The U.S. Census Bureau is seeking partnerships in Arab American communities ahead of the 2010 Census.

In a news release from the Census Bureau and the Arab American Institute, officials said the bureau is seeking over 100,000 partnerships with organizations, religious institutions, businesses and schools in preparation for the undertaking.

The Census is a count of everyone residing in the U.S., including non-citizens, in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and other island territories.

The first Census was conducted in 1790 and has been carried out every 10 years since then.

Officials said help from community organizations is needed to reach deep into ethnic communities.

“It is definitely a positive action for organizations in the Arab American community to become active in the 2010 Census,” said Helen Samhan, executive director of the Arab American Institute Foundation in Washington. “It is an opportunity to promote civic leadership within the community and introduces organizations and their members to the local political decision-makers.”

“Arabic language networks are extremely important because the hardest to enumerate people in the states would be those who tune in to Arabic language networks,” added Samhan.

Recruitment for census takers is set to begin this Fall. Census questionnaires are to be mailed or delivered to households beginning in February of 2010. The questionnaires are said to take less than 10 minutes to complete. In April, census takers will begin visiting homes that didn’t return a questionnaire by mail. The Census Bureau by law must count everyone and submit state population totals to the U.S. President by December 31, 2010.

The development of hospitals, schools, police stations, roads and other community services often depend on census results.

According to the Census Bureau, data collected are also used to distribute congressional seats to states and to distribute $300 billion every year in federal funds to local, state and tribal governments.

A new, shorter form of the questionnaire has been developed in which residents only answer ten questions.

Officials have stressed that every person must be counted whether he or she is a citizen or non-citizen, documented or undocumented.

Federal law protects personal information shared in census documentation.

Some Hispanic leaders have called for undocumented immigrants to boycott the census to send a protest message to Congress about the need to overhaul immigration laws.

Some Arab Americans have also criticized the Census because it asks about race and lists a number of races and ethnicities to choose from, but does not include Arab as a choice.