FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Monday, December 2, 2019
STEPHENVILLE, Texas — Tarleton State University Professor Jennifer Edwards received a $50,000 grant from the Hogg Foundation for Mental Health for the Texas Communities Count initiative to support complete count efforts in Texas for the 2020 U.S. Census.
Dr. Edwards will focus on Shelby, Panola and Rusk counties in East Texas, three of the hardest-to-count counties in the nation.
“I am excited about engaging the rural East Texas area with the census,” she said. “Over five generations of my family are from this part of Texas, and I know the important role of the census for Panola, Rusk and Shelby counties. I look forward to working with the residents in this area.”
Hard-to-count populations are defined as persons who typically do not get captured in census data via Census Bureau research.
Examples are children under the age of 5, highly mobile people, racial and ethnic minorities, non-English speakers, low-income and homeless people, and undocumented immigrants. People with mental health conditions are also an HTC population.
The goals outlined in Edwards’ proposal include selecting and training 200 ambassadors and junior ambassadors to tell the importance of the census to the community, and educating at least 3,000 residents in the tri-county area about the crucial nature of the census.
An accurate and complete census is necessary to determine fair allocation of federal dollars for resources, services and infrastructure that support quality of life.
“It’s not every day that the foundation chooses to be part of a larger grassroots campaign like this,” said Dr. Octavio N. Martinez, Jr., executive director of the Hogg Foundation and senior associate vice president for diversity and community engagement at the University of Texas at Austin. “But the stakes, particularly for historically excluded and marginalized communities, are high enough to warrant our direct involvement in this effort.”
Tarleton, founding member of The Texas A&M University System, provides a student-focused, value-driven education marked by academic innovation and a dedication to transform today’s scholars into tomorrow’s leaders. It offers degree programs to more than 13,000 students at Stephenville, Fort Worth, Waco, Midlothian, RELLIS Academic Alliance in Bryan, and online, emphasizing real-world learning experiences that address societal needs while maintaining its core values of tradition, integrity, civility, excellence, leadership and service.
Contact: Phil Riddle, News and Information Specialist
817-484-4415
priddle@tarleton.edu
