APPLETINIES Tiny & Tasty Chocolates was this year’s gift bag sponsor at Luxury Experience & CO Celebrity Gifting Lounge in partnership with The Vanderpump Dog Foundation and Valerie Beverly Hills during the 77^th Annual Golden Globe weekend on January 4, 2020 in Beverly Hills, California. Guest attendees included Chad Johnson(ABC’s The bachelorette; Bachelor In Paradise), Aubury Marquez (NBC’s Chicago Fire), Olden Polynic (Former NBA Player), Sally Kirkland (Best Actress Oscar Nominee, Golden Globe winner, Independent Spirit Award winner, and veteran of over 200 films), and many others.

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APPLETINIES Tiny & Tasty Chocolates is a family owned business by mother and son duo Sonja Wilfling and Lukas Wilfling who hail from Sinabelkrichen, the apple region of Austria, about an hour and a half from Vienna. APPLETINIES are 100% organic, gluten free, vegetarian, vegan & kosher, with no preservatives, no artificial ingredients, and 100% made in Austria offering nine different flavours. They are THE healthy sweets alternative with 100% chocolate taste and a particularly high addictive factor.

What are APPLETINIES? Start with organically grown apples, dried with care, and then covered in a wafer-thin layer of melt-in-your-mouth organic chocolate. Available in nine flavors and bundled in award-winning packaging. 

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Organically grown chunks of apple dried with care, covered in delicate, melt-in-your-mouth organic which consists of gently dried apple pieces, covered with a wafer-thin layer of tenderly melting organic chocolate in the flavours whole milk, dark & white chocolate with cinnamon. Once Appletinies – always Appletinies with Chocolate!

APPLETINIES Tiny & Tasty Chocolates are now available on Amazon and can be found under APPLETINIES Sweets.

To read more about APPLETINIES Tiny & Tasty Chocolates, visit their website at http://appletinies.com.

Follow APPLETINIES on Social Media  Facebook Appletines facebook.com/appletinies and on Instagram Appletinies.tinyandtasty instagram.com/appletinies.tinyandtasty

On December 5, 2019, Dr. Deborah Winn gained her heavenly wings. She was 66 years old.

Born on September 24, 1953, Deborah was the second youngest of nine children. She was born in Kansas City, KS and came to Los Angeles, California with her family at a very young age. She attended Jefferson High School in Los Angeles, California. She gave birth to four children and then later married Aubrey Winn on September 24, 1988 where he helped raise her children as his own.

Deborah was very instrumental within both Los Angeles and San Bernardino Communities. She accomplished philanthropical deeds through her organization Willing Winn Associations and Missions (WWAM Inc.). Through WWAM she was able to pursue and accomplish her purpose in life by educating and meeting the basic living needs of underprivileged families and individuals with love and respect; thereby, leading them to self-sufficiency.

Some of the major accomplishments that Deborah achieved included: feeding over 15,000 people at the Los Angeles Sports Arena; being honored at the 2014 Unforgettable Foundation’s gala; founding Juneteenth in San Bernardino where she held three celebrations (2013 at Perris Hill Park, 2014 on the block of Wall Street and 2017 at San Bernardino Valley College); and WWAM also adopted Juanita Beckley Elementary School in San Bernardino where Mrs. Winn provided food services and Christmas Toy Giveaways to over 300 students.  

In addition to her community efforts, the Winns also housed seven exchange students from all over the world. These students came from Korea, Japan, Rio de Janeiro, India and Brazil. Through WWAM, the Winns provided children with the opportunities to experience outgoings that they wouldn’t be able to experience without the help of WWAM. These outgoings included: Los Angeles Lakers and Clippers games, Disney On Ice, the Philharmonic Orchestra, the Universal Soul Circus, the L.A. Kings Hockey games, and more.

The community efforts did not stop there though. Upon coming to San Bernardino from Whitter, California, Deborah moved to one of the notorious areas of the Westside of San Bernardino— Wall Street. Wall Street, also known as Operation Phoenix, has since become transformed after WWAM took over. WWAM Inc., provided monthly fish frys, BBQs and community block parties as a means to cease the violence in that area. Because of this, Deborah ‘adopted’ men from the ages of 18 up to 80-years old who referred to themselves as ‘Mommas Boys’.

Dr. Deborah Winn’s legacy will continue to live on. She is preceded in death by her parents, brothers Buford “Blue” Lewis, Orlando “Bear” Lewis, and sister Donetta “Dee Dee” Witherspoon. She is survived by her husband Aubrey Winn; five siblings; four children: TaMeeka, Dalia, Brittnay and Michael; 31 grandchildren; and a host of nieces, nephews, and other family members and close friends.

A memorial is set for Sunday, January 19 at 4 p.m., at the Winn home on Wall Avenue in San Bernardino. For those that are interested in attending, please email Dalia at daliamac1@yahoo.com.

By Lou Yeboah

Boy, only, if we would take that stance, how different our lives would be. But naw, we want, “Our Will”  to be done. Well, News Flash! It’s not about “Our Will,” it’s about “God’s Will,” and the sooner we register that the better off we will be.  For thus saith the Lord, “You come into the New Year expecting Me to do for you what you want do for Me. Tell Me… What have you done for Me lately? Have you fed the hungry? Visited the sick? Or even entertained strangers? No! Then why do you bother Me? What do you want from Me? You want Me to give you what you want, while all of the time you have neglected, overlooked, and not even considered my will, nor my work. Well forget about it! If you can’t keep My Commandments, why should I let you inquire of me at all? [Ezekiel 14:3]. I tell you, “If you love me, you will obey what I command. For whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one that gets My blessings. So until you obey, don’t expect my blessings, Period!  I told you, “My New is not Your New in 2020, and I don’t care what man has prophesied to you, until you obey, forget about it! The Great I Am has spoken!”

I tell you, just as Haggai’s message was blunt and he pulled no punches and wasted no words, I want you to know that God is withholding His blessing because your priorities are not right. As Haggai said, “Put God’s house first and He will bless you.” Jesus said the same thing: “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be provided for you.”  [Psalms 37:4] says, “Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart.” 

Understand that the blessings of God as promised to all believers do not materialize automatically. There are some things that God says we need to do to activate His blessings. According to [Deuteronomy 28:1-2] “If we will LISTEN diligently to the voice of the Lord our God, being watchful to DO ALL His commandments, THEN the Lord will set you high above all the nations of the earth, and all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you.  This is the key to unlocking the blessings of God in your life. [Psalm 112:1].

I believe that every year that God gives us on this earth is to be a year where we are as productive as we can be for His work and as pleasing as we can be for His glory. I hope that the longer you live the more you realize just how fleeting these years are and just how important it is to maximize the potential of each year for being what you ought to be and doing what you ought to do. The truth that obedience to God brings blessing, is the first principle in understanding what it means to be a child of God. Failure to understand this first principle and failure to implement it is to forfeit God’s best  in your life. 

I write this not to condemn anyone, but to remind us all that Jesus who suffered and died for us, expects something from us. We cannot expect to continually take and take from Him and not do something for Him. It is after all, a relationship that we have with Him, and relationships are all about give and take. God wants us to do our part – so He can do His. 

Listen…. Follow… Do…. Blessings Activated by Obedience.  Welcome to the New Year… 2020!

SAN BERNARDINO, CA— The Northwest Redevelopment Project Area Committee is hosting a Town Hall and Candidates Forum featuring the two candidates for the city’s 6^th Ward Council Seat: Bessine Littlefield-Richard and Kimberly Calvin. 

The forum will be held at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, January 21, at the Family Life Center located at 1505 Highland Avenue in San Bernardino.  The forum is open to the public and attendees are encouraged to meet the candidates, hear their platforms and find out any recent events affecting the 6^th Ward.

The Northwest Redevelopment Project Area Committee is an oversight organization.  The committee serves as a liaison to the city’s mayor, city council members and various departments.  The organization collaborates with other PACS, public and private agencies on workshops, seminars, and outreach on projects and services benefiting residents and businesses in the 6^th Ward and citywide. For more information, contact them at (909) 913-0831. 

ARABIAN SEA (Jan. 6, 2020) Aircrew Survival Equipmentman 1st Class Paul Villaruz, right, from Chino Hills, California, assigned to the “Sunliners” of Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA) 81, tests oxygen flow in pilot gear in a paraloft aboard the aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman (CVN 75) in the Arabian Sea Jan. 6, 2020. The Harry S. Truman Carrier Strike Group is deployed to the U.S. 5th Fleet area of operations in support of naval operations to ensure maritime stability and security in the Central Region, connecting the Mediterranean and the Pacific through the western Indian Ocean and three strategic choke points. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Kaysee Lohmann)   

SAN BERNARDINO, CA— Local non-profit organization, SistersWe (SW), has received two grants from the Arbor Day Foundation in conjunction with BNSF Railway (BNSF) for environmental beautification projects in San Bernardino.  They will be holding a celebration on Friday, January 10, 2020 from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the Viva La Boba and Breezeway located at 475-479 W. 4^th Street in San Bernardino.

Working with the owners of Viva La Boba, David Friedman and Tansu Philip, “The Historic Downtown San Bernardino Living Pocket Park Project” will turn the side of a building on 4^th Street into a “Living Wall” complete with an original sculpture created by local artist Nathaniel Gelston.  Surrounded by historic buildings, this block has the highest concentration of old buildings still standing in San Bernardino.  Succulents and other plants that help sequester oxygen will be planted on the wall using a hydroponics system; the adjacent alley way and courtyard will be developed into a community event space. Trees and shrubs will complete this urban green space, providing health and environmental benefits to the entire community.

“The Muscoy Pocket Park Project” will add an additional 15 trees to an existing SistersWe project on a donated property located at the corners of California and Nolan Streets.  The trees will line the walkway leading to a circular seating area in the center of the pocket park.  The planted trees will be monitored by SW for three years for growth and health conditions as part of a statewide “Urban Forest” project.  Future plans include adding 20 raised-bed family garden plots, a Farmer’s Market, movie nights and other family activities throughout the year.  

The mission of SW is to provide Inland Empire residents and communities with cleaner air, healthier eating options and a healthier environment.  They will accomplish that by donating and planting trees to provide a beautiful canopy, and sequester carbon in our cities and neighborhoods. Other community gardens will be established at various locations throughout the IE.  Founded in December 2018, SW is the brain child of biological sisters Nedra Myricks, Vanessa Dean and Adrienne Thomas.  Vanessa and Adrienne are graduates of the “Green Infrastructure” training program and wanted to bring the knowledge and skills they acquired to their community and others.  Adrienne also recently received her Master Gardner certification.  Nedra is a retired Administrative Professional and functions as Executive Assistant for the group.  The sisters are natives of San Bernardino and have a long history of supporting community activities in the art and music fields.

Please join them as they announce the development of these two new Pocket Park projects and take a tour of the future “Living Wall” site.  Several sample concepts of Nathaniel Gelston’s artwork will be on display for the public to vote for their favorite. Don’t miss out on your chance to vote! 

By Aldon Thomas Stiles | California Black Media

Kim Kardashian West will likely check “Black or African American” on the US 2020 Census form when marking the race of her children.

In several interviews with various media outlets, the famous media personality and businesswoman, who lives in the San Fernando Valley near Calabasas, has said she’s very conscious of race when it comes to her and rapper Kanye West’s four children.

Kardashian, who is half-White and half-Armenian, has said she identifies the race of her children as “Black” and says the advocacy she has recently been involved in: addressing racial inequities in the criminal justice system – is partly inspired by the race of her children.

On this year’s census form, Kardashian’s other option for checking the race box to identify her children would be to select “Other.” That’s if she chooses to count them as bi-racial or mixed race.

Race and ethnicity have often been – and continue to be – controversial and misunderstood census categories. Experts suggest that some people might be confused about the difference between the two.

On the 2020 census forms,  there will be six ways people can identify their race: American Indian or Alaska Native; Asian; Black or African American; White; Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander; and Other.

Options will also be available for respondents to include an ethnic identification, too. For instance, a Trinidadian-American of African descent may select “Black or African American” under the racial category and write in “Trinidadian” under the ethnic category.

According to the Census Bureau, “Overlap of race and Hispanic ethnicity is the main comparability issue.” For example, the U.S. Census Bureau includes Black Hispanics in both the number of Blacks and in the number of Hispanics.

Dr. Walter Hawkins, former California State University San Bernardino Director of Research and Policy Analysis, helped clear some of that confusion by detailing the numerous ways people can self-identify on US 2020 Census forms, mentioning the “100 percent count.”

“Under the Census Bureau, in order to get the 100 percent count, they have to use what’s called the ‘Hispanic exclusive method’ because a person who is Hispanic can be any race. So, if you do not take that into consideration, you end up with over 100 percent,” said Hawkins.

Hawkins stated that this distinction affects the overall count for African Americans in California.

“The Black alone ‘non-Hispanic’ population in California is about 2.2 million compared to about 2.7 million if all racial and ethnic combinations are included,” Hawkins said.

Hawkins noted that much of the complication with racial self-identification originated from an old census rule called “head of household.”

“If you marked ‘Black,’ your whole house was Black. And if you marked ‘White,’ your whole house was White,” Hawkins said.

Data collected during national censuses, which the federal government conducts every 10 years, directly impacts not only the availability but also the quality of services in communities, according to Dr. Anthony Asadullah Samad, Executive Director of the Mervyn Dymally African American Political and Economic Institute (MDAAPEI) at California State University Dominguez Hills.

Inaccurate census counts can lead to billions of dollars lost in government funding for states and local communities. That loss of cash can be critical for already under-served neighborhoods that rely on federal and state tax dollars for social programs, healthcare, infrastructure, schools and other local public services. Census counts also determine the number of representatives a state is allotted in the US Congress.

“Cultural identity is important to every community. First, in understanding presence. Second, in understanding population growth,” Samad said. “Every ethnicity faces this challenge in the upcoming census, including Latinos and Asian Pacific Islanders, because demographic descriptions speak to a particular community’s service needs.”

According to Samad, African Americans have been at a disadvantage in this regard.

“For the last three censuses, there have been African-American undercounts,” Samad said. “The only ethnicity with larger undercounts have been Native Americans, largely due to their populations being on sovereign lands that limit census-taker access.”

According to the Census Bureau, the population of Black or African-American people who did not identify with any other race in 2018 counted for 6.5 percent of the overall population in California. Whereas, the population of people who identified as mixed race made up 3.9 percent of the state’s overall population.

The mixed population counts as its own category, making it unclear how many of these people have African lineage.

Samad pointed to another factor that might skew the amount of African Americans being accounted for in the Census: Fear.

“Black people have legitimate fears for sharing information with the federal government for numerous reasons,” Samad said. “However, there hasn’t been sufficient education tying the Census to the community’s welfare.”

Dr. Tecoy Porter, Sacramento President of the National Action Network, shares this concern.

“One of the reasons African Americans are undercounted are our household situations. We  tend to not want to reveal all of our information or we do not trust the government,” Porter said. “We think that information could be applied against us.”

Hawkins says he understands those fears. However, he believes that they should not prevent people from wanting to be counted.

“Most of the time if a person is skeptical, they won’t fill out the form at all,” Hawkins said. “But the Census information is completely confidential.”

While some experts underscored the importance of an individual selecting a specific race on his or her census questionnaire, others pointed to the significance of participants choosing how they want to identify themselves.

Lanae Norwood, Strategic Communications Director of the California Black Census and Redistricting Hub “My Black Counts,” stated that while educating African Americans on their options when identifying themselves during the 2020 Census is their goal, individual expression is equally important to her organization.

“Our civic engagement program is about educating and encouraging the Black community to be part of the census count. We are not telling blacks – or anybody for that matter – how to self- identify in the census or what box to check,” Norwood said. “we recognize that Black is not a monolith and contains much racial and ethnic diversity. We trust people to select the racial or ethnic identity that most represents them.”

COLTON, CA—- Arrowhead Regional Medical Center (ARMC) recently hosted several high school students in the Marketing, Nutrition Services and Medical Imaging departments. In 2018, ARMC was the pilot location for the GenerationGo! Career Pathways Program, which was established by the San Bernardino County Workforce Development Department in collaboration with other county agencies, K12, community colleges, and private businesses. GenerationGo! is a career pathway program providing on-the-job training for high school students.

“GenerationGo! is a rewarding program for us because we get to train the best and the brightest and help retain talent in the Inland Empire,” said Hospital Director, William Gilbert.

Bloomington High School student Alexis Ascencio, 17, recently worked in the hospital’s Marketing and Public Relations Department and learned how to write press releases, design graphics and posters, and prepare spreadsheets and reports.

“Participating in the GenerationGo! program helped me realize that I wanted to go to college to learn about marketing,” said Ascencio. “I enjoyed the work environment and learned about all the different jobs in the hospital.”

GenerationGo! students have the opportunity to participate in a wide variety of careers in the medical field and in the support, offices depending on their specific interest. For example, Ascencio was originally interested in the medical imaging field, but after learning about hospital marketing, she was drawn to the new career option.

For more information about GenerationGo! call 800-451-JOBS or visit http://wp.sbcounty.gov/workforce/youth/

RCHF and the City of Riverside provide a year-long fitness challenge for the Riverside community to promote health.  

Riverside, CA – Riverside Community Health Foundation (RCHF) in partnership with the City of Riverside, will present a year-long opportunity for Riverside residents to adopt healthy behaviors with health education classes and physical activity opportunities through the Start RIGHT (Riverside Is Getting Healthy Together), End Strong Challenge. 

The Start R.I.G.H.T. (Riverside Is Getting Healthy Together), End Strong kick-off on Saturday, January 25, 2020 from 10:00am to 2:00pm at Ryan Bonaminio Park (5000 Tequesquite Avenue, Riverside, CA 92506) will be an exciting time for participants to learn more about the opportunities RCHF has planned for the year. 

“I walk, I hike and bike and there is usually ‘Connect with the Mayor’ in partnership with Riverside Community Health Foundation and others” said Mayor Rusty Bailey during his Riverside Monthly on RiversideTV interview with Terri Akens, Director of Community Health Programs for RCHF and Amia Henderson, Senior Health Educator for RCHF. “I am out there [to] lead by example, [because] we are fit, fresh and fun in Riverside and this [Start RIGHT, End Strong] is an example of that.” 

 
The expo at this year’s Kick-Off event will include vendors from RUHS Mobile Health Clinic, BreckenFit, IEHP, Inland Regional Center, Boys & Girls Club, La Bufadora Food Truck and more. Information on health education classes and physical activity sessions will also be provided. 
  

Anita Inzunza, past Start RIGHT, End Strong participant and winner says the challenge helped her to maintain her health.”It wasn’t about winning for me,” said Anita, “satisfaction came from maintaining my weight. The classes helped me to understand how much and what I am supposed to be eating.” 

 
Classes, events and exercise sessions throughout the year include: Mental Health 101, Stress Management, Diabetes Cooking Class, monthly fitness challenges created by a local physician, Zumba Fitness, RIPPED, POP Pilates, Tai Chi, Aqua Aerobics, a Heart Healthy Seminar. Classes and events are provided at no cost! 

Getting fit during this year’s Start RIGHT challenge starts at the tip of your fingers through the new RCHF app, now available for download on all your mobile devices through your iOS App Store or Google Play Store.  Participants will “End Strong” in December 2020 during the Foundation’s grand finale of the healthy lifestyle change program. The celebration will include a recognition ceremony for the milestones reached in health by all participants and a grand prize will be offered to the top three participants with the highest accumulation of points. 

For more information about the Start R.I.G.H.T., End Strong challenge or how to register, please contact Amia Henderson at amia@rchf.org or call (951) 788-3471 ext. 135. Sign-up via Eventbrite at www.RCHF.org/StartRight

By Khalil Abdullah, Ethnic Media Services

PHOENIX, AZ. — In the conference room of the Phoenix Indian School Visitor Center, a chair sat empty at a recent convening of community media and stakeholders to promote Arizona’s 2020 census.

Lizbeth Luna, regional director for NALEO’s Arizona census initiative, abruptly cancelled as a speaker, learning her father had been detained by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE). The intersection of immigration and the census was one of several topics at the convening, but the empty chair spoke to the tenuous netherworld of immigrant status in the United States.

In June, the Supreme Court barred Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross from adding a question on citizenship to the Census 2020 form. The ruling was applauded by Katie Hobbs, Arizona’s Secretary of State, who supports a permanent ban on such an initiative. After the question’s dismissal, advocates continue to fear diminished participation in the census, particularly from the Latino community. Worries are the current administration will not respect the confidentiality of personal information, despite laws and fines discouraging the sharing of individual census responses among federal agencies.

At the convening, co-hosted by Ethnic Media Services, OneArizona, the Arizona Community Foundation and the Leadership Conference Education Fund, EMS executive director, Sandy Close encouraged attendees to collaborate in their messaging and outreach on Census 2020. Citing the decrease of traditional community media as one motivation, Close said the driving impetus for collaboration should be concern about the potential loss of census data-based funding for federal programs that contribute to children’s well-being. Children are the most likely to be undercounted and highly vulnerable to funding reductions.

“We, as media, need you, as community organizations, to extend your communication outreach, especially to populations that don’t have media outlets,” Close said. “Today’s meeting is an effort to forge a consensus across ethnic groups, community organizations, state and local government groups and other stakeholders. Do it for the kids.”

Jim Chang, state demographer, Arizona Office of Economic Opportunity, provided an overview of the state’s racial demographics. He projects that the decreasing and aging white population, currently comprising 54%, and the increasing, younger Latino one, now at 32%, would reach relative numerical parity by 2050 at 45% and 40% respectively. The balance of the population, with no cohort above 5%, is comprised of Asians, blacks, Native Americans and others.

“A lot of people I talk to believe that, right now, the births to Hispanic mothers are higher than the births to non-Hispanic whites,” Chang said, “but that was true only one year, 2007.” Since then, white, non-Hispanic women have led their Latina counterparts with no anticipated change through 2050. Importantly, Chang has seen estimates of Arizona’s 2010 census undercount of children at 4%, 7% and as high as 10%. “Every method has its flaws,” Chang said, but overall, compared to other states, Arizona did fairly well in its total population 2010 census assessment.

Alec Thompson, representing the Arizona governor’s office, acknowledged hard-to-count communities within the state where undercount percentages have been higher than those for children. Though the state legislature rejected his budget request to fund census public education initiatives, he said Gov. Doug Ducey has about $1.5 million for paid media advertising.

“We are hoping to grow that number,” Thompson said, with media outreach as part of a plan that includes a complete count committee’s credible messengers to reach diverse communities.  Government agencies will be directed to contact the customers they serve, for example, the state’s 6,000 foster parents will receive an email about the census.

Thompson said Arizona had spent no state money for 2010 census outreach due to fiscal caution after 2008’s recession. A key motivation to encourage 2020 census participation is a calculation that “a 1% undercount is a direct loss of $62 million to the state.”

Whitney Walker, director of communications and public policy for Protecting Arizona’s Family Coalition, (PAFCO), spoke to the need for more state level advocacy to bolster the housing trust fund and domestic violence shelters, among other initiatives that ameliorate “the cycle of poverty vulnerable Arizona families are facing.”

To her point, the annual Annie E. Casey Foundation’s KIDS COUNT Data Book on the status of American children living in poverty ranks Arizona at only 43rd in overall wellbeing for children.

In Arizona, immigration is a highly contested issue. Walker said the political climate can interfere with the dissemination of clear and concise information. She didn’t dispute the assessment of Arizona’s 2010 census efforts, but noted that there was “a 30% undercount for Maricopa County, which now has a population of over four million people.”

Janice Palmer of the Helios Education Foundation, which focuses on Latino students’ academic success, underscored Walker’s observations: “Maricopa County had the second largest undercount of Latino children.” Using 7% as the projected undercount,  she estimated, in that county alone, 27,000 Latino children were omitted from census 2010 data.

The Native American and Alaskan Native populations pose unique challenges to the census, according to Mark Trahant, editor of Indian Country Today.

“The primary problem for us is that it comes down to self-identification, and when you’re dealing with tribal communities, you’re talking about citizenship and a more complex way of looking at identity,” Trahant explained. He added that ICT has been reporting for three years that the 2020 census has been in trouble, partly due to underfunding. In Alaska, he noted, two field tests were cancelled to save funds and, overall, a dearth of linguists available to translate census instructions and information into local languages.

For Trahant, paramount is how to transform Native American presence into political representation. Even with the recent election of Native Americans to Congress, he calculates they constitute less than three-quarters of one percent of that body, assuming Native Americans represent 2% of the population, which is itself “probably an undercount.”

To achieve accuracy, the Census Bureau will have to contend with Native Americans’ lack of broadband access and the difficulty of determining addresses in remote communities. Additionally, Trahant said tribal identification will be “a demographer’s nightmare” because many Native Americans have multiple tribal identifications in their family trees. How will resources be fairly allocated, he mused?

D.L. White, reporting for The Arizona Informant, also raised the issue of accountability, asking state Rep. Diego Rodriguez – the convening’s final speaker — how an undercount could negatively affect funding for minority groups and refugee communities. Rodriguez responded that allocating funds is a result of horse trading at the heart of the budgeting process.

“We all agree that the budget represents your values,” Rodriguez said, but “we have to make sure our numbers are counted so that we get adequate representation.”

Acknowledging representatives from Somali, Congolese and other emerging refugee groups at the briefing, as well as from Native American, black and Latino populations, Tameka Spence of Arizona Community For Change emphasized that the first step is addressing the trauma many have experienced. “In trying to help folks understand why the census is important, we’re asking them to confront that trauma and we need to acknowledge that it’s there, it’s real.”

Though the empty chair attested to the Luna family’s immediate trauma, the Indial School Visitor Center venue exuded optimism. Once the site of a federally run school to socially re-engineer Native American students, Center director Rosalie Talahonva – herself an alumna — recalled how students were drawn from different tribes often deeply at odds with each other as well as the U.S. government. Whether antagonisms were ancient or personal, new or imagined, the students persevered, forging consensus and cooperation among themselves — an inspiration for Arizona’s mosaic of stakeholders striving to achieve an accurate census count.