Although mom doesn’t make as much money as she would like, isn’t able to drive you directly to school in a vehicle of her own, or is able to sign you up for after school activities, she will be there to pick you up as soon as she is done with work. Everyday seems just like the last, and Mom is always tired.

You don’t know that times are tough, it is all just the way things are. Even more difficult to understand, you and your siblings are all “lucky” to be in a subsidized child care center while more than 90% of others who qualify wait for a seat in one. This letter is for you and for all the qualifying children who require subsidized child care in order for your parents to make ends meet.

But, good news is coming: you will be able to attend a trustworthy, quality, and Texas Rising Star-certified child care center near your home. We hope that your mom will be able to find peace in your safety, and therefore it can improve your quality of life now and later because mom can now build a future which she hopes you and your siblings will be proud of.

My name is Karyna Valencia, and in the fall of the year 2020, I was working as a home health pediatric medical interpreter. In my daily work schedule, I saw many families live through difficult situations where they all could benefit from a child care provider they could trust. The single mothers especially were at home caring for their children while they struggled to make ends meet.

As a fellow of the Young Women’s Advisory Council, I was given the guidance and opportunity to ask questions about the 87th Legislative Session. Being that it was the first time I had heard of the legislative session, I learned from the ground up that my state legislation was getting ready to create, vote and sign on laws for all Texans to abide by.

The YWAC had a meeting in late December of 2020, where we reviewed how bills in both the Texas House of Representatives and Senate were proposed and voted on. I believed that it was motivation enough for me to be the voice of those families I worked with who were struggling to go to work and provide a safe environment for their children.

Looking back at my own upbringing, I came to the realization that minority communities will always rely on each other to provide what they cannot demand from the state. Often minority communities are made voice-less and distant from  those in government who create laws because they have the power two both build and break apart their communities. This being said, the YWAC fellows and I decided to focus on supporting and advocating for our underrepresented communities in our state. Thanks to the education that the YWAC fellows and I received, we pushed an agenda that included the support for improving the quality of childcare centers across our state.

In hopes that my community would have the information and resources available to advocate for themselves, I used my social media platform to educate on the process of bill searching while using the Texas capitol website. It was important for me to create a quick guide to the bill search process and I did so by making a five slide post on Instagram showing the screen shots of each step. I also recorded a video where I shared the Children at Risk (a nonprofit organization) advocacy tool on their website, in order for my community to voice their support for the future of their children through House Bill 2607.

Due to the collaboration of Texans across the state, this bill successfully passed and will be effective by September 1, 2021. The law will require subsidy child care providers to participate in the state’s previously voluntary quality rating and improvement system, Texas Rising Star. With an appropriate phase-in period and increased access to support and coach providers, the quality of care available to the more than 136,000 children currently enrolled in a subsidized program, and those to come, will improve.

Overall, I highly value quality child care because I know that my grandmother did her absolute best caring for my cousins while my uncles and parents worked and if this law had been established when I was young, many young parents like mine could have established themselves and their educational goals better off. This change in law sets a standard for the child care available across our state, improving the future of our under-represented communities. Implementation of H.B. 2607 allows parents the opportunities to improve their education and or job certifications to begin generational wealth in the future of our Texas children.

Growing up, my family was faced with many barriers such as not speaking English at a time when bilingual representation was not visible. Obtaining employment was difficult because of my mother’s undocumented status. Our financial situation also prevented us from having a safe and secure form of transportation; my family experienced discrimination, racist comments, and lived in fear. We never opened the door for strangers, we never talked to police officers, we never filled out documents that could potentially expose our status. We were oblivious to resources that could provide assistance to us, including the census. At that point in time, in the year 2000, my family did not count. 

In 2019, the Trump Administration pushed for the 2020 Census to include a question regarding the citizenship status of each person counted. This instilled fear and distrust in undocumented individuals across America, the census appeared as another barrier to belonging. Fortunately, this request was denied and the census does not ask about a person’s citizenship status, however, the fear undocumented individuals feel is real and still present.

As a documented adult now, the question would not have affected me but I remembered how I felt growing up in fear and feeling like my family and I did not matter in this country. Like many, I was unaware of the “72-year rule”. According to census.gov, “the U.S. government will not release personally identifiable information about an individual to any other individual or agency until 72 years after it was collected for the decennial census.” This means the information of anyone who completes the census is protected by law and will not be made public until 72 years later. The Census Bureau also takes other steps to ensure data protection, such as using secure technology. The information on the census is used only to produce statistics and better allocate funding and resources to communities. 

The 2020 census will shape how resources and funding are distributed in our communities for the next 10 years, and we need to make sure we are all counted to combat ongoing systemic oppression. This is not to say that the completion of the census will resolve all inequities, however, it will help provide proper resource allocation to our communities. The census covers the entire country and everyone living here, regardless of citizenship. You deserve to be counted, because you matter! 

Texas Women’s Foundation supports amplifying the voices of women. The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in the text belong solely to the author, and not to the organization.

Recently, as a result of COVID-19, residents of Dallas County were asked by Dallas officials to refrain from buying groceries the first three days of the month to allow families on federal food assistance programs, like WIC, to buy food for their families. During these initial dates, families enrolled in WIC are able to buy groceries from a specific list of approved foods like baby formula, canned foods, eggs, fruits, and vegetables. Furthermore, healthcare programs that serve these same families, programs such as Medicare, Medicaid, Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), and hospital financial assistance programs utilize data gathered from the census to provide health coverage for low income individuals. These healthcare programs allow countless participants to access healthcare services, preventative care, immunizations, and other related services.

Having grown up in a household that lived paycheck to paycheck, I understand the importance of these programs firsthand. Throughout my childhood, we relied heavily on WIC, Medicaid, and hospital financial assistance programs to meet our nutritional and healthcare needs. I vividly remember my mom always buying canned foods and frozen items, along with the essential products, on our WIC grocery shopping excursions because they could be saved for times when money was tight. In our home, we experienced times when we barely had enough to feed us all but it was programs like WIC that allowed my parents to focus on paying our rent or buying our school supplies and school uniforms. 

Similarly, it was healthcare programs like Medicaid that allowed my two younger sisters to get their yearly doctor and dentist appointments. Meanwhile, my mother and I were allowed access to healthcare services through Parkland’s financial assistance program. It was access to said programs that allowed my sisters and I to grow up healthy, for my mom to receive the lifesaving treatment she needed when she was diagnosed with breast cancer, and allowed my sister to receive the necessary emergency attention when she developed meningitis. It was because we had access to these programs that we were not overwhelmed with hospital or medical bills, which could have kept us from receiving these treatments or forced us to choose between paying our bills or rent. At times, we struggled to make ends meet and it wasn’t for my parents lack of trying. The world in which we lived constantly stacked obstacles against them. Despite their best efforts, we needed access to assistance programs to make it through the difficult times we encountered.

My family’s experience is far from unique. Stories such as ours are echoed throughout the city of Dallas, Dallas County, the state of Texas, and throughout the nation. According to Texas Health and Human Services, there are approximately 3,835,026 individuals enrolled in Medicaid, Medicare, and CHIP Programs as of January 2020 for the state of Texas. For Medicaid alone, in January 2019, there were approximately 393,026 individuals enrolled in the program. 

In regards to nutritional programs, Texas Health and Human Services reported 141,910 individuals enrolled in the SNAP program. Similarly, according to the United States Food and Nutrition Services, a reported 678,863 individuals in Texas are enrolled in the WIC program as of January 2020. These are families that are receiving lifesaving access to food and healthcare, which are all made possible by the allocation of funds based on the census count. Whether or not individuals are accurately counted can determine current and future participants’ access to SNAP, Medicaid, Medicare, CHIP, WIC, and other federally funded programs. For many families, access to these programs makes all the difference.

Texas Women’s Foundation supports amplifying the voices of women. The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in the text belong solely to the author, and not to the organization.

We have been told multiple times that the number of people in a community counted yields funding for community programs and resources. The Census allocates billions of dollars every year based on what the government knows about the communities on the Census- leaving LGBT community severely underfunded. Without clear knowledge of the size of and needs of our community. The National LGBTQ Task Force has been fighting for LGBT representation in the Census since the 1990s in hopes of capturing the size of our community; however, the only option for representation in the 2020 Census is through the counting of same-sex couples. Thus, severely undercounting the community by ignoring those that aren’t in a relationship. Moreover it still does not account for sexual orientation or gender identity. 

If the LGBT community were to be counted there would be funding for support programs. Living in Oak Lawn has granted me access to the Resource Center that offers a broad range of resources. According to their Financial 2019 Audit Report, their total programming expenses for their services comes to a total of $10,806,510. They are located no more than a 6 min drive from my home and offer free youth services. They offer a safe space for youth to hang out and have access to a food pantry. Furthermore, each week they offer activities for LGBT youth to socialize and host a free “Family Dinner” on Fridays. These programs help young people navigate their sexual and gender identity, both emotionally and physically. This type of programming is almost exclusively offered only in the LGBT hub of Dallas. However, such a program is needed all over Dallas. Getting counted in the Census is a medium for better distribution and access of LGBT resources in Dallas. To start receiving funding for such resources, our community must start by not allowing our community to be erased by the census. 

In the same manner, it is also vital to consider the inequitable distribution of resources among different schools. We talk about how some schools get more enrichment programs to better prepare students for college. The funding brought by the Census is essential in supporting programs ranging from free and reduced lunch to classroom technology, affecting the programs accessible to students and teachers while enhancing the quality of education no matter where one lives. All of these factors are significant determinants of success for students and being counted in the Census indicates how money is allocated to fund opportunities for students. The constant undercounting has left many of our neighborhoods underfunded. According to the PeopleNewspaper’s article on the 2020 Census challenge, every 1% undercount yields approximately a $40 million annual loss for the county. In the last Census, 50,000 Dallas children under 6 were undercounted. Thus leaving Dallas ISD to figure out a tight budget for a growing number of students. As a student from Irma Rangel Young Women’s Leadership School, I recognize the privilege our school holds as we receive additional resource from the Young Women’s Leadership School (college-bound advisor, summer college programs, scholarships, etc.) and start the college mindset and exploration as early as sixth grade. I’ve seen how those resources open the door for our academic success, personal development and leadership skills. 

The reality of underfunded education is that it yields a more challenging environment for students to flourish. I’ve had conversations about these issues with friends that attend other schools. The feedback reflected the limits they saw in their own schools. Whereas their access to SAT/ACT prep is limited and there are only a few staff members to help +400 students. There was a high emphasis on the idea that “in a school where teachers pass you to not have to deal with you for another year, students get very discouraged and do not always know whether they want to go to college until their senior year,” reiterating the significance of funding in education. This funding can be funneled through getting a more accurate count on the Census so that our budget reflects the need. 

We have an abundance of ideas on programs and resources that could empower our communities. However, the funding needed to get it done relies on our communities getting counted. There is still time to assure that your community gets a voice by filling out the 2020 Census. 

Texas Women’s Foundation supports amplifying the voices of women. The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in the text belong solely to the author, and not to the organization.

I was raised by my grandmother, a Pioneer Woman with little education who also provided opportunities to give her grandchildren the most seamless and maximized childhood experiences possible. From approximately one month old to the age of five I was provided space and time in her presence, watching her do the absolute best she could with making sure three of her five grandchildren were consistently fed, clothed and had a roof over their heads.

Throughout those short years with my grandmother, I distinctly remember her relationship with the education community. She ensured we always had an opportunity to take part in the free breakfast and reduced lunch program at school, as she was confident this was one of the most secure and foundational places that we could go. Everyone in our community agreed that their children could not thrive if they could not be provided proper nutrition and necessary attention to basic needs. Further, we also accepted the notion, or at least I perceived everyone did, that education would be my way out of such debilitating circumstances if nothing else.

Each time I was able to stand in the cafeteria line, and be offered a delicate meal from the most committed food service workers, I felt like I belonged. Because of the nature of their service, I never felt like I had to put a mask on and hide who I truly was, and I also cherished their efforts to improve the lives of children near and far through nutrition. Little did I know, there were systems far greater than myself, those cafeteria personnel,  and even my family, working as advocates of mine and others living in poverty. To date, the National School Lunch Program provides low-cost and free breakfast and lunches to over 30 million children daily at a cost of  over $13 billion. 

As emphasized before, I’ve always wanted to shift my surroundings, and from those early days, the drive of knowing I could go to school and be given resources including a balanced breakfast and lunch made me feel most capable of achieving anything I put my mind to. Despite these victories, as I grew older adversity seemed to become a part of my everyday life and I was subject to experiences that ultimately challenged my ability to endure. I became a ward of the state, was adopted at the age of sixteen and became a first-generation college student at the age of eighteen with the opportunity to receive financial aid and additional support in pursuit of my college studies.

According to recent data, the Census provides direct funding to the Federal Pell Grant Program which provides over $2,068,600,000 in aid to college students across Texas alone. Because of invaluable funding such as this, education had truly become one of many outlets to achieve my greatest dreams without feeling challenged by my environment, resources, and even by those who looked like me. It is because of the lasting impact of the United States Census conducted a decade ago that I am able to proudly stand today as an empowered young black woman and first generation graduate student who is capable of withstanding the tests of time and is now able to contribute to others. 

Texas Women’s Foundation supports amplifying the voices of women. The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in the text belong solely to the author, and not to the organization.