The author will discuss [Geoffrey] Canada’s creation of a cradle-to-college program for children of Harlem, New York. After his talk, Montana residents will talk about what resources worked for them, and everyone will brainstorm how to create an infrastructure that will support youth of the Northern Cheyenne Reservation in their career goals.

The forum is being organized by the Boys and Girls Club of the Northern Cheyenne Nation, which last year became one of 21 community groups nationwide that received a Promise Neighborhood planning grant.

There’s more information in this story from the Billings Gazette, including details on how to RSVP.

There’s now a bit more information on the talk posted here.

For more information, contact Norma Barfield with the Chavez Schools, at norma.barfield@chavezschools.org.

Here’s how the conference web site describes what we’ll be talking about:

Everyone agrees that education plays a critical role in eradicating poverty, but is it enough? How critical are other poverty-focused interventions to improving student outcomes? In this panel, practitioners will discuss which services have the greatest impact on poverty in their communities and what they’re doing to address the needs of low-income children and families.

“The idea is to bring together a lot of talented people and have them share their perspectives on new and better ways of educating,” said William Christ, the head of school. “We’re thinking it will have a ripple effect and contribute to the national conversation.”

I also think that there are many, many people in non-profits who are tired of business-as-usual, tired of feeling like their work is a drop in the ocean, tired of talking themselves into believing in what they do every day.  Some of those people must have been in the audience that night, looking for a thicker strand of hope to pull on.

From what I’ve read, hope is much of what Geoffrey Canada’s concept is riding on now: hope with an almost desperate promise of metrics, if we could all be patient for a while.  And many of us are willing to be patient, because we believe as we have believed for years, that he’s making it happen – he’s doing it.  He’s doing what we thought should be done all along: comprehensive services, for all stages of childhood, supportive of the family and community as well as the child.  This is the silent promise we’ve been imagining, and Canada actually managed to speak the promise out loud.

From the Loyola Law School web site, a report on last week’s event:

The forum, which included a keynote address by author and former New York Times magazine editor Paul Tough (pictured left), explored the The Harlem Children’s Zone approach to inner city education, as well as addressed the recent plans by the Obama administration to offer new funding to replicate twenty “Promise Neighborhoods” throughout the country. …

Tough and the panel of Chicago experts discussed the potential impact of a Promise Neighborhood in Chicago, how to improve on the HCZ model, as well as addressed issues that distinguish Chicago from Harlem and other communities seeking to create a “Children’s Zone.” Expert panelists included Loyola law alumnus Azim Ramelize, Chicago Dept. of Children and Youth Services; Chris Brown, Local Initiatives Support Corporation; Dr. Bradley Stolbach, La Rabida Children’s Hospital; and Barbara Bowman, Chief Officer, Early Education, Chicago Public Schools.

Attention Philadelphians: Next Monday, March 9, from 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., I’ll be taking part in a panel discussion about Whatever It Takes sponsored by the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. The event will be hosted by Hallam Hurt, a neonatologist at CHOP, and will include remarks from Martha Farah, a cognitive neuroscientist whose research appears in the second chapter of the book. Check out the flyer above for more details.

Discussing Whatever It Takes and the Harlem Children’s Zone with (from left) Robert Gordon, Roland Fryer and Geoffrey Canada at the Center for American Progress, Washington D.C., October 23, 2008.