When Kelly Saucke closes her eyes, she can see what she'd like Rochester to be.
And, yes, she still sees snow.
But the 27-year-old city native and community outreach director for the Rochester Young Professionals also sees a bustling metropolis full of invigorated young adults thriving on the art, culture and enterprise that is already here and on new foundations built upon strengthened ties with government and colleges in the area.
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“We need to create a renaissance in Rochester,” she says. “Kind of like Boston without the traffic.”
To do that, she and several other Rochesterians believe that young adults have to cooperate and get involved.
And that's what the ROC City Coalition is all about.
The idea, spearheaded by PAETEC chairman Arunas Chesonis, is to use the resources of all of the young professional groups in the city and unify them into a consortium, giving them a louder voice in local affairs.
“If you bring all of these groups together, they'll be able to influence business and government leaders in town,” says Chesonis, who has offered a meeting space for the Coalition at PAETEC and will fund an intern to keep the organization running.
Separately, each organization under the ROC City Coalition has its own niche.
But together, they're sort of like the DC Comics Super Friends or, to a less exciting extent, the United Nations. They make a formidable team.
Each organization generally sends one or two regular representatives to the monthly coalition meeting, but once the still-developing group determines specific initiatives, the leaders expect to involve other members from each organization much more. So far, the coalition has begun planning work on several events around town.
The first is a summit to be conducted on Friday, Nov. 5, at Nazareth College between members of various young adult organizations and a group of government officials that the coalition hopes will include County Executive Maggie Brooks, Mayor Bill Johnson, Assemblyman David Koon, D-Perinton and Rep. Louise Slaughter, D-Fairport.
In addition, the coalition likely will be involved in the Halloween Balloon Manor on display from Oct. 27 to 31 at South Town Plaza in Henrietta and is in talks to play a role in a New Year's Eve event with Alexander Street business owners.
Here's the lowdown on the groups that are at the core of the ROC City Coalition:
Rochester Young Professionals
Description: Networking and activity group aimed at young professionals in Rochester.
Mission: To attract and retain talented, educated, ambitious young professionals in the community, working together with organizations across Rochester.
What they do: Conduct social gatherings and networking, cultural and volunteer activities.
Saucke says that the goals of the Young Professionals are very similar to those of the coalition.
“The Young Professionals and the ROC City Coalition really want to attract, maintain and empower the younger generation,” she says. “A lot of young people don't really know what's going on in government and planning, and we're trying to overcome that.”
E-mail: membership@rochesteryoung professionals.org
or go to:
www.rochesteryoungprofessionals.org
Rochester Young Entrepreneurs Organization
Description: A networking group for entrepreneurs 40 and younger with a business that has more than $1 million in annual revenue.
Mission: To breed more informed and connected young entrepreneurs and bolster the Rochester business community.
What they do: Conduct forums with business owners and local officials to address the needs and issues of young entrepreneurs in Rochester.
David Mammano, 35, of Macedon, founder of the Rochester branch of the organization, feels that the time for change is now.
He cites a 2003 Brookings Institution study that showed the population of those 35 and younger fell 6.7 percent in and around Rochester during the 1990s.
“That's the twelfth-worst in the country,” he says. “If we don't do something now, all of upstate New York is a Rust Belt in the making.”
Prospective members should e-mail Mammano at:
Rochester Area Twenty-Somethings
Description: Community group for 20- to 29-year-olds looking for social interaction, networking and community service.
Mission: To provide the foundation and organization for social, networking and community-service activities in Rochester while helping build lasting relationships with the twenty-somethings community.
What they do: Conduct social and networking gatherings and perform community service.
Laura Hammond, 25, of Greece, who is co-president with husband Matt, believes that the coalition will make government officials take the younger residents of Rochester more seriously.
“It'll give us more of a unified voice,” she says. “It's kind of like a CEO roundtable.”
E-mail:
