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Home My WebLink Aboutinformation sheet Harlem Childrens ZoneThe Harlem Children's Zone and the Promise Neighborhoods Initiative A Briefing "It's time to change the odds for neighborhoods all across America. And that's why when I'm president, the first part of my plan to combat urban poverty will be to replicate the Harlem Children's Zone in 20 cities across the county." President Obama July 2007 campaign speech The Harlem Children's Zone (HCZ) HCZ is a community-based organization, offering education, social -service and community -building programs to children and families in Harlem since 1970. It is place -based, focusing on a 97 -block area of Harlem, but its goal is universal in its nature: to do "whatever it takes" to improve the lives of poor children and to break the cycle of generational poverty. Its approach is based on: ■ Collaboration — pushing beyond what one organization can achieve alone, or what one program can accomplish on its own, to try to create a complete `pipeline" of support so that all a child's needs, from pre -natal care to college, can be provided for in a seamless series of coordinated programs ■ Comprehensiveness — striving to bring about widespread change by supplementing educational interventions with a collection of wrap- around programs that improve the children's family and neighborhood environments so intensively that a tipping point in community norms may be reached ■ Results — setting ambitious academic expectations for its programs, like closing the "achievement gap, " and consistently producing outcomes that meet or exceed national, state, and city averages As a model, it is based on the simple idea that the whole is much greater than the sum of its parts and that it is the cumulative effect of multiple programs working together that will help children, no matter what their family situation, reach their full potential. Over the years, HCZ has developed and run a number of its own programs to meet specific needs in the Harlem community. These programs include: ■ 3 early childhood programs — Baby College, The Three Year Old Journey, Harlem Gems ■ 1 elementary after-school program — Harlem Peacemakers ■ 2 middle school after-school programs — TRUCE Fitness and Nutrition Center, A Cut Above ■ 3 high school after-school programs — TRUCE Arts & Media, Employment and Technology Center, Learn to Earn ■ 1 college program — College Success Office ■ 4 community programs — Community Pride, Single Stop, HCZ Asthma Initiative, Obesity Initiative Truly committed to doing whatever it takes, HCZ also runs two Promise Academy charter schools while simultaneously working closely with two public schools that have become Beacon Community Centers. Under contract with the New York City Administration for Child Services to run five programs as part of an overall effort called the HCZ Foster Care Prevention Services, HCZ provides a variety of other services ranging from substance abuse referrals to legal assistance. Finally, committed to building community, HCZ also works collaboratively with local residents, faith -based institutions, cultural organizations, and other leaders on an array of issues affecting children. HCZ clearly states that a community does not need to match its level of programming or adopt any of its specific programs to replicate its model. But, to create change, HCZ believes a community must embrace the 5 underlying principles of the HCZ model and incorporate them into the programs that work best in their neighborhoods. These 5 principles are: 1. Serve an entire neighborhood comprehensively and at scale. To achieve a tipping point in community norms, collective programs offered by an initiative must reach about 65% of the total children in the area. 2. Create a pipeline of support of excellent, accessible, high-quality programs and schools that are linked together to provide uninterrupted support. Surround the pipeline with additional programs that support families and the larger community. 3. Build community among residents, institutions, and stakeholders — environment profoundly affects a child's development and engaged residents, stakeholders, and local institutions are critical to sustain community improvements and developments. 4. Evaluate program outcomes for internal reasons, not just external ones. Create a feedback loop so that evaluation results are used to improve and refine program offerings. 5. Cultivate a culture of success emphasizing accountability, leadership, and teamwork, but rooted in a deep, shared passion for improving the lives of children. This is a passion that can unite us all, no matter our political, economic, or cultural differences. The Promise Neiehborhoods Initiative The Obama administration requested $10 million in planning grant money for a Promise Neighborhoods initiative in its 2010 budget proposal. This $10 million has been included in both the House and Senate versions of the Labor -HHS -Education appropriations bill (HR 3293) so chances look good that federal money will be available for this federal fiscal year once this bill is passed by Congress. While specifics have yet to be disclosed, this initiative will be run by the Department of Education's Office of Innovation and Improvement and would provide competitive, one-year planning grants to support the development of plans for comprehensive neighborhood programs, modeled after HCZ, in 20 cities. At this point it is expected that the Department of Education will release an RFP for Promise Neighborhoods in early 2010. Competition for this funding will be fierce. There has been a lot of interest in the HCZ model from cities across the country, several of which have gone ahead and established their own initiatives using other sources of funding. To help those interested in learning more, HCZ developed a Practitioners Institute and reports that over 100 domestic communities have had organized groups attend a three-day training session. This fall, more than 1,400 people attended a national conference HCZ hosted in New York City. Registration to this conference was limited to groups of 4-10 people formed and based on a specific neighborhood or community. A team from Little Rock attended this conference to assess the possible implementation of this model in the University District/12t' Street Corridor neighborhoods. The team consisted of Senator Joyce Elliott, City Director Ken Richardson and representatives from UDP, UDEN, UALR Children International, LRSD, CALS, and New Futures for Youth. The HCZ model holds so much promise for so many communities because it is a framework that can be adapted to local needs and realities and implemented incrementally. Due to these flexibilities, it is a model that holds promise for the children of Little Rock's midtown neighborhoods whether or not Little Rock is designated officially as a "promise neighborhood." For more information: www. hcz.ora httix. lunca-aef.orecat=3 (informational page on the United Neighborhood Centers of America's site)