City of Rochester/County of Monroe
News Release
(Friday, April 30, 2021) – Dr. Cephas Archie, Chief Equity Officer for the City of Rochester and officials for Monroe County, today announced that the City and County have completed their initial analysis of the recommendations brought forth in the Commission on Racial and Structural Equity (RASE) report. This analysis was completed in accordance with the RASE Implementation Strategy recommendations. The report, entitled “No Time for Excuses: It’s Time for Action,” was presented during a March 16 ceremony at the Frederick Douglass Greater Rochester International Airport with Mayor Lovely A. Warren and Monroe County Executive Adam Bello. The RASE report called for the City and County to address deeply embedded practices and conditions in local government and other institutions that have long worked systemically against people of color.
“The completion of this initial analysis allows us to assign responsibility for each of the recommendations to ensure that they are implemented for the benefit of our entire community,” said Dr. Archie, the lead for RASE Report implementation. “We can now move forward and build the teams of community stakeholders necessary for success and create the benchmarks needed to measure our progress.”
Dr. Archie serves as the City’s lead representative, with Dr. Candice Lucas leading the County’s efforts, on a cross-governmental team to provide staff support and resources for the Commission, which is comprised of 21 community members and is co-chaired by former Mayor William A. Johnson Jr., Dr. Muhammad Shafiq, Executive Director of the Hickey Center for Interfaith Studies and Dialogue at Nazareth College and Arline Santiago, Senior Vice President and General Counsel for ESL Federal Credit Union.
Completion of this first “Principle Review” phase of the Commission’s work will guide the City and County’s development of an implementation plan for the report’s recommendations. The identification of which respective government would own specific recommendations and which ones would be jointly shared was conducted by leadership teams from both the City and the County.
The final implementation plan will include the identification of key stakeholders and implementation benchmarks in support of the report’s six overarching themes. The review process encompassed a thorough assessment of the recommendations made by the Commission’s nine working groups. The review also identified internal and external partners, required resources, tentative timelines for completion and principle personnel responsible for facilitating implementation efforts, monitoring progress and providing updates.
Over the next several weeks, the City and County will compile their recommendation responses and provide a community update on implementation efforts. For more information, visit the RASE Commission website at www.rocrase.com.
###