Sharing Web Resources!!!

The organization I chose to study is called the “Harlem Children’s Zone” or HCZ for short. The link to the website is www.hcz.org/home . The organization focuses on providing free educational services to children and families in the community of Harlem. The program offers services to pregnant mothers and cares for these children up to after high school.  The project first started in 1970 but had expansions in 1990s, under the leadership and vision of president, CEO Geoffrey Canada, working with only several blocks in the Harlem neighborhood. The project has been such a success that the block area of the project has been widened and offers services like Baby College, early childhood programs, elementary school, high school, and even college preparatory classes, and also community outreach services.

A current issue or trend that caught my attention, as it relates to change in demographics, is the ‘Promise Zones’ that President Obama wants to use to model these same efforts with five places in the U.S. that are dealing with poverty and helping children. These five areas will be San Antonio, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Southeastern Kentucky and the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma. I feel that with the success HCZ has had in the community of Harlem, these five areas will have a great success, as well. Building the community and helping assist children with better education will essentially lower poverty and allow for more productive members of society to be raised out of these communities. It will eventually help the area and people living there in the long run. Check out the following link: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/10/us/politics/obama-announces-promise-zones-in-5-stricken-areas.html?_r=0 for more information on the ‘Promise Zones.’