“When you have mastered numbers, you will in fact no longer be reading numbers, any more than you read words when reading books. You will be reading meanings.” – W.E.B Dubois
Dear Friends,
Growing up, I was enamored with language, not numbers. I once felt that I could express myself more clearly with words and struggled with getting my point across with numbers. My favorite subjects: reading, writing, art and history were based in storytelling and expression. As I grew older, I was introduced to the concept of left brain vs. right brain. This reinforced my belief that my right side –associated with creativity and art – was innately more evolved. By the time I was in high school, this led to a dangerous and erroneous belief that I was incapable of working with numbers. I fell into a vicious cycle, earning low grades in classes that required math, fortifying my feeling that I was numerically incapable.
Recent scientific research has proven the left brain vs. right brain theory to be a myth. The human brain is more complex than an evenly divided two hemispheres, each with their own area of focus and ability. I’ve also personally grown a more balanced perspective of my own abilities with both language and numeracy. One of the ways I fell in love with numbers again was coming to the realization that numbers tell powerful stories, too. I’ve seen firsthand how learning of staggering statistics has the power and ability to shift mental models and catalyze advocacy. Some notable stats that come to mind include that: the United States leads the globe in incarceration of its own citizens and that 85 percent of all juveniles who interface with the juvenile court system are functionally low-literate.
At ROC the Future Alliance, we know that a data-informed approach to systems change and outcome improvement is essential to shifting power, practices, policy and resources. For more than 13 years, our alliance has worked on the overarching and ambitious goal of ensuring every child in Rochester is school ready, successful and supported from cradle to career. Now we are excited to collaborate with our national partner StriveTogether to advance the Know Your Number Initiative. The Know Your Number Initiative seeks to quantify the number of individuals impacted by our collaborative efforts to change systems and improve outcomes, cradle to career. We are proud that we have done the work to Know Our Number – 11,396.
That is 11,000 futures positioned for upward mobility by 2030. 11,000 people in Rochester that will be part of the 4 million futures StriveTogether is positioning for economic mobility by 2030 across the country. That is 11,000 more futures that will be kindergarten ready, reading and doing math at grade level, graduating high school on time and attaining meaningful employment.
What will it take for our alliance and community to successfully position 11,000 futures on the path to upward mobility? It will require us to be tireless and committed champions of cradle to career success. It will require each program, institution, and individual in Rochester working in the areas of education, youth development, literacy, math, health, human services, secondary enrollment, employment and cradle to career success to get specific – and claim a share of that 11,000 number.
By our collective power, we will get to our goal. What will it look like if we don’t work together and don’t intervene? It will mean unchanged systems, the status quo, and nearly 35,000 futures not on the path to upward mobility.
Sometimes I wonder what it would have meant to a Black boy, who rather than feeling alone and unsure, as I often did as a child, to be swept up in a positive movement for social change like the one we are leading at ROC the Future Alliance. I think it would have meant not falling for the fallacy that I was incapable and not enough. I think it would have meant better outcomes for me, my friends and others that looked like me, at a younger age. I think it would have meant having less self-doubt and disbelief in my own capabilities. Author and advocate Ayeshi Sidiqqi once said, “Be the person you needed when you were younger.” Now – we as a community, have the opportunity to rise to the call and deliver for every child who is counting on us.
Until all the children are well,
Brian