The Rochester-Monroe Anti-Poverty Initiative has released an anxiously awaited progress report (below) — the first step toward its goal of reducing poverty in the Rochester-Monroe County region by 50 percent over the next 15 years.
The report will be the foundation for the group’s future work and investment.
Leading up to the report, 150 local people served on six working groups, each tackling a different area, including health and nutrition; housing; and jobs and workforce development.
Feedback was also sought from people living in poverty or who have emerged from poverty and are receiving some form of assistance to see what works well and what doesn’t.
The initiative is led by State Assembly Majority Leader Joe Morelle, Rochester Mayor Lovely Warren, and Monroe County Executive Maggie Brooks, and convened by the United Way.
The group is initially focusing on the estimated 32,600 working poor in Monroe County. The work groups identified the barriers that keep people in poverty and developed 33 recommendations to break down those barriers.
The identified barriers are:
• Lack of social and infrastructure development in neighborhoods of concentrated poverty;
• inequality caused by structural and institutional racism, or from racial, ethnic, social, or gender bias;
• impact of poverty-induced trauma;
• lack of knowledge, skills, and credentials to get or maintain a job;
• limited access to or eligibility for public and private supports, services, and programs;
• insufficient community capacity for child care and transportation;
• public and private policies, regulations, and practices.
The work groups’ recommendations were synthesized to create three initial areas to target: systems design; adult mentoring-navigating; and early childhood support.
The first has to do with developing a comprehensive system of social supports. The second involves having a mentor help people navigate support systems and to overcome barriers. The third calls for ensuring high-quality, affordable, accessible, and flexible child care. It also includes in-home parent training.
Reducing poverty in Rochester-Monroe County will require a long-term, comprehensive, integrated effort, the report says.
This article appears in Sep 16-22, 2015.
I did not see anything specific in the report about communication skills. Thoreau said:
“The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. What is called resignation is confirmed desperation. ” (Walden)
With better communications, those in poverty can reach out for more help and they can also help others in need. Reaching out is not a trivial thing. It takes skill and persistence to have affect…
http://www.SavingSchools.org
Bullet item number 4 is the critical one. If we can actually provide a relevant education for the urban population we can, no we will, resolve all the other concerns. Education IS the way out of poverty, period. I don’t believe that this mega committee is tuned in to that fact.
Keep in mind that the combined wealth of this committee is in the multi millions of dollars. They simply cannot fathom the poverty and its grip on urban Rochester by attending a meeting once a month. Its EDUCATION!! Focus on that as though it is the last chance to resolve poverty. We are in an education crisis, we are at the very bottom of the educational ranking. And folks, lowering the standards will NOT elevate us in the ranking. All you do with that is create the illusion that things are improving.
Relevant education, which will provide the opportunity to actually gain a profession/career. A visible path that combines exposure to those professions/careers in conjunction with the academics that support them. Not everyone is college material. Not everyone needs a four year or masters degree. There are dozens of good paying professions/careers,…. and the training to acquire the opportunity to attain the skills needed,….they are out there as well. Why not provide some early exposure to guide our urban youth in that direction instead of boring them with academics, which leads to absenteeism and then dropping out of the education sphere and ,…surprise,….into poverty.
This is not rocket science, its common sense! When will the educational “leadership” grasp this concept?