A colleague of mine recently shared a book with me about the founder of the Harlem Children's Zone, Geoffrey Canada, whose vision of social equity is reshaping Harlem and the lives of those who live there. The concept is as follows: to fix the problems of a community, you need to need to take a comprehensive, holistic approach. Communities that work together are successful, and thus provide ways of addressing all of the communities needs. Education, public health, social welfare, safety, and economics are all entwined.
Canada's vision has grown to over 100 blocks of comprehensive services in the Harlem area known as the Harlem Children's Zone. There are charter schools, a "baby college" which offers classes to parents on the importance of reading to children from an early age, a pre-school program, and asthma and obesity initiatives to inform community members about controlling the diseases.
The Harlem Children's Zone seems to have had considerable success already. 100% of their pre-K students are ready for kindergarten. 81% of parents who took classes are increasing their rate of reading to their children (a friend of mine in Harlem also remarked that he constantly sees parents reading to their children on the subway from similar looking books, perhaps provided by the HCZ?) 98% of 3rd graders are on grade level in mathematics.
All of this begs the question: can something similar work in Baltimore? If so, how? Where? How can such a program be created and organized?
Do such programs already exist in the city, and if so, how can they be better supported?
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