Episode 5: There Is No Justice Without Healing

Melanie Funchess, Member, Greater Rochester Black Agenda Group

Melanie Funchess is an incredible thinker, doer, and guide. She serves as caregiver, friend, mentor and teacher.
Aria met her at a work function and quickly became totally OBSESSED by Mel’s work in the community. You
can find Aria anyplace Melanie is speaking, leading and guiding freedom work in Rochester. Melanie’s
philosophy of justice continues to influence Aria’s professional and personal foundational philosophies.

Ms. Melanie Funchess has served as an advocate for families and youth for over two decades. She has worked
extensively in the areas of family engagement and empowerment as well as community building. She presents,
trains, and consults locally and nationally in the areas of cultural competence, culturally responsive practice,
implicit bias, family engagement, community partnership building, racial trauma and healing, and mental health
in communities of color. Her two decades of work experience also include the areas of Education,
Developmental Disabilities, and Community Health.

Ms. Funchess is involved in several national and community-based coalitions and organizations such as The
Child, Adolescent, and Family Branch Council for the Substance Abuse Mental Health Services Administration
(SAMHSA), The National Network to End Disparities in behavioral healthcare (NNED), African American
Leadership Development Program (AALDP), African American Health Coalition (AAHC), Black Women’s
Leadership Forum (BWLF), Greater Rochester Black Agenda Group (BAG), Greater Rochester Parent
Leadership Training Institute (PLTI), Community Task Force for School Climate (CTF), Roc The Future Parent
Engagement Community Action Network (PECAN). She also served as a Commissioner of Schools for the
Rochester City School District.

She is a devoted wife and mother of four children (two boys and two girls). Her mission is to use her knowledge
of systems and communities to create opportunities for youth and families to be empowered and successful and
to break down the walls that separate us and build bridges to unite us as one community where every child is
our own, we have front porch neighborhoods, and we use language that respects everyone.

Resource Links:

Carl Bell- Protective Factors: https://www.cct.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/carl-bell-youth-violence.pdf

Free the People Roc: https://www.facebook.com/ftproc/

Greater Rochester Black Agenda Group: https://blackagendagroup.org/

Greater Rochester Parent Leadership Training Institute: https://www.greaterrochesterplti.org/

Roc the Future: https://rocthefuture.org/