Resurgence While the COVID-19 pandemic necessitated our relief work and seeding recovery fuels our efforts to help vulnerable New Yorkers regain their footing, long-term justice drives our work to increase opportunity and transform safety nets into springboards for economic mobility.
Black and Latinx people in New York City are dying at twice the rates of whites, not because COVID-19 identifies skin color, but because of the broken systems of housing, health care, nutrition, education, and others that enable disparities to persist. We live in a city where 80% of the 1.6 million people living in poverty are people of color. The underlying causes of death from COVID-19 are more than just comorbidities. And the murder of George Floyd and the many other people of color killed at the hands of police officers has reawakened a consciousness within many of us. We are reflecting upon the systemic and structural racial issues that both confound and characterize the face of poverty, and we are ready to act. The interplay between racism and poverty — and the failures of systems that led to the deaths of people of color — did not begin in March, nor will it end with the development of a vaccine. Instead of rebuilding a broken system, Robin Hood seeks to restructure the very systems that make race and poverty inextricable, and its reality, for too many New Yorkers, generational, inescapable, and permanent. We are placing racial and economic justice at the center of our work because without justice, we cannot achieve equity.
With the resurgence of New York City comes an opportunity to right the wrongs of the past. We believe in the agency of every individual, but we also know systemic issues of race and the unintended or deliberate consequences of public policy impede the ability of people to rise above their circumstances. As a city, we know we can do better — and with your help, we will. We have launched the Power Fund, an initiative investing in organizations on the frontlines of impact, funding leaders of color who are reflective of the communities they serve, while catalyzing a shift in long-term grant-making priorities both within our own organization and across the field of philanthropy. We are also championing advocacy and seeking policy changes to ensure deep, lasting change. It is also why we partner with community members living in poverty — because their input ensures we are delivering what they need. Generous New Yorkers, like you, are helping make change possible. Our work in relief and recovery is seeding the resurgence of New York City. We’re paving the way forward for philanthropy to a forge lasting impact that will transform the lives of New York’s most vulnerable for generations to come.
“COVID-19 has put our existing inequities in sharper relief and exacerbated them. The sad reality is that we give the least to the students who need the most. We have learned some difficult lessons, and one is that we need a stronger safety net. In the wealthiest country in the world, we can take care of our people and make sure they are safe and healthy. And that will be to the benefit of kids and schools. We know that Robin Hood’s donors, as they have for 32 years, will play a large role in that effort.” — John King, former United States Secretary of Education, and member of Robin Hood Board of Directors
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