Comment

Comment by Patricia M. McBride on October 4, 2010 at 5:47pm

The organization that our city is modeling after (see below) is a not for profit which is run on donations; not tax dollars. It has, most recently, received a 20M dollar donation from Goldman Sachs and has been written up in the New York Times. The CEO has been interviewed on national TV and has been written up in the NY Times numerous times. Far different from the program which will be run here in Jacksonville at tax payer expense (and this program grows and grows to encompass more and more children of other ages and becomes far more costly than the current 20M price tag for this commission). This might have been better handled as a not for profit on donations in the private sector rather than as a program run by our city at tax payer expense.

The HCZ Project
100 Blocks, One Bright Future

Called "one of the most ambitious social-service experiments of our time," by The New York Times, the Harlem Children's Zone Project is a unique, holistic approach to rebuilding a community so that its children can stay on track through college and go on to the job market.

The goal is to create a "tipping point" in the neighborhood so that children are surrounded by an enriching environment of college-oriented peers and supportive adults, a counterweight to "the street" and a toxic popular culture that glorifies misogyny and anti-social behavior.

In January 2007, the HCZ Project launched its Phase 3, expanding its comprehensive system of programs to nearly 100 blocks of Central Harlem. President Barack Obama has called for the creation of "Promise Neighborhoods" across the country based on the comprehensive, data-driven approach of the HCZ Project.

The HCZ pipeline begins with The Baby College, a series of workshops for parents of children ages 0-3. The pipeline goes on to include best-practice programs for children of every age through college. The network includes in-school, after-school, social-service, health and community-building programs. The pipeline has, in fact, dual pathways: on one track, the children go through our Promise Academy charter schools; while on the other track, we work to support the public schools in the Zone, both during the school day with in-class assistants and with afterschool programs.

For children to do well, their families have to do well. And for families to do well, their community must do well. That is why HCZ works to strengthen families as well as empowering them to have a positive impact on their children's development.

HCZ also works to reweave the social fabric of Harlem, which has been torn apart by crime, drugs and decades of poverty.

The two fundamental principles of The Zone Project are to help kids in a sustained way, starting as early in their lives as possible, and to create a critical mass of adults around them who understand what it takes to help children succeed.

The HCZ Project began as a one-block pilot in the 1990s, then following a 10-year business plan, it expanded to 24 blocks, then 60 blocks, then ultimately 97 blocks.

The budget for the HCZ Project for fiscal year 2010 is over $48 million, costing an average of $5,000 per child.

Like all HCZ programs, those of the HCZ Project are provided to children and families absolutely free of charge, which is made possible by the support of people like you.