Posts Tagged ‘Geoffrey Canada’
Monday, February 8th, 2010
Geoffrey Canada will be giving a speech next month in Charlotte, N.C. According to this article in the Charlotte Observer,
He’ll find a well-versed audience. Dozens of leaders from Charlotte-area agencies, charities, schools, advocacy groups and businesses have attended “book club” discussions focusing on a book about Canada. His creation, the Harlem Children’s Zone, provides education for expectant parents, preschool, health care, charter schools and tutoring for families in a 100-block poverty-stricken area of New York City.
Foundation for the Carolinas President Michael Marsicano was among the first group to read “Whatever It Takes” and talk about how the ideas might translate to Charlotte.
Tags: Geoffrey Canada, newspapers, North Carolina, speeches
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Monday, January 18th, 2010
After Geoffrey Canada’s speech in Madison, Wisconsin, last week, some new coverage by the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, including this report on a task force to create a Harlem’s Children Zone-like project in Milwaukee:
Gov. Jim Doyle has said that the state’s application for Race to the Top, a pool of federal grants worth $4.35 billion, will include a proposal to create a Milwaukee Children’s Zone with part of the money. In addition, a Milwaukee Public Schools task force – formed in the summer of 2009 by Doyle, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett and state Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Evers – has called for the creation of “Milwaukee Children’s Zones.” Also, state lawmakers pushing for Milwaukee’s mayor to take over MPS have included a proposal for a local Harlem Children’s Zone-like experiment as part of their governance bill pending in the state Legislature.
But in yesterday’s paper, Alan J. Borsuk, the education columnist, interviewed Canada and struck a more skeptical note:
Then came what I would suggest is the big one, when it comes to Milwaukee: Canada said, “Then there’s the leadership issue.” You need, he said, “a leadership group that’s prepared to take on the mission. . . . There has to be a leadership strategy where someone is held accountable.” Canada’s definitions of mission and leadership leave an awful lot of Milwaukee leaders in the dust.
Tags: Geoffrey Canada, newspapers, Promise Neighborhoods, speeches, Wisconsin
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Thursday, January 7th, 2010
From today’s edition of the Capital Times in Madison, Wisconsin, an article about Geoffrey Canada’s visit to Milwaukee next week, and the growing interest in the city in building something similar to the Harlem Children’s Zone:
Gubernatorial candidate and Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett is an enthusiastic Geoffrey Canada fan and is intrigued by the notion of developing children’s zones in Milwaukee.
“I saw the New York Times Magazine story about the Harlem Children’s Zone and I read Paul Tough’s book,” he says in a phone interview. “I was very interested in how these ideas could be applied to Milwaukee.”
Tags: Geoffrey Canada, newspapers, Promise Neighborhoods, Wisconsin
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Wednesday, November 25th, 2009
On CNN, Princeton professor Julian E. Zelizer writes about Promise Neighborhoods and the Harlem Children’s Zone:
Promise Neighborhoods is one of the most ambitious efforts in recent years to tackle the crisis of urban youth. Geoffrey Canada’s work should offer one area of policy where Democrats and Republicans can join to show to the world that the election of 2008 did indeed reflect a genuine desire to eliminate some of the roots of racial inequality that continue to shape our country.
Tags: Geoffrey Canada, HCZ, Promise Neighborhoods, TV
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Sunday, October 25th, 2009
On Friday night, Geoffrey Canada accepted the Robert Coles “Call of Service” Award at Harvard University and spoke to students about Dr. Seuss and Langston Hughes.
Tags: Geoffrey Canada, Massachusetts, photographs, speeches, universities
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Tuesday, September 29th, 2009
In today’s Newark Star-Ledger, an article about the new initiative to build neighborhood zones based on the Harlem Children’s Zone in both Newark and Camden, New Jersey. According to the article, the plan is intended to take advantage of President Obama’s proposed Promise Neighborhoods program:
State leaders hope the plans will give New Jersey a leg up on the competition for the Promised Neighborhoods Initiative, an Obama administration proposal that requested $10 million to duplicate the Harlem project in 20 cities nationwide.
“This is a holistic approach to how we should deal with education,” Gov. Jon Corzine said at the conference. “We want to make sure Newark and Camden receive those (federal) resources.”
Congress has yet to approve the funds, but Canada said he expects it will be allotted and the administration will start the selection process in a few weeks.
Tags: Geoffrey Canada, New Jersey, Promise Neighborhoods
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Tuesday, September 29th, 2009
President Obama addressed the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s annual dinner on Saturday and made the case again for Promise Neighborhoods:
This economic crisis has made the problems in the communities of color much worse. But we all know that these problems have been there for a long time. Communities were struggling to catch up long before this economic storm came ashore. One study that looked at trends in this country over the past few decades found that while roughly seven out of every 10 middle class white children end up surpassing their parents’ income, roughly seven out of every 10 middle class black children do not. Think about that. For the majority of some Americans upward mobility, for the majority of others — stagnation or even downward mobility. That was taking place over the last decade, before the economic crisis. That kind of inequality is unacceptable in the United States of America.
Bringing hope and opportunity to places where they’re in short supply — that’s not easy. It will take a focused and sustained effort to eradicate the structural inequalities in our communities — structural inequalities that make it difficult for children of color to make a success of their lives, no matter how smart or how driven or how talented they are. That’s why we’re launching Promise Neighborhoods to build on Geoffrey Canada’s success in Harlem with a comprehensive approach to ending poverty by giving people the tools they need to pull themselves up.
Tags: Geoffrey Canada, Obama, Promise Neighborhoods
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Monday, September 28th, 2009
In Sunday’s Christian Science Monitor, an article about Geoffrey Canada and his work, based on my radio story on Baby College, on This American Life.
Tags: Geoffrey Canada, newspapers, radio
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Tuesday, September 1st, 2009
In the Palm Beach Post, an editorial urging civic leaders to create a Promise Neighborhood in West Palm Beach:
The Obama administration wants to help 20 cities adopt anti-poverty programs modeled on the Harlem Children’s Zone in New York City. Founder/Director Geoffrey Canada may work with programs in four communities, including one in Florida.
For two years, City Commissioner Kimberly Mitchell has laid the groundwork for that community to be West Palm Beach. Last week, she unveiled the West Palm Beach Family Zone, a nonprofit corporation that has state Senate President Jeff Atwater, R-North Palm Beach, among its supporters. The kickoff meeting, held at The Palm Beach Post, included Democrats and Republicans, potential donors from Palm Beach and residents of inner-city neighborhoods.
The current approach of independent and at times overlapping programs – a midnight basketball game here, a family counseling session there – has been playing out without success in Palm Beach County’s poorest communities. The Dunbar Village case reveals how low things can go. “We know what works,” Commissioner Mitchell said. “We have seen what works. Anything short of that is unacceptable.”
Tags: Florida, Geoffrey Canada, newspapers, Obama, Promise Neighborhoods
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