Collier County Public Schools wants more residents included in the 2020 U.S. Census, so community members and organizations are forming a work group.

“This isn’t a CCPS thing,” school district spokesman Chad Oliver said. “This is a Collier County thing. We recognize that we can either sit back and hope for participation or we can get out there and do something about it.”

The school district, which started planning to meet in September, is hosting its first work group meeting on Oct. 10 at the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. administration center in Naples.

Community members were invited by the district, Oliver said. Those participating in the work group, include the Greater Naples Chamber of Commerce, the Boys and Girls Club of Collier County, Champions for Learning, the Immokalee Foundation, the Benison Center, CareerSource Southwest Florida and Collier County.

More:Collier commissioners consider ways to boost census participation

Instead of creating its own complete count committee, the Collier County Commission last week decided to have the county join the school district's effort.

With the school district already working to mount a countywide complete count initiative, it became redundant for the county to do the same, said John Mullins, government affairs manager for the county.

"It just made more sense for the county to participate with them," he said.

A county staff member will be the point of contact for the census effort and will attend the work group meeting to represent the county, Mullins said.

The work group is open to anyone who wants to help with 2020 census participation, Oliver said. The district’s meeting is public, but members of the community who want to attend should contact the school district's communications department, he said.

“It’s more of strategy session to get all of these key partners on board,” Oliver said.

At the meeting, Michelle Malsbury, a partnership specialist with the U.S. Census Bureau, will share her insight on historical data and pockets of the county traditionally undercounted, Oliver said.

In Collier, areas that traditionally have had lower response rates to the census include Immokalee and Golden Gate.

With six months until the census launches, Oliver said it's the first of many work group meetings.

More:Five things to know about who lives in Collier County

Data from the census is used to determine the number of seats each state has in the U.S. House of Representatives, which in turn impacts a state’s electoral college votes and provides the basis for redistricting. Census results are also used to distribute billions in federal funds annually.

"I think we all agree that it’s critically important that we get an accurate count," Commissioner Burt Saunders said during a commission meeting last week.

Census data is used to determine federal allocations for various education-related programs, including Title I and special education grants, the national school lunch program and the Head Start preschool program.

Connect with Patrick Riley at patrick.riley@naplesnews.com or on Twitter @PatJRiley. Connect with Rachel Fradette at rachel.fradette@naplesnews.com or on Twitter @Rachel_Fradette.

Explore the data:Explore Collier County census data with our new interactive map

Census data:Nearly 23,000 people moved to Collier, Lee counties between 2017 and 2018, census reports