“Once you learn to read, you will forever be free” Frederick Douglass
Dear Friends,
I count my blessings to have grown up in a family that has always been extremely passionate about reading and learning. In my infancy, my parents read books to me regularly. As I grew older and gained independence to roam freely by foot or bike around our southside Chicago neighborhood, my mom would beckon me back home to read at least one book per summer. I remember coming back inside during summer months after hours of play outdoors, drenched in sweat and exhausted from pickup basketball games or “home run derby challenges” to curl up for hours with books like Red Badge of Courage, workbooks about Greek and Roman mythology and my favorite novel as a teenager, Things Fall Apart. My love of reading soon translated into venturing to write on my own creatively, delving into spoken word poetry as a teen and pursuing a dual degree in Literature and Education Studies. After college, I became a 3rd generation educator, following in my dad’s and grandma’s footsteps to become a teacher.
Now that I am Executive Director of ROC the Future Alliance, I am so grateful to have the opportunity to support all the children and families in Rochester to improve outcomes in early grade literacy and ensure all of our children are positioned for upward mobility. Currently, our Whole Child Outcomes Team, a merger of our Early Grade Literacy Outcome Team and School Readiness Outcome Team, is exploring ways we can continue to support the exciting and evidence-based programs and practices that advance literacy for all of our students, paying special attention to how we can utilize culturally responsive and sustaining methods to support our Brown and Black children. We are encouraged by the efforts of our conveners, such as the Rochester City District (RCSD), that recently hosted a screening and discussion of the powerful documentary The Right to Read featuring the film’s producer Kareem Weaver. We support their efforts to advance the LETRS program to support professional development that is grounded in evidence-based practices and are encouraged by efforts to align resources to promote literacy in this year’s school budget. As an Alliance, we are thrilled to announce that during our April Convening, we ratified our Framework for Change. The Framework for Change concisely conveys how we, as an alliance, leverage parent and youth voice and power to change systems and scale impact for equitable outcomes for all of our youth and families. Having a ratified Framework for Change is the second to last step in completing our Common Agenda, a tool that will help us clarify how we support building civic infrastructure and use the StriveTogether Theory of Action to change systems and improve outcomes, cradle to career. This work is essential because it will strengthen the collaborative efforts of our partners such as the RCSD and so many others in our community who are leading meaningful and important work to improve early grade literacy rates and ensure that we are not merely pushing for change that is programmatic, but that we are working to advance population level improvements as we work toward ensuring all of our children in Rochester are reading at grade level, love learning and positioned for a lifetime of cradle to career success.
Until all the children are well,
Brian.