Harlem Children’s Zone Shares Insight With More Than 100 Communities

Founded in 1970, HCZ is an innovative community-based organization that has worked with public, private and nonprofit stakeholders to provide the neighborhood’s disadvantaged children with a comprehensive network of services and programs aimed at breaking the cycle of intergenerational poverty. 

For the seventh year in a row, 100 percent of children in HCZ’s Harlem Gems pre-kindergarten program were found to be “school ready.” One hundred percent of third graders and 87 percent of eighth graders at the Promise Academy charter schools scored at or above grade level on state math tests. Ninety percent of high school seniors were accepted into college. The neighborhood even produced a disproportionate number of national chess champions.

These indicators of success have materialized in a neighborhood where four in 10 children live below the poverty line, and where children are more likely than not to be born to single mothers.

HCZ’s results are the reason why more than 1,400 local leaders from more than 100 communities gathered in New York at a recent conference co-sponsored with PolicyLink, a national research and action institute seeking to advance social and economic equity.  Speakers included New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg; Newark, N.J., Mayor Cory Booker; Savannah, Ga., Mayor Otis Johnson; Secretary of Education Arne Duncan; White House Domestic Policy Council Director Melody Barnes; White House Office of Urban Affairs Director Adolfo Carrión; Children’s Defense Fund President Marian Wright Edelman; American Express Chairman and CEO Kenneth Chenault; HCZ President and CEO Geoffrey Canada and PolicyLink CEO Angela Glover Blackwell.

Most communities represented hope to receive federal planning grants under an Obama Administration proposal to create up to 20 Promise Neighborhoods modeled on HCZ. However, cities that do not receive federal support still plan to forge ahead. As one school district leader stated, “this is our mission — we’re going to do this whether we get the money or not.”

The HCZ Model

There are five key distinguishing characteristics of HCZ. The first is a pipeline of programs serving children that begins with “Baby College” for expectant parents and continues through early adulthood. Along the way, children have access to high-quality early education; afterschool programs focused on fitness, nutrition, employment, technology and the arts; successful charter schools (with enrollment determined by lottery); a College Success Office; and family, health and social services. 

These services treat the whole child, rather than focusing on problems in isolation. Other programs support families and communities via financial counseling, tax preparation assistance and conversion of city-owned buildings into tenant-owned co-ops.

Second, HCZ strives to reach a critical mass of children and adults, creating a “tipping point” in which neighborhood norms instill an aspiration and ability to attend college. Instead of hoping that children will be resilient enough to “beat the odds,” HCZ seeks to “change the odds” by strengthening the neighborhood’s social fabric.

Third, HCZ builds community through leadership training, community organizing, referrals to services and neighborhood revitalization. Eighteen outreach workers go door-to-door to recruit families.

Fourth, every speaker emphasized the critical importance of data in guiding implementation of HCZ’s long-term business plan. For instance, HCZ’s data-driven collaboration with the city health department showed that lead poisoning was not the neighborhood’s worst public health problem, but that much could be done to reduce children’s asthma. HCZ’s internal evaluation staff have access to the organization’s highest levels of leadership.

Finally, HCZ touts its “culture of success” focused on accountability, leadership, teamwork and a commitment to saving the neighborhood’s children. A high-powered HCZ board of directors is “maniacally focused on the client,” according to HCZ Trustee Mitch Kurz. 

Cities Adapt the Model

With support from municipal leaders, numerous cities have already started to adapt the HCZ model in their most distressed neighborhoods. Although HCZ encourages community organizations to take the lead, municipal officials are overseeing efforts in cities such as Orlando, Fla., and San Francisco.

Speakers highlighted important municipal roles, such as leveraging funding, providing space for programs, convening partners and assisting with data collection and analysis. For instance, San Francisco’s consolidated city-county government mapped child welfare data showing that half of children removed from their homes lived within close proximity to seven city street corners.

The Allentown, Pa., Youth Success Zone was founded by a strong leadership group that included the mayor, community development director, school superintendent, foundation and business executives, university faculty and the Lehigh Valley United Way. Ninety percent of the target neighborhood’s 1,200 children live in poverty. 

The New Jersey Attorney General’s Office is leading 25 community organizations through a Promise Communities Pilot Project, with HCZ replication efforts underway in Camden, N.J., and Newark.

The conference featured other efforts in Oakland, Calif., Richmond, Calif., Pittsburgh, northwest Minnesota and the Mississippi Delta.

“Especially in these difficult economic times, it is up to city governments to address our most intractable problems,” said Mayor Bloomberg.

Replication and Scalability

Although HCZ’s capacity — a $75 million annual budget and 1,500 staff — may seem overwhelming, HCZ leaders are quick to remind people that the program started with one building, then one block, and then expanded a few blocks at a time over many years. HCZ President Canada urged attendees to get started with existing government, business, foundation and nonprofit resources.

“The communities represented here are those places in America that really need this level of commitment if we’re going to turn this thing around,” Canada said.

Common challenges facing communities include high mobility rates, with 25 percent to 30 percent of families moving in a given year. HCZ has responded by continuing to serve families that move away to other neighborhoods in the city.

Speakers also noted that barriers to sharing individual data can often be overcome by gaining consent for waivers of confidentiality in return for more comprehensive assessment, treatment and service integration. Several federal officials discussed integrating federal funding so that grants do not reinforce local “silos.”

Finally, speakers recommended a relentless, data-driven focus on results for children to hold broad-based alliances together.

In addressing scalability, Canada compared the $5,000 that HCZ spends per child with the $39,000 annual cost of incarceration.

Canada said, “I’ve visited a lot of criminal courts and wondered how come this part of the system is considered ‘scalable’ even though it produces no outcomes for children and youth? We’ve got to change the fundamental way we operate in poor communities.”

Details: To learn more about the Harlem Children’s Zone, visit www.hcz.org, and visit PolicyLink at www.policylink.org.