ROCHESTER, N.Y. — City Council Vice President LaShay D. Harris released a 200+ page report detailing 13 initiatives to enhance the lives of Rochester’s children. A December report by The Children’s Agenda reveals that 40% of children in Rochester live in poverty.

The recommendations include:

Bridging partnerships and work collaboratively, build employment opportunities and career pathways for residents, continue to pilot programs that support generational wealth building, invest in neighborhoods & listen to residents, invest in housing affordability, accessibility and stability, support youth development and equitable opportunities for all, build family supports at R-Centers and libraries, continue to build a healthy and accessible food system, explore opportunities to amplify and implement the findings and recommendations of this report, invest in safer neighborhoods, engage in federal advocacy and New York State advocacy.

That includes the New York New York State Child Poverty Reduction Task Force, which would establish a statewide food and rental assistance program.

Eamon Scanlon from The Children’s Agenda stresses the significance of government support for families. “Rochester’s unacceptably high rate of child poverty is the result of policy choices, not personal failures. While our elected representatives in Albany now debate the state budget, this report calls on them to adopt the Working Families Tax Credit, as tax credits are a proven tool to reduce child poverty and make New York more affordable for all families,” Scanlon said. The tax credit could provide families up to $1,600 per child annually, with a guaranteed minimum of $100 per child.

Qutisha Britt, a single mother from Rochester, hopes elected leaders will pass the family assistance saying “that’s something that can help us along the way throughout every month. It’s just something that we all have to adopt to because our community needs to start healing,” Britt said.

The City Council’s Parks and Public Works Committee will review the report and its recommendations on April 8.

The full report can be found here.

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