MATTAPOISETT — The League of Women Voters Southcoast has been selected for a grant of $1,850 for the upcoming 2020 Census. The organization will partner with librarians and town clerks on the South Coast, to reach out to historically underserved and hard-to-count populations and achieve a complete count for the 2020 Census. 

The groups will develop and implement a systematic outreach program to reach the hard to count population using the media, mailings, canvassing, phone banking and public forums, said Kristen Eastman, spokeswoman for the League.

Hard to count populations include the homeless, households with limited to no English, immigrant communities, individuals with difficulty accessing the internet or otherwise completing the form and formerly incarcerated persons and persons with disabilities.

The purpose of the Decennial Census is to conduct a census of the population and housing and disseminate the results to the President, the states, and the American people. Congressional and state legislative districts, school districts and voting precincts are drawn from Census results, as are enforcing voting rights and civil rights legislation and distributing federal dollars to states.