Joliet Public Library Awarded Census Grant

Joliet Public Library received a subgrant for $40,000 from the Reaching Across Illinois Library System’s (RAILS) Census 2020: It Counts! grant project. Joliet Public Library is a subrecipient of the funds awarded to RAILS from the Pritzker Administration and the Illinois Department of Human Services (IDHS). In applying for the grant, Joliet Public Library put forth a unique plan involving its community partners and demonstrated its commitment to ensuring a complete census count, explained how an accurate count can affect its community, and showed its specific areas of strength to ensure a successful count. Ensuring an accurate census count is extremely important for the state. Census results are used to determine how many seats each state gets in the House of Representatives, and state officials redraw boundaries of legislative districts to account for population shifts. More than $675 billion will be distributed to support state and county schools, hospitals, roads, public works, and other vital programs in our communities. Census results also help determine funding for libraries and library systems.

For more information, visit jolietlibrary.org or call 815-740-2660. Library hours are Monday–Thursday from 9:00 a.m. – 9:00 p.m., Friday–Saturday from 9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. and Sunday from 1:00 – 5:00 p.m.