Herron: An innovative poverty fighter

By Mason Herron / Columnist

published: Tue, 12 Jan, 2010

Geoffrey Canada is an unlikely hero from an unexpected place. Canada, 58, grew up in the South Bronx. His parents divorced when he was just 4 years old. Canada graduated from Bowdoin College and received his master’s degree in education from Harvard University.

Canada is now CEO of the New York-based nonprofit, Harlem Children’s Zone
, which seeks to end the cycle of poverty that has defined the Harlem neighborhood for generations.

The Children’s Zone includes parenting workshops
such as “Baby College,” a nine-week term of parenting classes that focuses on discipline and child development. According to the Zone, “Among other lessons, the workshops promote reading to children and verbal discipline over corporal punishment.” Pre-kindergarten classes come next, followed by an intensive K-12 charter school with extended hours.

Canada’s ambition is staggering. In the early ’90s, Canada took over a modest nonprofit dedicated to helping poor Harlem teens. However, Canada “could see only the kids he wasn’t helping,” said Paul Tough
, a journalist who has spent considerable time documenting Canada’s mission.

“We’re not interested in saving 100 kids,” Canada said to Tough. “Even 300 kids, even 1,000 kids to me is not going to do it. We want to be able to talk about how you save kids by the tens of thousands because that’s how we’re losing them. We’re losing kids by the tens of thousands.”

Over the past few years, research conducted by economists, social scientists and others has concluded that the difference between the success of a child — say, extending from from middle-class to lower-class backgrounds — was found in early childhood development. The solution, at least from Canada’s perspective, was to target children early and follow them throughout the rest of their formative years. Ideally, by the time they’re 18, they’re applying for college rather than probation.

Canada’s ambition is outmatched only by his success. According to the Zone’s website, 100 percent of third-graders at two of the Zone’s “Promise Academies” — the name for the extended-hour charter schools — “tested at or above grade level on the math exam, outperforming their peers in New York State, New York City, District 5, and black and white students throughout the state.” Last year, “93 percent of Promise Academy High School ninth-graders passed the statewide Algebra Regents exams.” Nearly every point of data suggests positive results created by the Harlem Children’s Zone.

While still a presidential nominee, Barack Obama made a promise to establish
20 new promise neighborhoods across the country to “be modeled after the Harlem Children’s Zone.” Replication, however, does not mean merely dropping the Harlem Children Zone’s model on, say, Detroit or South Central Los Angeles. Activists and volunteers in cities will be encouraged to develop their own programs that work for those communities. The federal government will disperse grants only to those programs that show the most promise. Cities will be competing against one another to create the best poverty-fighting programs possible. Competition — the driving force of our economy — will be a welcome addition in the war on poverty.

In the past, programs meant to combat poverty were widespread and generalized. The programs and assistance in one community were similar to every other community or city. For the Harlem Children’s Zone, the task is local. There is no bureaucracy to deal with, and the program operates within the context of the neighborhood’s specific issues and circumstances.

Obama’s policy isn’t just liberal or conservative — it’s both, but it’s also above politics. It might be a government-funded program, but it is no entitlement. The Harlem Children’s Zone provides parents with the same tools that middle-class parents have, but it still demands that they fulfill their obligations. The Zone attacks a culture of broken homes and negative influences while also providing communities with educational and social opportunities.

America has a history of struggle when it comes to poverty. Fortunately, we are learning from our mistakes. Reformers are learning that the earlier in a child’s life that you begin to fight the influences of poverty, the greater the chances of success.

In 1964, President Lyndon Johnson told Congress, “For the first time in our history it is possible to conquer poverty.” At that moment in time, we had the will, but we did not have the right weapons. If people such as Geoffrey Canada continue to innovate, we might finally route the menace that is poverty.

E-mail Mason at mph20@pitt.edu.