Census. There is not a question about citizenship on the Census.

Members of the complete count committee hosted a census kickoff event on Thursday at Texas Tech’s campus. It was more of a rally, since most of the people in attendance were part of the committee. Judge Parrish and Chairman McDonald both spoke, and then took questions along with Lubbock Mayor Dan Pope and Alice Lozada, partnership specialist with the U.S. Census Bureau.

Much of the discussion had to do with the importance of the Census and the efforts to reach everyone.

“Your job is to spread the word,” Parrish said to the audience. “We deem you, we call you, trusted voices. We all kind of live in a Venn Diagram, and sometimes our circles connect, sometimes they don’t. You live in a circle that I may be able to connect with. So we depend on you to make sure that your voice is heard in your circle. Remind everyone how important this Census is.”