GLENDALE, CA–The Armenian National Committee – Western Region (ANC-WR) recently launched the “ANCensus 2010” campaign. Working in partnership with the Census 2010, the ANC-WR seeks to boost the participation rate of Armenian Americans in the 2010 Census count by educating the community and increasing awareness about the significance of the headcount.
The ANC-WR Census 2010 campaign efforts are supported in part by a grant from the California Community Foundation. The grant will assist the ANC-WR to conduct an aggressive community outreach campaign for the 2010 Census. The goals of the ANCensus 2010 project include maximizing Armenian American participation in the 2010 headcount and informing the community to indicate “Armenian” as their race on the questionnaire.
The outreach campaign also allows for re-granting opportunities to Armenian American nonprofit organizations. The ANC-WR will distribute grants in the coming months to those Armenian American organizations that are willing to conduct Census outreach work. Organizations must submit proposal applications by Friday, February 5, 2010. For more information on re-granting opportunities, please visit ANCensus2010.org or call the ANCensus 2010 Hotline at (888) 666-4761.
“One of the primary goals for the outreach campaign is to increase the number of Armenian Americans who participate in the 2010 census and ensure that the questionnaires accurately reflect our ethnic group,” said Tamar Baboujian, Director of the ANCensus 2010 Project. “We are thankful to the California Community Foundation for giving us the opportunity to conduct and execute this campaign in a sophisticated and efficient manner.”
The Armenian National Committee – Western Region is the largest Armenian American grassroots community organization in the Western United States. Working in coordination with a network of offices, chapters, and supporters throughout the Western United States and affiliated organizations around the country, the ANC-WR works to promote understanding regarding issues of concern to the Armenian American community.
This probably the least glamerous but most important thing that can be done. If we want to take charge of our own destiny, instead of relying on these prostitute of politicians, like McCain, Lieberman, Byrd etc…….we must stand up and be counted.
Does this make sense? Armenian is not a race its an ethnicity, but the only ethnicity being asked on the 2010 census form is Hispanic either yes or no. There is no place to add another ethnicity.
The ANC might “like” you to write in Armenian under race, but that would not be accurate. I find it hard to believe that someone or anyone working in the census would suggest that Armenians mark other in race and put Armenian. Whether you like it or not the ONLY ethnicity being asked is Hispanic. You can kick and scream and complain and say its not fair but it is what it is.
Extending this example then all Iranians should mark Iranian under race and all Ethiopians should mark other and write in Ethiopian and all….well you get the point
Complain to your local congressman.
I want to let everyone know that the Census Bureau actually wants to let everyone know that they have an opportunity to be counted the way they want to. Since they do not ask the ethnicity question from any other minority group but the hispanic, then that is why they have allowed everyone to put their ethnicity under some other race. They are aware of it that Armenian is ethnicity and not a race but since the questionnaires are already printed, they are not going to chnge it this time around. And for everyone’s information, yes Iranians will write Iranian under some other race like many other ethnic groups that are not listed on the questionnaire. We have to be smart about it and use this opportunity and be counted as an Armenian, otherwise we won’t have the chance for another 10 years. We need to unite and let the entire nation’s Armenians know about it. We have an Armenian representative who is hired by the Census Bureau for the first time in history, to do an outreach to the entire Armenian Population in Southern CA. This was the first step and she has done an incredible job by visiting all our orgnaizations, churches, schools, businesses, media, etc… However, this is not a one person job and we all need to take our own part to make sure every armenian gets counted as an ARMENIAN. Support this and together we will make this happen and then use the data to get our fair share of funding for the next ten years so we can build what the Armenian community needs.