How We?re Continuing to Engage with Everyone in 2023
APRIL 3, 2023
Written by: Robert L. Santos, Director
I tend to be an empath. I can very much sense people?s joy, their sadness, their pain. But I can?t read minds. And that is why it?s critical that I ? and more importantly, we, at the U.S. Census Bureau ? reach out to you in your roles as partners, stakeholders, data users, policymakers and the public. We need to understand your needs, your concerns and more generally your perspectives on matters related to Census Bureau statistical data products. And occasionally we need to talk through misperceptions that can occur on both our parts.
That is why a principal priority as your director of the Census Bureau is to seek out, listen to and converse with the multitude of diverse voices across our nation. As I told you at the end of last year, we are actively engaging the public. We recognize the value and importance of different perspectives. They help us to be innovative and creative, and ultimately produce accurate, relevant and useful data on our nation?s people, places and economy.
As an agency, we?re implementing a community-of-the-whole effort to accomplish our mission. We realized from our 2020 Census experience that we cannot achieve our mission without external input and collaboration from you ? our stakeholders, partners and the public. Toward that end, I continue to make a concerted effort to engage stakeholders, partners and local communities across America. That was the case for 2022, and that certainly has remained true thus far for 2023.
In the first quarter of 2023, I continued my outreach to our stakeholders in five states (Illinois, Massachusetts, New York, Tennessee and Texas) and the District of Columbia, meeting with advocacy and community-based organizations, chambers of commerce, government officials, tribal leaders, businesses, academics and more along the way. Our conversations with these groups were wide-ranging and very fruitful, and I look forward to engaging with other stakeholders in more states soon. Continue reading...
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