Harlem Children's Zone
Encyclopedia
The Harlem Children's Zone (HCZ) is a non-profit organization
for poverty-stricken children and families living in Harlem
, providing free support for the children and families in the form of parenting workshops, a pre-school program, three public charter school
s, and child-oriented health programs for thousands of children and families. The HCZ is "aimed at doing nothing less than breaking the cycle of generational poverty
for the thousands of children and
families it serves."
The ambitious Harlem Children's Zone Project has expanded the HCZ's comprehensive system of programs to nearly 100 blocks of Central Harlem and aims to keep children on track through college and into the job market.
Quoting from the HCZ Project web page: "The HCZ Project began as a one-block pilot in the 1990s, then following a 10-year business plan, it expanded to 24 blocks and then 60 blocks. The goal is to serve 15,000 children and 7,000 adults by 2011. The budget for the HCZ Project for fiscal year 2009 is over $40 million, costing an average of $3,500 per child." In addition to this private financing, the HCZ schools receive about $12,500 in public funding per student. According to The New York Times
, these figures do not include the costs of the HCZ "after-school program, rewards for student performance, a chef who prepares healthy meals, central administration and most building costs, and some of the expense of the students' free health and dental care".
The HCZ and its promotion as a model of education to aspire to, especially in the recent documentary Waiting for "Superman", have been criticized as an example of the privitization of education in the US. University of San Francisco Adjunct Professor in Education, Rick Ayers writes that Waiting for "Superman" "never mentions the tens of millions of dollars of private money that has poured into the Harlem Children's Zone, the model and superman we are relentlessly instructed to aspire to."
The Obama administration announced a 20 Promise Neighborhoods program, which hopes to replicate the success of the HCZ in poverty-stricken areas of other U.S. cities.
In the summer of 2010, the U.S. Department of Education's Promise Neighborhoods
program accepted applications from over 300 communities for $10 million in federal grants for developing HCZ implementation plans, with grant awards to be announced in September 2010.
to counter the negative influences of crime, drugs and poverty and help children complete college and go on to the job market. Providing this "full network of services... to an entire neighborhood from birth to college" is a key element of the Obama administration's 20 Promise Neighborhoods program modeled after the HCZ.
The two fundamental principles of The Zone Project are to help kids as early in their lives as possible and to create a critical mass of adults around them who understand what it takes to help children succeed.
Components of the HCZ programs include the following:
Miami,
Chicago
,
Cleveland,
and cities in Maryland
,
are planning or considering HCZ replication.
Author Paul Tough
has discussed the HCZ replication proposal.
The HCZ, in partnership with PolicyLink
, has organized a two-day conference on November 9-10, 2009 in New York City with the aim of providing guidance to community leaders from around the U.S. in their efforts to launch similar, large-scale projects like the HCZ in their local areas.
In 2008 President Obama, inspired by The Harlem Children’s Zone immense progress toward breaking the generational cycle of poverty, proposed the creation of 20 Promise Neighborhoods. Obama’s commitment to alleviating poverty is put into place with this initiative which utilizes HCZ’s “cradle to college” approach. “The initiative seeks to help selected local communities dramatically improve outcomes and opportunities for children and families in defined neighborhoods. The initiative will be diverse in its application, reflecting local needs and context.” The initiative’s goal follows the HCZ’s paradigm to improve every aspect of life within impoverished communities, its purpose states: “all children growing up in Promise Neighborhoods have access to effective schools and strong systems of family and community support that will prepare them to attain an excellent education and successfully transition from college to career.” This purpose statement directly reflects the mission of HCZ. HCZ, in collaboration with the national action institute PolicyLink, assists in providing ongoing guidance for the Obama administration in the undertaking of this initiative.
In 2010, the Obama administration allocated $75 million in the federal budget for the program. More than 330 communities across the nation applied for Promise Neighborhood Planning grants. Twenty one communities were awarded one-year planning grants between $400,000 and $500,000. Planning Grantees are given a year to produce a strategic paradigm which will address the issues specific to their community in pursuit of an implementation grant. The grantees will submit their plans this summer, with the implementation phase for Promise Neighborhoods expected to begin in September 2011.
television program profiled the HCZ, including an interview with founder Geoffrey Canada
, on 14 May 2006 and a follow up program on December 6, 2009. Canada has also appeared twice in televised interviews with Charlie Rose
on 2 Jan 2008 and 22 June 2004,
and with Stephen Colbert
on 8 Dec 2008, on 20 July 2009, and on 4 January 2011.
The U.S. radio show This American Life
produced an episode about the HCZ which aired on 26 September 2008, 11 October 2008, and 14 August 2009.
Barack Obama
announced his plan in a 2008 presidential campaign
speech in Washington, D.C.
to replicate the HCZ in 20 cities across the United States. Federal government would provide half of the funding with the rest coming from philanthropy and businesses at a cost of a few billion per year.
Senator Obama also noted the HCZ in a 2007 campaign speech.
The Wall Street Journal featured the HCZ in an article about the financial troubles experienced by this and other charitable organizations in the wake of the recession
.
The HCZ has initiated a 100-day public service campaign started on January 23, 2009 to help counteract the effects of the economic downturn.
An article in the January/February 2009 issue of Mother Jones
showcases Geoffrey Canada, the HCZ, and its recognition by the Obama 2008 presidential campaign and administration.
The author of this article Paul Tough
published a book in August 2008 about the HCZ titled, Whatever It Takes: Geoffrey Canada's Quest to Change Harlem and America.
National Public Radio produced a 30-minute story on the HCZ on 28 July 2009 titled, "Harlem Children's Zone Breaks Poverty Pattern".
The Washington Post published a story about the HCZ on 2 August 2009, noting that the Obama administration has set aside $10 million in the 2010 budget for planning its 20 Promise Neighborhoods program, which seeks to replicate the HCZ in 20 U.S. cities.
18th March 2010, the HCZ was covered in the BBC
’s flagship Today programme with a view to possible recreation in Great Britain
.
Non-profit organization
Nonprofit organization is neither a legal nor technical definition but generally refers to an organization that uses surplus revenues to achieve its goals, rather than distributing them as profit or dividends...
for poverty-stricken children and families living in Harlem
Harlem
Harlem is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Manhattan, which since the 1920s has been a major African-American residential, cultural and business center. Originally a Dutch village, formally organized in 1658, it is named after the city of Haarlem in the Netherlands...
, providing free support for the children and families in the form of parenting workshops, a pre-school program, three public charter school
Charter school
Charter schools are primary or secondary schools that receive public money but are not subject to some of the rules, regulations, and statutes that apply to other public schools in exchange for some type of accountability for producing certain results, which are set forth in each school's charter...
s, and child-oriented health programs for thousands of children and families. The HCZ is "aimed at doing nothing less than breaking the cycle of generational poverty
Cycle of poverty
In economics, the cycle of poverty is the "set of factors or events by which poverty, once started, is likely to continue unless there is outside intervention."...
for the thousands of children and
families it serves."
The ambitious Harlem Children's Zone Project has expanded the HCZ's comprehensive system of programs to nearly 100 blocks of Central Harlem and aims to keep children on track through college and into the job market.
Quoting from the HCZ Project web page: "The HCZ Project began as a one-block pilot in the 1990s, then following a 10-year business plan, it expanded to 24 blocks and then 60 blocks. The goal is to serve 15,000 children and 7,000 adults by 2011. The budget for the HCZ Project for fiscal year 2009 is over $40 million, costing an average of $3,500 per child." In addition to this private financing, the HCZ schools receive about $12,500 in public funding per student. According to The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, these figures do not include the costs of the HCZ "after-school program, rewards for student performance, a chef who prepares healthy meals, central administration and most building costs, and some of the expense of the students' free health and dental care".
The HCZ and its promotion as a model of education to aspire to, especially in the recent documentary Waiting for "Superman", have been criticized as an example of the privitization of education in the US. University of San Francisco Adjunct Professor in Education, Rick Ayers writes that Waiting for "Superman" "never mentions the tens of millions of dollars of private money that has poured into the Harlem Children's Zone, the model and superman we are relentlessly instructed to aspire to."
The Obama administration announced a 20 Promise Neighborhoods program, which hopes to replicate the success of the HCZ in poverty-stricken areas of other U.S. cities.
In the summer of 2010, the U.S. Department of Education's Promise Neighborhoods
Promise Neighborhoods
Promise Neighborhoods is a United States Department of Education program established under the legislative authority of the Fund for the Improvement of Education Program to improve educational outcomes for students in distressed urban and rural neighborhoods...
program accepted applications from over 300 communities for $10 million in federal grants for developing HCZ implementation plans, with grant awards to be announced in September 2010.
HCZ Principles and Programs
The HCZ designs, funds, and operates a holistic system of education, social-services and community-building programs within HarlemHarlem
Harlem is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Manhattan, which since the 1920s has been a major African-American residential, cultural and business center. Originally a Dutch village, formally organized in 1658, it is named after the city of Haarlem in the Netherlands...
to counter the negative influences of crime, drugs and poverty and help children complete college and go on to the job market. Providing this "full network of services... to an entire neighborhood from birth to college" is a key element of the Obama administration's 20 Promise Neighborhoods program modeled after the HCZ.
The two fundamental principles of The Zone Project are to help kids as early in their lives as possible and to create a critical mass of adults around them who understand what it takes to help children succeed.
Components of the HCZ programs include the following:
- The Baby College, a series of workshops for parents of children ages 0–3
- All-day pre-kindergartenPre-KindergartenPre-kindergarten refers to the first formal academic classroom-based learning environment that a child customarily attends in the United States. It begins between the ages of 3-5 depending on the length of the program...
- Extended-day charter schools (Promise Academy)
- Health clinics and community centers for children and adults during after-school, weekend and summer hours
- Youth violence prevention efforts
- Social services such as a foster-care prevention service
- College admissions & retention support
Replication of the HCZ in other cities
A number of large U.S. cities have initiated their own programs styled after the HCZ, in advance of any federally funded efforts stemming from the Obama administration's HCZ-inspired anti-poverty initiatives. Philadelphia,Miami,
Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
,
Cleveland,
and cities in Maryland
Maryland
Maryland is a U.S. state located in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware to its east...
,
are planning or considering HCZ replication.
Author Paul Tough
Paul Tough
Paul Tough is a writer and broadcaster. He is the author of Whatever It Takes: Geoffrey Canada's Quest to Change Harlem and America. He grew up in Toronto and was educated at the University of Toronto Schools...
has discussed the HCZ replication proposal.
The HCZ, in partnership with PolicyLink
PolicyLink
PolicyLink is a national research and action institute which works to advance economic and social equity. They focus on policies effecting low-income communities and communities of color.-Background:...
, has organized a two-day conference on November 9-10, 2009 in New York City with the aim of providing guidance to community leaders from around the U.S. in their efforts to launch similar, large-scale projects like the HCZ in their local areas.
In 2008 President Obama, inspired by The Harlem Children’s Zone immense progress toward breaking the generational cycle of poverty, proposed the creation of 20 Promise Neighborhoods. Obama’s commitment to alleviating poverty is put into place with this initiative which utilizes HCZ’s “cradle to college” approach. “The initiative seeks to help selected local communities dramatically improve outcomes and opportunities for children and families in defined neighborhoods. The initiative will be diverse in its application, reflecting local needs and context.” The initiative’s goal follows the HCZ’s paradigm to improve every aspect of life within impoverished communities, its purpose states: “all children growing up in Promise Neighborhoods have access to effective schools and strong systems of family and community support that will prepare them to attain an excellent education and successfully transition from college to career.” This purpose statement directly reflects the mission of HCZ. HCZ, in collaboration with the national action institute PolicyLink, assists in providing ongoing guidance for the Obama administration in the undertaking of this initiative.
In 2010, the Obama administration allocated $75 million in the federal budget for the program. More than 330 communities across the nation applied for Promise Neighborhood Planning grants. Twenty one communities were awarded one-year planning grants between $400,000 and $500,000. Planning Grantees are given a year to produce a strategic paradigm which will address the issues specific to their community in pursuit of an implementation grant. The grantees will submit their plans this summer, with the implementation phase for Promise Neighborhoods expected to begin in September 2011.
Media coverage
The 60 Minutes60 Minutes
60 Minutes is an American television news magazine, which has run on CBS since 1968. The program was created by producer Don Hewitt who set it apart by using a unique style of reporter-centered investigation....
television program profiled the HCZ, including an interview with founder Geoffrey Canada
Geoffrey Canada
Geoffrey Canada is an African American social activist and educator. Since 1990, Canada has been president and CEO of the Harlem Children's Zone in Harlem, New York, an organization which states its goal is to increase high school and college graduation rates among students in Harlem...
, on 14 May 2006 and a follow up program on December 6, 2009. Canada has also appeared twice in televised interviews with Charlie Rose
Charlie Rose
Charles Peete "Charlie" Rose, Jr. is an American television talk show host and journalist. Since 1991 he has hosted Charlie Rose, an interview show distributed nationally by PBS since 1993...
on 2 Jan 2008 and 22 June 2004,
and with Stephen Colbert
Stephen Colbert
Stephen Tyrone Colbert is an American political satirist, writer, comedian, television host, and actor. He is the host of Comedy Central's The Colbert Report, a satirical news show in which Colbert portrays a caricatured version of conservative political pundits.Colbert originally studied to be an...
on 8 Dec 2008, on 20 July 2009, and on 4 January 2011.
The U.S. radio show This American Life
This American Life
This American Life is a weekly hour-long radio program produced by WBEZ and hosted by Ira Glass. It is distributed by Public Radio International on PRI affiliate stations and is also available as a free weekly podcast. Primarily a journalistic non-fiction program, it has also featured essays,...
produced an episode about the HCZ which aired on 26 September 2008, 11 October 2008, and 14 August 2009.
Barack Obama
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
announced his plan in a 2008 presidential campaign
United States presidential election, 2008
The United States presidential election of 2008 was the 56th quadrennial presidential election. It was held on November 4, 2008. Democrat Barack Obama, then the junior United States Senator from Illinois, defeated Republican John McCain, the senior U.S. Senator from Arizona. Obama received 365...
speech in Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
to replicate the HCZ in 20 cities across the United States. Federal government would provide half of the funding with the rest coming from philanthropy and businesses at a cost of a few billion per year.
Senator Obama also noted the HCZ in a 2007 campaign speech.
The Wall Street Journal featured the HCZ in an article about the financial troubles experienced by this and other charitable organizations in the wake of the recession
Late 2000s recession
The late-2000s recession, sometimes referred to as the Great Recession or Lesser Depression or Long Recession, is a severe ongoing global economic problem that began in December 2007 and took a particularly sharp downward turn in September 2008. The Great Recession has affected the entire world...
.
The HCZ has initiated a 100-day public service campaign started on January 23, 2009 to help counteract the effects of the economic downturn.
An article in the January/February 2009 issue of Mother Jones
Mother Jones (magazine)
Mother Jones is an American independent news organization, featuring investigative and breaking news reporting on politics, the environment, human rights, and culture. Mother Jones has been nominated for 23 National Magazine Awards and has won six times, including for General Excellence in 2001,...
showcases Geoffrey Canada, the HCZ, and its recognition by the Obama 2008 presidential campaign and administration.
The author of this article Paul Tough
Paul Tough
Paul Tough is a writer and broadcaster. He is the author of Whatever It Takes: Geoffrey Canada's Quest to Change Harlem and America. He grew up in Toronto and was educated at the University of Toronto Schools...
published a book in August 2008 about the HCZ titled, Whatever It Takes: Geoffrey Canada's Quest to Change Harlem and America.
National Public Radio produced a 30-minute story on the HCZ on 28 July 2009 titled, "Harlem Children's Zone Breaks Poverty Pattern".
The Washington Post published a story about the HCZ on 2 August 2009, noting that the Obama administration has set aside $10 million in the 2010 budget for planning its 20 Promise Neighborhoods program, which seeks to replicate the HCZ in 20 U.S. cities.
18th March 2010, the HCZ was covered in the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
’s flagship Today programme with a view to possible recreation in Great Britain
Great Britain
Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
.