The paperback edition of Whatever It Takes, which includes a new afterword updating the story, is now on sale at Amazon and other online booksellers (even though the official publication date isn’t till next month).
Archive for August, 2009
Paperback!
Tuesday, August 11th, 2009This American Life
Tuesday, August 11th, 2009The half-hour-long report that I did on This American Life about Baby College and the Harlem Children’s Zone is airing again this weekend.
The report was recently named a runner-up for the 2009 Casey Medal for Meritorious Journalism in the radio category. According to the citation,
Entrenched poverty is a complicated, nuanced issue, and some reporting on it tends to be one-dimensional. Not this story. This is an excellent report of one man’s impact on the children involved with the Harlem Children’s Zone in New York. The reporter expertly mixes science and storytelling without avoiding thorny issues. It’s no wonder that many who heard or learned of the report wanted to know how they might replicate the program.
Promise Neighborhoods in the Post
Sunday, August 2nd, 2009In Sunday’s Washington Post, a lengthy story about the Harlem Children’s Zone and President Obama’s plan to replicate it:
Canada was raised poor in the South Bronx and went on to earn a graduate education degree from Harvard. Years ago, he grew frustrated that his successful after-school program was not decreasing Harlem’s tally of high school dropouts, juvenile arrests and unemployed youths. He set out to devise an encompassing program to “move the needle” and improve the lives of poor children in a mass, standardized, reproducible way.
Now the Obama administration seeks to replicate Canada’s model in 20 cities in a program called Promise Neighborhoods and has set aside $10 million in the 2010 budget for planning. President Obama has frequently singled out the Harlem Children’s Zone, and first lady Michelle Obama recently called Canada “one of my heroes.”