Rob Wildeboer, a criminal-justice reporter for WBEZ radio in Chicago, hosted the panel discussion that followed my speech at Loyola University Law School last week. Before the event, Rob and I sat down in the WBEZ studio for an interview about the Harlem Children’s Zone and Promise Neighborhoods. The interview aired on Friday as part of the local “All Things Considered” broadcast. Here’s the audio.
Posts Tagged ‘HCZ’
WBEZ interview
Tuesday, March 2nd, 2010RSA Journal article
Wednesday, February 10th, 2010In the Winter issue of the RSA Journal, published by the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce, in London, an article by James Forman, Jr., about Promise Neighborhoods, the Harlem Children’s Zone, and “Whatever It Takes.” Forman, a law professor at Georgetown and NYU, reviewed “Whatever It Takes” for the Boston Review last year. From the RSA Journal article:
HCZ occupies an unusual place on the ideological spectrum, one that allows it to appeal to both sides of divisive social policy debates. Consider one example. If poor people are to improve their lives, should they change their behaviours or should society do more for them? Instead of choosing a side, HCZ’s model says that the answer is both. Drawing on decades of research showing that certain middle-class parenting techniques prepare children to navigate school and the world, HCZ teaches those techniques to Harlem parents. At the same time, it recognises that parental skills are only part of the puzzle. After all, poor parents already know what to do when their child says: “My tooth hurts”; the American scandal is that many parents cannot afford to take their children to a dentist. In response, HCZ provides medical and dental care for families that need it.
Brian Lehrer show
Monday, February 8th, 2010This morning I was a guest on the Brian Lehrer show on WNYC in New York, along with Helen Zelon, the author of a new report in City Limits magazine taking a skeptical view of the Obama Administration’s plans to bring the Harlem Children’s Zone model to other cities. (The report isn’t online yet, but it should be posted on the City Limits web site soon.) There is audio, along with comments from listeners, on the WNYC web site, here.
News from Sulphur Springs
Monday, February 1st, 2010In today’s St. Petersburg Times, an article about a program to revitalize the Sulphur Springs neighborhood in Tampa, inspired by the Harlem Children’s Zone:
Beginning in 1997, the Harlem Children’s Zone followed [the] strategy of pouring every resource into a single, 24-block neighborhood. Within a decade, its charter school students were outscoring peers across New York State on standardized tests, and 90 percent of high schoolers in after-school programs were making it to college.
Until recently, such a plan might have seemed unrealistic for Sulphur Springs. It’s a place with more renters than owners, a median income of just $10,500, and Tampa’s highest concentration of children. Foreclosed and abandoned homes mar the landscape, and police mount extra patrols. By 2008, its elementary school was on a short list of the state’s most troubled schools.
But sometimes, when you slip down far enough, you get a fresh start.
News from West Palm Beach
Friday, January 29th, 2010In the South Florida Sun-Sentinel this week, an opinion piece by Kimberly Mitchell, a West Palm Beach city commissioner, about efforts there to replicate the Harlem Children’s Zone:
This past August, along with 60 state and local leaders from all parts of the business, political, economic and educational spectrum, Florida Senate President Jeff Atwater and I launched our own local initiative, Family Zone: West Palm Beach, modeled on the nationally recognized Harlem Children’s Zone project. …
HCZ has found support from liberals and conservatives, Democrats and Republicans – from former House Speaker Marco Rubio, who first brought this to our state’s attention, and Jeff Atwater to Orlando’s Democratic Mayor Buddy Dyer and President Barack Obama. …
President Obama has found this program to be so special, so important, he included it among his top priorities for his first year in office. In fact, West Palm Beach has the opportunity to become our own version of the Harlem Children’s Zone as one of 20 cities chosen by the White House to take part in this dramatic new program.
More Rounding Up
Monday, January 18th, 2010News and comments on Geoffrey Canada, Whatever It Takes, and the Harlem Children’s Zone from David Brooks, the Motley Fool and the student newspaper of the University of Pittsburgh.
Albany’s Zone
Sunday, January 17th, 2010In the Albany Times-Union, a report on the project there to replicate the Harlem Children’s Zone:
A year ago, Common Councilwoman Barbara Smith was daydreaming about a whole community working to give some of its poorest children a chance at college and a better life. She was reading about the Harlem Children’s Zone, the nationally celebrated initiative to reach every child in a 97-block section of New York City and provide them and their families with social, health and educational services from the early years all the way through college.
Now, Smith and a group of parents, educators and concerned citizens, are quickly moving forward with a similar vision for students in the city of Albany. The Children’s Zone has come to Albany at lightning speed, moving from a concept to classroom-level implementation in less than a year.
And in the Hechinger Institute’s “EarlyStories” blog, some thoughts on the Albany news, on Baby College, and on “Whatever It Takes.”
Kansas City’s Zone Two-7
Sunday, January 17th, 2010Kansas City’s mayor, police chief and schools superintendent joined forces, in an opinion article in the Kansas City Star, to announce a new zone in the city designed to emulate the Harlem Children’s Zone:
Kansas City’s Zone Two-7: Anchor of Hope is named for its concentration on the 64127 ZIP Code. The area was selected for myriad reasons. The most important is that the children and their families need high levels of support. Our efforts received good news recently when we learned that the federal funding for these types of projects, called Promise Neighborhoods, passed the U.S. Senate in an omnibus spending bill. Our team will now concentrate on applying for and winning a portion of this federal grant money.
An update from Chicago
Sunday, December 27th, 2009In today’s Chicago Tribune, a report on the Harlem Children’s Zone and a round-up of local efforts to replicate the project through the federal government’s Promise Neighborhood initiative:
Leaders in at least three Chicago neighborhoods — Woodlawn, Logan Square and Chicago Lawn — plan to apply [for a Promise Neighborhood grant].
Bishop Arthur Brazier, longtime head of The Woodlawn Organization, is working with University of Chicago officials to craft a plan for the neighborhood. The city’s education and crime woes call for a bold, comprehensive strategy, he said.
“You can’t deal with these problems with a $25,000 untested program here, and a $30,000 program over there,” said Brazier, referring to past efforts in Woodlawn. “We’ve been programmed out, and we still have the same problems. We need a communitywide effort that includes the schools, the police, the hospitals, the politicians, the universities all working together.”
A children’s zone in Somerville
Saturday, December 26th, 2009In Wicked Local Somerville, an announcement of plans to create a children’s zone in the Winter Hill neighborhood of Somerville, Mass.:
The pilot program, modeled on Geoffrey Canada’s successful “Harlem Children’s Zone,” will focus on the Healey School and the Mystic Housing Development. The initiative, will map out all services for, and identify obstacles faced by, children at the Mystic Housing Development. Members of the network will work to improve coordination and expand services to close gaps, with the ultimate goal of fulfilling a promise that each child in the neighborhood succeeds in life. Eventually, the program will expand to other neighborhood schools and, ultimately, the entire City and school system.
Update: Some more news on the Mystic project.