Two Pandemics: COVID-19 and Systemic Racism

During the height of the coronavirus, many people recognized that we were experiencing twin pandemics of systemic racism and COVID-19. Together, these forces had devastating impacts on Black bodies and minds. The twin pandemics created and exacerbated systemic challenges, from massive layoffs, social isolation, shortages in food, and closure of childcare facilities to racial disparities. Additionally, there were physical and mental health issues as well as gaps in student achievement and resource allocation. 

While the challenges in the pandemic era have been numerous and overwhelming, they have also created an opportunity for our community to transcend barriers and collaborate to support each other across systems in our greatest time of need. In ROC the Future Alliance’s 2021 report, The Road to Educational Renewal, it is evident that the community coalesced to meet the essential needs of children and families. In many ways, Black Rochester rose and continues to rise to the challenge. 

Roc the Future Alliance: Positioning Youth for Upward Mobility

ROC the Future Alliance was established in 2011 out of our community’s need for a collaborative and systemic approach to ensure Rochester’s children have the right supports to succeed. Our alliance recognized then, as it does now, that Black children and families face particular challenges and that a racial equity approach is necessary to change systems and improve cradle to career outcomes.

ROC the Future Alliance released a Racial Equity Statement in support of the Greater Rochester Black Agenda Group’s 2020 declaration of racism as a public health crisis. Even before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, the alliance was on the forefront to dismantle racism, strengthen relationships, increase organizational members, and identify how we contribute to the community’s collaborative efforts to change systems and improve outcomes. 

ROC the Future Alliance collaborates with partners across our region to align resources, reinforce positive impact, and improve systems-level outcomes by centering the experiences and voices of parents and youth. This impact is evidenced in the aforementioned report, which provides a glimpse into the ways our alliance helped unify our community around meeting the needs of children and families at a critical juncture. We informed families that doctors’ offices were open and collaborated with regional transit partners to provide transportation to appointments, ensured laptops and hotspots were provided to students and families for remote learning, and connected community members to vital life-saving resources such as food and immunizations. 

Every Child, Supported, School and Career Ready and Successful

In many ways, we emerged from the COVID-19 pandemic stronger and more connected. However, we are still faced with systemic racism and the need to ensure every child in Rochester is set on the path of upward mobility. As ROC the Future Alliance noted in our 2024 Report Card, Seeding Youth Success, key indicators such as early childhood screenings, kindergarten readiness, and high school graduation rates are beginning to climb to pre-COVID-19 levels, but we still have substantial work to do to realize our shared community vision of changed systems and cradle to career outcome improvement. 

Currently, we are encouraged by the collaborative efforts of our Whole Child Initiative (WCI). The WCI made strides in the last year to ensure increases in maternal and prenatal health and seeks to improve school readiness and early grade literacy. Our north star for the WCI is a reimagined and more equitable early childhood system, that sees significant and sustained improvements in equitable outcomes for every child aged 0 to 8, including holistic support across health, education, and human services systems. 

Additionally, we are co-leading a new housing partnership with Rochester Monroe Anti-Poverty Initiative (RMAPI), that aims to improve both housing stability and education outcomes for every child. We are excited to advance our mission to transform systems and improve outcomes to place every child, and especially our region’s Black children, on the path of upward mobility. 

Just as it took a concerted and collaborative effort to rise above the daunting conditions of the COVID-19 pandemic, it will take the same fortitude, resilience, vision, and strength to continue to co-develop solutions with our parents and youth most impacted by the systems we seek to change to keep collaborating and working until we finally realize our shared community vision of transformed systems that work equitably for all.