COLUMBIA, S.C. — A contest is underway, aiming to teach the importance of the Census while letting youth channel their inner creativity.
The goal is to have students share why the Census is so critical to our communities. Students can express themselves by using art - like writing, drawing or creating a video.
This multimedia art project is put on by the Columbia Complete Count Committee, which includes various businesses and organizations, including the South Carolina Commission for Minority Affairs, Carolina Agency and PASOs.
The contest has three categories: Written, visual and audio.
Organizers of the project tell us they're looking primarily at middle and high school students in Richland 1, Richland 2, and Lexington-Richland 5.
"Through Census data, we can see what areas have lower count histories and we want to make sure all counties are counted accurately, so we wanted to put an extra focus on those counties so they get their representation they deserve. We know the Census provides resources for the next 10 years amounting to $675 billion over the next 10 years going toward schools, roads, clinics, school lunches, grants available for non-profits," said Mike Young, Director of Capacity Buildings and Co-Interim Executive Director of PASOs.
For the three contest categories, Project Lead for the Carolina Agency, Naomi Lawrence, tells News 19 that it's mostly left to the students' imaginations on what they'd like to submit.
"Written can be a poem, a song, a short story. Anything you can think of," said Lawrence. "Visual could be a 3-D type of project, a painting, a photograph. We tried to set it up to be as broad as possible to really allow students to be as creative as they want."
This educational opportunity can also help parents get involved in teaching their children why we have the Census every 10 years.
"This is a tool for us to engage youth to tell them, you produce art...let's see what other skills you have. Let's see how you can use colors, let's see how you can use words, let's see what you can do to create," said Ivan Segura, Program Manager for the Hispanic Latino Affairs Division of the South Carolina Commission for Minority Affairs.
"We all have art and creativity inside us, and this is an opportunity to teach them the importance and use that to teach other people, 'Hey, the Census is going to paint a picture of our community!'" he added.
Lawrence asks that video entries be kept to a maximum three minutes, and written pieces with a maximum 500 words. No explicit or offensive content is allowed.
Although certain districts are the focus in this project, all students are welcome to submit their art.
Entries can be submitted through May 1 here. An online voting session will follow so residents can vote on a winner of each category.
The winners will receive a cash prize.
Follow the Columbia Complete Count Committee with the hashtag #SCCountMeIn.