Harlem Children’s Zone

At-risk kids: Successful New York program a possible solution for Chicago, By Stephanie Banchero, December 27, 2009, Chicago Tribune: “In a Harlem classroom late one afternoon, 20 4-year-olds in ties and plaid skirts sat cross-legged on a carpet, counting to 20 in French. A mile north, doctors and dentists gave eye exams and filled cavities in a health clinic nestled inside a charter school building. And a half-mile to the west in a converted church hall, a 15-year-old girl stared into a camera and recounted the anguish caused by her father’s incarceration, adding to a documentary being made by teenagers. These seemingly disparate events are part of a unique network of services provided by one nonprofit organization that is taking a holistic approach to helping poor children succeed. The Harlem Children’s Zone offers educational, medical and social services from cradle to college in a 97-block area in Upper Manhattan, in hopes of lifting children — and therefore the community — out of academic and economic failure…”