3 Excellent Short Reads on Public Safety

The issues of crime and public safety have been top-of-mind since before COVID, and then the circumstances of the pandemic made everything worse. So, communities across the country have been struggling with crime statistics, identifying trends, and attempting to intervene effectively.

Chicago and the University of Chicago Crime Lab have been center stage. The Crime Lab is nationally recognized for its applied research and is often seen as the gold standard for evidence-based intervention toward public safety.

On September 23rd, 2023, three articles came out that highlight the work of Chicago’s Crime Lab and provide high quality food for thought:

1. An article about the difference between data and personal experience, and what the experience gap tells us about the reality behind the numbers. I know that I have heard friends and colleagues talk about the confusion of data trends that show reduced crime while at the same time feeling less safe downtown than we can remember. This article provides approachable insight. Highly recommend!

2. An article about an approach to gun violence prevention that has been successful in high risk neighborhoods in Chicago

3. Commentary directly from staff at UChicago Crime Lab and insight into some of the work that the Crime Lab has done that shows promise and innovation, including the establishment of Strategic Decision Support Centers (SDSCs) for data-driven decision-making

Please consider reading all three articles, particularly as you engage in conversations about public safety in the city of Rochester. We need to learn from Chicago and see what we can customize for the Rochester context.

Brain food for evidence-based decision making around public safety!

Guest Post: Child Poverty

Reminder: let’s be poverty abolitionists! Particularly for the sake of children.

To meaningfully address childhood poverty, we need to adopt a poverty abolitionist framework. This means rejecting short-term, individual-level interventions and focusing on dismantling the capitalist and racist systems that reproduce poverty. It’s not enough to offer after-school programs or meals; we need systemic change that includes reparative justice, universal basic income, and equitable school funding.

Educators, policymakers, and communities must collaborate to push for policies that dismantle poverty at its root. This includes advocating for increased funding for public schools, particularly those serving low-income and marginalized students, as well as broader social policies that address housing, healthcare, and employment inequities.

If you haven’t yet, consider reading Poverty, by America by Matthew Desmond!

The poverty we see in Rochester—and in cities across the U.S.—is not inevitable. It is a policy choice, perpetuated by systems that prioritize profit over people. Childhood poverty is not a byproduct of individual failure, but of systemic neglect. If we are to create classrooms where every child can thrive, we must first dismantle the systems that ensure some children will never have that opportunity. The path forward is one of abolition, equity, and justice.

Dr. Tyana Velazquez-Smith is the Director of Early Childhood at Rochester Area Community Foundation. With a doctorate in Teaching and Curriculum from the University of Rochester, Dr. Velazquez-Smith is an adjunct instructor at U of R, teaching courses like Race, Class, Gender & Disability in American Schools. She is the Founder and CEO of Sensational Inclusion, dedicated to building equitable educational ecosystems. Dr. Velazquez-Smith is a native Rochesterian, passionate activist, educator, and dedicated researcher.

Football Season

It’s football season!

Whether you like the NFL, college football, or soccer (called football in the rest of the world!), you’ll notice how often sports use statistics. Announcers are always citing average yards and indicators that put quarterback statistics in context of their current or historical quarterback peers. Data is everywhere!

The point is, that indicators and statistics are commonly used in sports as part of the story. Sports data has been normalized. Sports fans tend to know statistics of their teams, even if they don’t consider themselves data savvy. They know the numbers that are important for their team’s performance.

Football season is a reminder that data, statistics, and indicators are just part of the story you are trying to tell. Adding numbers does not mean you’re adding complication, or that you need an advanced degree to understand.

How can we normalize data in the stories we tell about our community? How can we get as comfortable with statistics about child poverty as we are with Josh Allen’s player stats?

We should be comfortable including numbers in the important stories we are trying to tell. Please know that ACT Rochester is here to help!

GO BILLS!

Connections LIVE from RMAPI

Happy October!

On September 19th, the Rochester-Monroe Anti-Poverty Initiative (RMAPI) hosted a summit and Evan Dawson broadcasted two hours of Connections live on site. The first hour was a discussion of local efforts to address poverty, and the second hour was a panel of Rochester’s leaders including RACF’s President & CEO Simeon Banister.

If you haven’t already, please tune in to both hours. Both discussions are quality nutrition for healthy thought.

What did you learn that you can bring into your next conversation about poverty in the city of Rochester?

NNIP

Did you know that there are community indicator projects like ACT Rochester across the country? There are! And some of those organizations belong to this incredible partnership called the National Neighborhood Indicators Partnership (NNIP), supported and convened by Urban Institute.

I spent the first half of this week attending the NNIP Partnership Meeting in Detroit, Michigan. I learned so much from peers in this space about how data can support arts and culture efforts, potential for relationships with local media, and was inspired by the host organization, Data Driven Detroit. I was also energized by a session using data to guide strategies to close the racial wealth gap - organizations in Atlanta and New Orleans have brilliant projects and the session was moderated by the Black Wealth Data Center.

Keep an eye out on social media for some photos of my favorite part of the conference - a local tour!

Knowing that there are similar organizations to ACT Rochester across the country paves the road for where we go! If you’re curious about these peer organizations, consider diving in to the partner profile list here. ACT is hoping to gain membership in the near future.

The conference was my own Brain Food, nourishing the future of ACT and inspiring future projects!

Creatives Rebuild New York

Did you know that New York state has an investment and relief program dedicated to the financial stability of artists and the organizations that employ them? The program is called Creatives Rebuild New York. Find out more here.

Next City posted an article on September 18, 2024 that tells individual artists’ stories about their experience with the program. It provides a bit of background and then beautiful pictures and stories. Find it here and enjoy some arts and culture brain food!

Guest Post: Climate Week!

Happy (almost) Climate Week - September 22 to 29 this year! Curious about climate? We have some brain food for you.

Climate Week started in 2009 in New York City, as a side dish, if you will, to the United Nations General Assembly that attracts participation from heads of state, business leaders, and civil society. It has evolved to include activities and events across New York City and the globe. This year’s theme is “It’s Time” and we couldn’t agree more!

Many think of climate change as highly politicized, but the majority of individuals in our region (and the nation) agree that climate change is worrisome and that we need to do something about it. The odd thing is, despite these shared concerns, few Americans regularly talk about climate change with their friends, family, or colleagues. Take some time to check out these cool maps (down to the county level) from Yale’s Program on Climate Change Communication to better understand how people feel about climate change and what Americans think we should be doing to address it. You might be surprised!

For some locally-sourced brain food, check out our region’s progress on environmental justice and sustainability on the ACT Rochester site. The ACT site not only includes information about the adoption of climate solutions (e.g., renewable energy capacity and EV infrastructure), but also about broader indicators of community health and vitality (e.g., lower asthma hospitalizations, energy burden) that can be improved by taking climate action. We are lucky to have a lot happening locally, but there’s more to be done and lots of ways to get involved. Climate Week is a great time to start!

If you want to celebrate Climate Week with your neighbors, join the Rochester Climate March on September 27th at 4pm. If that’s not your thing, check to see if there is a Color Your Community Green team near you or start your own. Looking to offset your carbon emissions from a recent trip? Check out the work of our friends at RENEW. Wondering what the local government is up to? Take a peek at the recently released Monroe County Climate Action Plan. If you still aren’t full after all that, there’s plenty more brain food here and more ways to become involved here. Now that’s some (sustainably produced) food for thought!

Contributed by Kristen VanHooreweghe, Senior Director of Programs at Climate Solutions Accelerator. Kristen has a PhD in Environmental Sociology and worked in academia for many years before joining the non-profit sector.

Curated Book: The Way Out

ACT Rochester Advisory Committee member Sharon Stiller attended a presentation by Columbia professor of psychology and education Dr. Peter T Coleman and recommended his book, The Way Out: How to Overcome Toxic Polarization.

Instead of pitching the book, let me provide some quotes to whet your appetite:

“We don’t process new information neutrally, instead we are motivated to make sense of it in ways that are consistent with our existing worldview…” (pg. 30)

“After a sufficient reset, the next order of business is to locate what is already working. This practice is based on research findings that change-resistant problems are often most responsive to positive deviance or bright spots, existing remedies that have already arisen and proven useful and sustainable within the context of the problem.” (pg. 77)

“when feedback on the result of our actions come in it is time to pay more attention, not less; to make more decisions, not fewer. It involves starting wisely, making corrections in midcourse, and learning from our mistakes.” (pg. 203)

ACT Rochester followers should find these quotes familiar and while the topic for Dr. Coleman is the political polarization, the points made in the book are very applicable to our community’s struggles with social change.

The good thing to know is that the way of thinking that ACT Rochester has been promoting - the scientific method, embracing complexity, continuous improvement - are based in science! Peter Coleman’s The Way Out is a great resource as we continue toward social transformation.

Source: Coleman, P. T. (2021). The way out: How to overcome toxic polarization. Columbia University Press.

Curated Article: How 3 cities are using federal funding to reknit communities divided by urban renewal and freeways

Reimagining the Civic Commons posted an article about Reconnecting Communities grants that includes case studies about Cleveland, OH, Akron, OH, and Miami, FL.

Included in the case study review is a spotlight on designer and spatial justice activist Liz Ogbu. Liz Ogbu was a featured speaker in Syracuse at the New York State Funders Alliance meeting in October of 2023, and she was fantastic. Her message promotes a diversity of narratives and embracing creativity as we think about our public spaces.

We have similar urban renewal projects that we think about and talk about in our community, and these 3 case studies may spark something new in the story you tell or the framing you use.

As a reminder, opening our minds to new stories often leads to innovation, which can lead to transformation and improvement. Let’s get creative!

Science Podcasts

Are you a podcast listener? Do you spend time in the car that could use some stimulating brain food? There are so many podcasts available now, you are sure to find something you like.

Brain Food has covered a few podcast episodes, including one with Bill Gates that highlights advanced problem-solving. The whole episode is great, and the post is worth a read!

In case you’re looking for science-related podcasts (fun!), Podcast Review posted an article on The 11 Best Science Podcasts. In the review, staff writer and assistant editor Alice Florence Orr says:

“By emphasizing methodology, a good science podcast not only asks interesting questions; it also explains how and why we arrived at an answer.”

Does that sound like something ACT Rochester would support, or what?! Consider a science podcast for some extra brain food!

Happy Back to School!

As local students and families adjust to the school routine, I wanted to call attention to a couple of education-related items on our site:

• Community Indicators K-12 Education category is a How-To Guide for the New York State Department of Education dashboard. All school districts in our region are included on the dashboard!

• Check out Brain Food with the Education tag, including a Guest Post from Dr. Tyana Velazquez-Smith

• Check out education resources from national organizations under Resources, including:

  • The Educational Opportunity Project at Stanford University is a great resources for interactive data tools and research, including the 2019 to 2023 Education Recovery Explorer. See also related article published in The New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/12/05/upshot/a-better-way-to-compare-public-schools.html and https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/02/01/upshot/learning-loss-school-districts.html

  • The Education Data Initiative is a wealth of information on a range of topics including financial aid statistics, student loan debt, and education spending statistics.

Enjoy some Brain Food to kick off the 2024-2025 school year!

2024 Fringe Festival!

This week’s Brain Food is specific to the right brain - the creative side! Rochester’s 2024 Fringe Festival begins on September 10th. Visit the site - rochesterfringe.com - for information, tickets, and list of shows.

If you would like additional information, the September 3rd episode of Connections with Evan Dawson is dedicated to the Fringe Festival. Listen here!

Curated Book on Urban Design

A close friend lent me the book Happy City: Transforming Our Lives Through Urban Design by Charles Montgomery after a lengthy policy conversation. He told me I needed to read it; he was right. You should read it, too!

Note that Happy City is not written by social scientists so the objective of the book is not to prove or disprove a hypothesis. I loved and recommend Happy City because it is an exercise in out-of-the-box thinking. It is a catalyst for innovative problem-solving. It provides case studies of cities across the world, told as stories, and patched together for a wholistic and human-centered approach to the complex challenges of urban areas. Happy City highlights the successes of Vancouver, Canada, Bogota, Colombia, Siena, Italy, and Paris, France, and it uses history and exceptional scholarship to make arguments about what makes a city great and how to improve the quality of life for all city residents.

“And what are our needs for happiness?... We need to walk, just as birds need to fly. We need to be around other people. We need beauty. We need contact with nature. And most of all, we need not to be excluded. We need to feel some sort of equality." (pg. 6)

Montgomery introduces concepts like challenged thriving (pg. 37), the relationship between happiness, economists, and urban design, unintended negative consequences of urban sprawl (beyond the damage to the environment!), and on page 111 Montgomery references a relevant psychological study at the University of Rochester. 

We spend so much time reading about the challenges of the City of Rochester and perhaps you find yourselves talking about those challenges in your networks. Consider reading Happy City to catalyze more creative thought about what urban transformation could look like.

Consider Happy City for your brain food - it's high quality nutrition for healthy thought! 

Source: Montgomery, C. (2013). Happy city: Transforming our lives through urban design. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York.

Federal Home Loan Banks

How’s your banking legislation history? Don’t worry if it’s not worthy of an A+ because Brookings provides a history lesson and accessible description of Federal Home Loan Banks in their August 8th, 2024 commentary: “How to Fix Federal Home Loan Banks.”

Our community has talked a lot about the intended and unintended consequences of the New Deal, and the Federal Home Loan Bank Act of 1932 has a role in that conversation. The good news is that there is a restructuring in progress, Brookings submitted commentary, and we all can get up to speed.

Keep in mind that this is information for policy at the federal level, but we know the effects of federal policy cascades into more local settings like ours!

Opportunity Atlas

The Opportunity Atlas, an incredible resource mapping economic mobility across the US, was updated recently. Consider taking time to click around the atlas - it is a wealth of information (see what I did there?!). 

The updated atlas has two modules: county- and metro-level mobility trends and neighborhood-level mobility outcomes. The Opportunity Atlas displays data down to the Census tract level, which is an even smaller unit than neighborhoods. The tool is built for ease of use and tells an incredible story.

If you’re interested in more context and insight, lead researchers behind the Opportunity Atlas participated in a Brookings webinar, available here.

Curated Blog Post: Central New York Community Foundation

Our friends at the Central New York Community Foundation posted a blog on July 11th titled "Lending Tree Study Ranked Syracuse Second in Economic Disparity."

I know what you're thinking - where does Rochester rank? Fortunately, we did not make the bottom five. Unfortunately, we are bottom six.

I encourage you to read the CNY blog post for their insight, and to look at the lending tree study itself (linked directly here). We have more work to do!

Interview with Robert Putnam

A friend of ACT Rochester passed along this interview with Robert Putnam and the associated article from The New York Times. (Thanks, Barb!) The interview talks about Putnam’s famed book Bowling Alone, rampant loneliness, and the social circumstances of our society. Dr. Putnam is a political scientist and social capital expert.  

Dr. Putnam is no stranger to our community, as he worked with RACF on a social capital survey in the 1990s. He thinks, talks, and writes a lot about “joining” and its opposite, social isolation. This topic is particularly relevant post-COVID and has many correlations to upward mobility. 

Consider this interview and Robert Putnam’s work as our political landscape lights up preparing for November elections.

Curated article: When Neighbors Choose…

Next City published an article on August 6th, 2024 that gives an interesting example of community-led grantmaking. Community members are making decisions about programming, and the money follows. See “When Neighbors Choose How To Spend Philanthropic When Neighbors Choose How To Spend Philanthropic Dollars.”

The story is about the Kensington neighborhood of Philadelphia, a neighborhood hit hard by the opioid epidemic. This case study is a very interesting example of how neighborhoods can drive their own revitalization, and of a new dynamic with philanthropy. 

Food for thought!

“The way we gather matters.”

Priya Parker is a bit of a celebrity for the Rochester Area Community Foundation Community Programs department. In June of 2024, Parker was a featured speaker at the University of Rochester’s Volunteers in Partnership Leadership Conference. Before that, in 2022, RACF Community Programs staff each received the book. Who can argue with more efficient meetings? 

Parker’s book The Art of Gathering is an argument for more intentional, productive gathering. You’ll notice right away that she says “gathering” and not “meetings” - a choice and key part of her philosophy. She defines gathering as “the conscious bringing together of people for a reason” (pg. ix, 2018). Parker published the book in 2018 (pre-COVID), and her points seem even more salient now.

At ACT Rochester, we are constantly having conversations about how we think about things, and how we want people to think about things. The Art of Gathering is similar in that it an argument for how to think about gathering. In the introduction, Parker says “My hope is that this book will help you think differently about your gatherings.” (pg.xiii) 

Also, Parker notes that she has a particular approach when it comes to coming together. Her approach “places people and what happens between them at the center of every coming together… [and I] strive to help people experience a sense of belonging.” (pg.xi) I would remind everyone that the sixth pillar of the RMAPI Unity Agenda is Dignity, Inclusion, and Belonging. Food for thought!

Please consider The Art of Gathering and feel free to bring it up to Community Programs staff, particularly Vice President of Community Programs Erin Budd Barry :-) You’ll make her day. 

Actually, Erin just reminded me that there is a podcast, shorter form offerings, etc. if you’re not in the mood for a full book! Check out her website: www.priyaparker.com

Source: Parker, P. (2018). The Art of Gathering: Create Transformative Meetings, Events and Experiences. Portfolio/Penguin.

2024 Paris Olympics

Is there a better way to CONNECT than as part of Olympics fandom? If we think about ACT Rochester’s 4 Cs - Curate, Communicate, Catalyze, Connect - we could probably tell an Olympics story for each of them. Connect, though, is an important and somewhat underutilized one.

The idea is to connect people to people, people/organizations with data, and people to organizations. This is important because information and resources travels through social networks, and inequities are born from certain networks being excluded. 

We are, admittedly, stretching a bit with this Olympics connection but there is an opportunity for authentic connection. The Olympics provide an easy common denominator - a platform to connect with people and sports that we would otherwise not gravitate toward. 

And honestly, we wanted to highlight the Olympics because witnessing excellence, sportsmanship, and competition is such a special experience. Most of the time we give brainfood here, and the Olympics has been such good heart-food!