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The ROC the Future Alliance has an ambitious, collective goal: to impact 11,000 futures. It was the theme of its 12th State of Our Children report card release event Friday.
“It’s an homage to our collective efforts to boldly take on the status quo, break down silos and systemic barriers, and ensure 11,000 youth in our city will be kindergarten-ready, math and literacy proficient, graduating high school college and career-ready and attaining gainful employment,” RTFA Executive Director Brian Lewis said in his remarks. “Together, we will position 11,000 youth for the path to upward mobility.”

The aim to help 11,000 youth will guide RTFA’s work this year. Lewis said the collective target is achievable and sustainable because of the structures established over the last 13 years.
RTFA, a collaboration between various organizations, advocates for aligning resources to improve academic outcomes. It operates on the collective impact approach, where various community players work toward a common goal.
This year’s report card shows some improvement, Lewis says. Areas such as kindergarten readiness and reading proficiency are trending upward. For instance, kindergarten readiness in 2023 increased to 46 percent from 44 percent in 2022, according to data on RTFA’s dashboard.
Still, Lewis acknowledges there is more work to be done.
“While we are seeing improvement, we also know that the work ahead requires us to do more to accelerate impact, keep changing systems and continue to improve outcomes for every child,” Lewis says. “We will continue to partner with parents, youth, system partners and others in our community to scale what is working and continue to remove barriers to student success and work to improve these and other outcomes for Rochester’s students, together.”
The Rochester Beacon posed some questions to Lewis. His answers are below.
ROCHESTER BEACON: What is the plan to put local youth on a path to upward mobility?
BRIAN LEWIS: Our plan to position 11,000 youth for upward mobility includes both Whole Child Outcome Team and High School Graduation Outcome team workplans. We will implement these workplans using our recently completed common agenda.
Each workplan includes but is not limited to:
■ Whole Child Outcome Team—supporting parents and partners to remove system barriers and increase enrollment in Pre-K and Head Start, as well as working with cross-system partners to address housing insecurity and poverty, so that families with young children can focus on academic outcomes and achievement.
■ High School Graduation Outcome Team—mobilizing parent cafes and focusing on 9th-grade experience, attendance and career and technical education. Supporting the expansion of mental health and telehealth services and aligning resources and supports to students in need, to holistically support them to graduate high school, and to go on to either post-secondary enrollment and completion and/or gainful employment.
ROCHESTER BEACON: ROC the Future has set five years to help 11,000 local youth on the path to upward mobility. What are some of the milestones that need to happen to reach that target?
LEWIS: Some key milestones we hope to achieve in the next five years are:
■ Filling 100 percent of pre-k and Head Start seats on the way to increasing Kindergarten Readiness to 80 percent.
■ Expanding the number of parent and community cafes to change systems and improve cradle-to-career outcomes.
■ Decreasing chronic absenteeism to support students to stay in school and achieve.
■ Increasing reading and math proficiency rates.
■ Eliminating child homelessness so that families with young children can focus on educational attainment.
ROCHESTER BEACON: How will you measure upward mobility? What metrics are in place?
LEWIS: The primary way we measure upward mobility is by ensuring that young people are achieving the seven cradle-to-career milestones that research shows are essential to position them for prosperity and success throughout their lives. These are:
- Kindergarten Readiness
- 3rd Grade Reading Proficiency
- 8th Grade Math Proficiency
- High School Graduation
- Post-Secondary Enrollment
- Post-Secondary Completion
- Employment/Self-Sufficiency
ROCHESTER BEACON: Can the community play a bigger role in the plan to move youth forward?
LEWIS: The community can play a bigger role in the plan moving forward by joining our movement. We are always looking for more parent leaders to join our Parent Engagement Collaborative Action Network as well as more youth to join our Youth Leadership Coalition. As an alliance that co-develops solutions with parents, youth, and system partners, we value the voice and experience of community members, and we invite them to join our change-making tables so that they can partner with systems partners to advance solutions.
Smriti Jacob is Rochester Beacon managing editor.
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