Miller tapped to lead citywide civic group
BY NAEISHA ROSE
Melva Miller, the former deputy
Queens borough president, was appointed
Dec. 4 as the new executive
vice president of the Association of
a Better New York (ABNY), a nonprofit
civic organization.
The Laurelton resident will lead
ABNY’s initiative to ensure that
as many New Yorkers as possible
are counted in the 2020 Census to
ensure that proper federal funding
will go to higher education, affordable
housing and other important
public concerns, according to the
civic organization.
“I’m excited, I’m excited,” said
Miller. “Working with civic-minded
business leaders is something
that I’ve been doing for the past 14
years.”
Queens Borough President Melinda
Katz appointed Miller as her
deputy in 2015; she helped to create
the Jamaica NOW Action Plan,
a stakeholder-driven strategy to
increase quality employment, economic
diversity and financial security
in downtown Jamaica.
In her former role, Miller also
served as the lead organizer of the
Western Queens Tech Strategic
Plan, which was an initiative to produce
a five-year blueprint for equitable
growth of the Long Island City
and Astoria tech ecosystem, according
to ABNY.
Now, the ABNY wants to make
sure that the 2020 Census includes
a proper count of all New York City
residents, because the final numbers
will make a huge difference
into how much funding the city and
state will receive over the following
decade.
“The Census will determine tens
of billions in federal funding for
New York City and State,” said Steven
Rubenstein, chairman of ABNY.
”We are lucky to be adding Melva...
to our team. We needed an individual Melva Miller with Borough President Melinda Katz. File Photo
who knows how to organize from the
ground up, who understands how to
manage New York’s unique politics,
and who has serious policy chops,
too.”
For Miller, working on the 2020
Census will be one of her most important
jobs yet.
“In 2010, Queens was severely undercounted
for a number of reasons,”
said Miller. “It’s a constitutional
right for everybody in the United
States to be counted and that data
dictates a number of things that affect
the quality of life for all of us.”
The Census has an impact on
funding for programs for youths and
seniors and determines the number
of Congressional seats we have, according
to Miller.
“I worked on this tangentially at
the Queens Borough’s Office, and
now I get to work on this full force
and with additional challenges with
the 2020 Census it’s important that
we have all hands on deck,” said
Miller.
Three of the major challenges include
the citizenship question, pushing
the questionnaire to be online,
and a substantial reduction on Census
Bureau enumerators, or people
who are responsible to do the count,
according to Miller.
“We need to really get out the
word on it and protect folks,” said
Miller.
She fears that the citizenship
question will deter undocumented
individuals from coming forward
and being counted, that people without
reliable broadband or who don’t
use computers won’t be counted, and
that with cuts in the federal budget
for Census staff could result in one
of the largest cities in the world being
undercounted again and therefore
short on resources.
“There are currently six lawsuits
across the country about the citizenship
question,” said Miller. “We
have data that shows that it deters
people from participating in the
Census and that has enormous ramifications
for an accurate count for
who is in the United States.”
In 2010, there were 12 regional
census centers and 506 local census
centers across the country, 39 area
offices in New York State and 26 in
New York City, according to Miller.
For 2020, it is estimated that there
will be six regional census centers
and 248 local census centers across
the country, 21 area centers in New
York State and 12 in New York City.
“What ABNY does it pull in our
private partners and we are polling
to learn about all the challenges, and
our next step is to get in touch with
government partners to draft messaging
to get the word out about the
importance of being counted,” said
Miller. “We are doing focus groups
to learn what they know about the
Census and if they know it’s their
Constitutional right and how it affects
their quality of life.”
ABNY hopes to target messaging
to the communities that have historically
been undercounted with
the polling and focus group information.
“We want to provide solutions,
whether that is technology, whether
that is content creation, whether
that is pop-up centers or translation
services,” said Miller. “The end
game is to work out a get out the Census
campaign in a micro-targeted
way in the communities that is most
vulnerable.”
Reach reporter Naeisha Rose by
e-mail at nrose@cnglocal.com or by
phone at (718) 260–4573.
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TIMESLEDGER,18 DEC. 14-20, 2018 TIMESLEDGER.COM
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