Harlem Children's Zone Analysis

I believe that our society is doing well at creating programs for children living in poverty to become just as successful and prepared as their middle-class peers. For example, the United States currently provides low income families access to Head Start programs. Head Start is a government funded program that offers families that live in poverty to have access to high quality day care services and prepare children from age three to five years for kindergarten and the upcoming school years. In addition to Head Start programs, our society created Early Head Start services which focuses on infants, toddlers, and parents. Early Head Start programs provides counseling services to low income families. Because Head Start programs and Early Head Start services impact low income families and children, I believe that teachers and counselors should encourage and motivate families and children to perform well in these programs so they can continue to be successful during their school

The Harlem Children’s Zone project used background data to describe the experiences of a struggling community, based upon the lack of sound health care, intellectual and social stimulation, and consistent guidance to bring about a change for the children and adults in Central Harlem (Grossman & Curran, 2004). The information that was presented provided an understanding of the social dynamics of Central Harlem (Stringer, 2004). The need to rescue kids from this community brought about the initial establishment of twelve interrelated programs that served over 8,000 children and 5,000 adults (Grossman & Curran, 2004). These interrelated programs provided background data that was utilized in Harlem Children’s Zone growth plan; therefore, the

Growing up in a disadvantaged part of Washington, D.C. during the 90’s wasn’t always easy. At the time, D.C. was plagued by crime, violence, and poverty, and as a child/teen I often found myself confronted by these harsh realities. Now, as an adult, I actively seek out opportunities to work in underserved and disadvantaged communities because I understand how difficult life can be for those belonging to such communities. I have proudly served in a number of underserved and disadvantaged communities, including rural Guatemala and Flint, Michigan and it is my hope to continue to do

To eliminate the behavioral deficiencies associated with poverty, the Harlem Children’s Zone organized a pipeline of programs. The eagerly desirous of achieving the mission of the Harlem Children’ Zone is to discontinuity the succession of poverty in an entire vicinity, coaching every child lacking sufficient money to accomplish their goals by the means of achieving adequate college education. Geoffrey Canada had a vision, which is to restore a geographical area embedded by poverty by guarding the children on track of success.

The Harlem Children’s Zone is a community based education system started by Geoffrey Canada. His main goal with this program was to close the achievement gap between affluent and low-income children in Harlem and ensure that every student that attends the HCZ also attends college. His charter school, referred to as “ The Promise Academy,” is unique as it provides a high-performing academic program supplemented with a variety of social services including parenting classes, support system for former HCZ students who have enrolled in college, fitness programs, community centers, and an onsite-medical clinic. Children living in the inner city are historically low-performing students, because they are not worried about their grade on a test like

The Children’s Defense Fund (CDF) is an exclusive nonprofit organization that advocates children. Founded in 1973, this organization defends all children’s rights, primarily the poor. Ms. Marian Wright Edelman first started CDF in Washington D.C. The mission of the CDF is, “to ensure every child a Heathy Start, a Head Start, a Fair Start, a Safe Start, and a Moral Start in life and successful passage to adulthood with the help of caring families and communities.” (Taylor,1) This six week summer program is designed for children in grades kindergarten through twelfth grade. The objective of this program is to stricken the amount of academic material lost over the summer months. This program is centered on children in jeopardy of academic failure. Children living in poverty-stricken communities tend

The DC Promise Neighborhood Initiative (DCPNI) draws upon promising practices from a national body of work that suggest that dual-generation programming is an effective strategy for breaking the cycle of poverty. Specifically, two-generation strategies that suggest integrating education, employment opportunities, and peer support for parents and academic and support services for their children will produce far more promising outcomes for both the parents and their child.

Newburgh Free Academy, NFA, located in the center of Newburgh, New York, a small city with a crime rate four times higher than the national average, exhibits an unequal distribution of the district’s budget across their various programs. NFA houses approximately 4,000 students and holds a wide variety of classes, athletic programs, and co-curricular and extra-curricular activities. However, according to the district’s “Draft Budget Report for Fiscal Year 2017,” these programs do not all receive equal funding. There appears to be a large portion of available funds going towards the athletic program, while fine arts, language, and co-curricular programs receive little to no funding. The majority of public high schools across America, especially those located in overcrowded urban communities, experience a similar inequality. By dividing funds unevenly an inequality of opportunity is created, which leaves students who wish to join certain postsecondary school programs severely underprepared. Dr. Vivian W. Ikpa of Temple University sees this inequality quite often; she claims that, “inadequate funding made them [the students] ‘resource’ disadvantaged” (Ikpa, 467). When a school’s budget is being formulated, generally the last programs to receive funding are the arts, language, and co-curricular programs. The lack of funding in these programs leaves students unprepared to handle further education and prevents them from gaining valuable life skills. Thus, unequal distribution of

The statistics show that the kids that have been a part of this program are less likely to be involved in violent crimes when compared to their peers. It provides these kids with a safe environment to be in where they have the opportunity thrive and grow into mature adults that will be active members of the society. The Harlem Children’s Zone helps to address the issues that families face within their communities in order to work on providing better outreach programs and ways to modify the problems that people are facing within that zone. They have almost 20 different centers that serve a little over 13,000 children and adults each year. As of 2003, HCZ had reached almost ninety percent of all children in the twenty-four-block service area

I interview the Brenda. She is the Center Manager for Episcopal Children Services Peck Head Start. This is a program in Nassau County, FL. They provides full-day center-based early learning to children ages 3-5 years of old. They have two classrooms of 20 children. Their program provides comprehensive services in the areas of health, mental health, and nutrition, disabilities and parent and community engagement, in addition to early childhood education as part of a complete approach to school readiness. They have a population of 75, 00.00 people. The county that this program is in has an estimated poverty ratio of 691 families. The county is made up of the following races White – 78%, Black – 15%, and Hispanic –

Additionally, Sider emphasizes the significance of racial segregation in school systems, which ignores the fact that racial equality in education does not necessarily mean racial integration (Sider 215). However, Harlem Children’s Zone is a school system that works with students from infancy until completion of a college degree. HCZ, as an institution, has been able to create a seamless pipeline of programs in the form of parenting workshops, a pre-school program, three public charter schools, counseling, and a child-oriented health programs, which ensure there are no gaps in-between one phase and the next. HCZ students are centralized by neighborhood, schools, activities, and churches in Central Harlem. The programs that are implemented by HCZ create a strong network and community for the students in school and out of school. HCZ provides alternatives to using suspension for disciplinary actions, and structures that foster enduring student investment.

In Harlem, NY wraparound services are being provided for at-risk students with family dysfunction. Promise Neighborhoods serve distressed communities by delivering a continuum of services through multiple government agencies, nonprofit organizations, churches, and agencies of civil society (Egalite, 2016). The community as a whole works together to create a stable environment for youth at-risk. Promise Neighborhoods prove that it takes a village to raise a child. Education institutions cannot provide every service needed to help at-risk students so it is important for communities to come together to provide the assistance and support needed to help each student achieve despite their circumstances.

The agency where I am interning is Partnership with Children. “Partnership” as it is called, works to strengthen the emotional, social and academic skills of at-risk children to prepare them for success--academically, socially, and in life. “Partnership’s” programs aim to bridge the gap between those who have a vested interest in working within New York City’s highest-need public schools, and those in need. “Partnership’s” goal is to transform the overall culture of many of the city’s struggling schools by helping students cope with the extreme stress of living in poverty. Helping students thrive in safe and supportive schools that encourage

For example, one class made placement for a local soup kitchen. The children created and donated drawings on recycled office paper and their parents later helped them to deliver them on ongoing bases to the kitchen. The children often accompanied their parents to the kitchens and were able to make friends with the disadvantaged children. While speaking with those children, the class found out that they lack essential toys and books and decided to create a specific book drive. Fox believes such practices are helping young children to get rid of negative stigma and “be taught to work with their naturally caring heart and critical eye to develop a sense of social justice through explicit teaching” (Fox, Kathy, p. 1). Such program can teach privileged children to respect poverty and make them used to assist those in needs. Poverty awareness is also helpful for the disadvantaged children, because after it they become better understood and more liked by their classmates and they start feeling more welcomed at school (Fox, Kathy, p. 1-9). This program would be quite easy to fund. It just requires one teacher in every school to work for one or two more hours every week. The average salary of a teacher is about 27.28$ an hour (John, Ciaran). There are 98817 schools in the US, so to provide such volunteer opportunities for everyone, the government would

The EFA plan for 2004 to 2015 is now on. The National Project on Street Children provides educational assistance to street children through a network of government, non-government, and community organizations. Regardless of this progress, two major challenges remain, formal and non-formal schools need to adjust their educational system to cater to children with irregular schedules and learning capacities, and facilities need to be closer to where disadvantaged children reside and work.