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Brock Addresses Anti-Poverty Initiative Criticism at Community Meeting

Brock addressed over 100 participants in the town-hall style meeting.
Veronica Volk
/
WXXI News
Brock addressed over 100 participants in the town-hall style meeting.

The head of the Rochester Monroe Anti Poverty Initiative says they're moving from the planning to the implementation phase.

Leonard Brock spoke at a town hall-style meeting at the Adams Street Recreation Center in Rochester, addressing a question that has plagued the initiative since it's inception.

"What exactly is the product? We're not a service provider, not a funder... What good are you? What's the point of you existing if you're not doing what I need you to do?"

Brock addressed that question by laying out what they've been working on: a series of guiding principles that covering three main areas of concern, including community building, racial equity, and trauma response. The principles are things like "using community-informed data" and "creating meaningful employment opportunities."

Brock says they're going to use these principles to inform their decisions going forward.

"How can we do that? For one, funding priorities have to reflect these principles. Institutions that are receiving support from the initiative have to reflect these principles. Anything that we do, that we endorse, or that we either fund or support has to involve or incorporate these principles."

The principles are important, Brock says, because they were developed after talking to people living in poverty facing these challenges.

Brock says the initiative has a series of recommendations that they're going to begin rolling out over the summer, and they're focusing on a three year pilot program in three neighborhoods in the north east in order to judge whether or not their strategies are effective.

The initiative is going to serve as a model for other anti-poverty initiatives across the state in Governor Cuomo's Empire State Poverty Reduction Initiative. Brock called this a blessing and a curse.

"Cause now we have other communities looking to do what we're doing but we ain't at the point where we got outcomes yet. We just started. There's work. But it's leverage because now, we cannot fail, because we are the example of New York State."

The end goal is reducing poverty by half over 15 years total, starting now.

Veronica Volk is a senior editor and producer for WXXI News.