Rochester, NY, December 23, 2024 — Our Local History, a Rochester-based non-profit organization providing educational materials and workshops related to the local history of civil rights, announced Monday it has received a $675,000 grant from ESL, the single largest philanthropic gift that Our Local History has ever received.
The funding, to be disbursed over three years, will allow Our Local History to continue to broaden and deepen its work in the Greater Rochester area. In 2024, it conducted workshops and professional development sessions with 22 Monroe County school districts and all six local schools of education, along with a growing number of schools in the surrounding counties. This means that thousands of educators now have the background knowledge and tools to guide their students through their own local history of topics such as enslavement, redlining, and the civil rights struggles of the LGBTQ+ and Latinx communities, preparing them to take civic action against injustice in their own communities.
In addition to its work in K-12 schools, Our Local History also led nearly 90 community-oriented workshops over the last year for banking and real estate institutions, non-profit organizations, churches, and other groups. It published a children’s book, Constance Mitchell Stands Up, based on the life and activism of Rochester civil rights icon Constance Mitchell; hosted more than 500 people at its annual Antiracist Education Conference; and worked with the Rochester-Monroe Antipoverty Initiative and other partners on a workshop related to the history of housing discrimination after 1968. In every instance, there is an emphasis on using historical knowledge to inform civic action for equity in the present.
“Tens of thousands of people across the Finger Lakes region have learned about their local history of civil rights and resistance through our workshops,” Our Local History Kesha James said. “With this support from ESL, we’ll be able to return to those places and add new ones, working toward our ultimate goal of equipping every child in New York with their own local history.”
“This generous funding will enable countless educators, children, and community members to learn about what happened where they lived – and to decide for themselves what to do about it,” Our Local History Co-Director Shane Wiegand said. “ESL has been a foundational partner since we began our work in 2020 and an exemplar for corporate civic commitment. We look forward to continuing to work with them to make Rochester a more prosperous and equitable place.”
This is the third grant Our Local History has received from ESL, whose philanthropy is targeted to programs working toward making the six-county Rochester region more prosperous, well-connected, and inclusive. ESL also helped fund the production of “Home: Access Denied,” a 2023 documentary film about the history of redlining in Rochester.
“The work of Our Local History has proven to be critical to help residents, educators, and businesses learn about and understand components of our community’s history that hadn’t previously been taught in schools,” said John Paul Perez, Executive Director, Community Impact, ESL Federal Credit Union. “We invest in programs like Our Local History because their work inspires impactful, positive actions that can help us build a stronger, more resilient, and more equitable Greater Rochester community.”
Our Local History is a not-for-profit organization whose mission is to support and empower students, teachers, and communities with the tools to engage with and own their local history of civil rights through inquiry, equity, and civic action. It is a program of Coordinated Care Services, Inc.
The ESL Charitable Foundation is an initiative of ESL, the largest locally led financial services institution in the Greater Rochester area. Through its Community Impact initiatives, it aspires to build a healthy, resilient, and equitable Greater Rochester region where all residents are well-educated, live in affordable, connected neighborhoods, and have access to quality employment opportunities.
Media contacts
Our Local History: Justin Murphy, jmurphy@ccsi.org
ESL: Rich Pulvino, rpulvino@esl.org
