Ending Poverty
RMAPI History
In 2013, our community received a wake-up call. A report from the Rochester Area Community Foundation and ACT Rochester showed that Rochester had some of the highest poverty rates and deepest concentrations of poverty in the nation.
This history of rmapi.
In 2013, our community received a wake-up call. A report from the Rochester Area Community Foundation and ACT Rochester showed that Rochester had some of the highest poverty rates and deepest concentrations of poverty in the nation. Faced with such a daunting challenge, Rochester has done what we always do best – rally together.
Through the Rochester-Monroe Anti-Poverty Initiative, we came together in unprecedented ways to identify the root causes of poverty. Partners made changes within their organizations and across sectors, creating a system where all members of the community have a place at the table. We pledged to make all our decisions against a backdrop of our guiding principles to address structural racism, address trauma, and build and support our community.
Together, we studied the root causes of poverty in Rochester and have taken actions to address them. After issuing a progress report, RMAPI’s partners took on our community’s initial recommendations, helping move people out of poverty while we worked together toward long-term solutions.
This has been one small part of RMAPI’s larger work. Service providers have formed new partnerships to better understand the experience people go through when looking for work, navigating human services, and finding safe and affordable housing. Employers made changes to hiring and retention practices that help people on the path to self-sufficiency. Dozens of organizations have responded to RMAPI’s call to raise wages, bringing more than 11,000 employees to $15/hour or above in the last year alone.
In 2022, RMAPI published its new Unity Agenda. The Unity Agenda is a roadmap for achieving poverty alleviation in Greater Rochester focused on increasing Dignity and Belonging, Power and Autonomy, and Economic Success for all community members.
RMAPI serves as the guardian of these Guiding Principles, spreading them across our community and helping coalition members adopt them within their own organizations.
