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Our History...
RCSF was initially established in 1916 as the Rochester Memorial Children’s Fund when students found it necessary to go to work to help with family finances. The fund provided financial support to students as a means of keeping them in the educational system. It also served as a living memorial to those serving in World War I.
The RMCF was incorporated in 1919 as a not-for- profit 501(c)(3) organization and while we changed our name to the Rochester Children’s Scholarship Fund (RCSF) our mission and vision have not changed.
A Community Need...
With the increasing need to support the most at-risk and underperforming students in the RCSD, resources are spread thin. Consequently, students who are the top performers in the RCSD often get lost in the shuffle, receive little or no attention, and have difficulty accessing resources when they need support.
While 10% of RCSD students in grades 9-12 were eligible for the RCSF program in the 1999-2000 school year, only 4.5% met eligibility requirements 5 years later. Failure to invest in these students can only lead to increasing dropout rates at younger ages, higher unemployment and underemployment, increased crime and poverty rates, growing prison populations and increasing welfare costs, and ever lower wages.
A Millken study states that, "where companies used to attract intellectual capital, now intellectual capital attracts corporations." In an economy with an increasing appetite for educated workers, the cost of ignoring our most creative and brightest among the academically advanced, financially challenged students in our cities is exorbitant.
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