The ultimate goal of the Harlem Children’s Zone was to transform Central Harlem. This area covered a stretch of 24 blocks, and the aim was to provide academic opportunities to young students and their families. The Harlem Children’s Zone (HCZ) has been noted for bringing an unique approach to helping the members of that community ascend out of the grip of poverty, unemployment and adequate educational achievement. Geoffrey Canada, assumed leadership of the Center in 1990, his initial philosophy was his belief that by changing the culture where generations of students grow up, you can help the entire community to move from being improvised to having high unemployment. He also believed that the individuals in that community can move from …show more content…
Murphy's major objective was to create a safe place for kids in bad neighborhoods. The leadership role was later taken over by Geoffrey Canada. Since the initial beginning of the Harlem Children’s Zone, it has expanded such that it serves over 10,000 children and 13,000 adults and covers over 100 blocks in the Central part of Harlem. Harlem Children's Zone (HCZ) has 15 centers that serve 13,000 children and adults. HCZ's emphasis was not just education. The emphasis was also social service along with recreation and yet still trying to maintain the fabric of the community. Some of the cross issues addressed in the HCZ Case Study were to continue the evolving programs already under the umbrella of the previous programs. Canada wanted to continue to have schools as multiservice centers and to focus on the street level both personal and direct. Also within the 24 block zone that encompasses 150 buildings to integrate previous programs and evaluate the …show more content…
According to the 2000 Census, over 152,000 people live in Central Harlem, the majority of those inhabitants being African American and of that population 26% are children. In 2003, when a study of health was conducted within the neighborhood it was found that a disproportionate amount of the population subscribed to various ailments including stroke, cancer, infant mortality , heart disease and asthma among this population was four times higher than other parts of New York City.
Within the Harlem Children’s Zone, some additional Cross Cultural Aspects would include the fact that within that community 50% of the overall population live in poverty, 61% of all children who live there. Unemployment is extremely high as much as 18.5%. Less than 25% of adults have a high school diploma and only 20% of kids are reading on grade level. And the community has one of the highest rates of foster care placement in New
Another school in the same district is located “in a former roller-skating rink” with a “lack of windows” an a scarcity of textbooks and counselors. The ratio of children to counselors is 930 to one. For 1,300 children, of which “90 percent [are] black and Hispanic” and “10 percent are Asian, white, or Middle Eastern”, the school only has 26 computers. Another school in the district, its principal relates, “‘was built to hold one thousand students’” but has “‘1,550.’” This school is also shockingly nonwhite where “’29 percent '” of students are “‘black [and] 70 percent [are]
This book was written in the 1960’s so it is hard to tell what were Osofsky’s biases, misconceptions, and influences while writing this book. There are a few passages that come across as ignorant or biased towards the Black community, but there is no doubt that this extensive analysis does do justice to the history and situation of Harlem, New York. Osofsky does a great job of framing his study socially, economically, and philanthropically, but he does little in the way of politics. His analysis does not include a political framework that would help answer some questions of political racism, de facto segregation, de jure segregation, public welfare, impoverished schools, etc. At some points throughout the book, it seems as though Osofsky is blaming the Black community for their own troubles.
...ll. The inner city has many complications the fact that most are African American is a mere coincidence. If we as a nation are capable of fixing all institutions and structural issues we could bring the slums out of poverty. The cycle of unemployment and poverty is a terrible cycle that cannot only be judged by race and cultural values. When reading this book keep in mind the difficulties, any family or person could go through these tribulations. There are many arguments and sides to each problem; this is another one of those. The battle for inner city poverty, and the factors that go along with it, has not been finished. Wilson brings out a different aspect which could help people expand horizons and come up with better solutions.
The West side of Chicago, Harlem, Watts, Roxbury, and Detroit. What do all of these areas have in common? These areas, along with many others have become mine fields for the explosive issues of race, values, and community responsibility, led by the plight of the urban underclass. Issues such as violent crime, social separation, welfare dependence, drug wars, and unemployment all play a major role in the plight of American inner-city life. Alex Kotlowitz's book: There Are No Children Here, confronts America's devastated urban life; a most painful issue in America. Kotlowitz traces the lives of two black boys; 10 year old LaFayette, and 7 year old Pharoah, as they struggle to beat the odds growing up in one of Chicago's worst housing projects. Their family includes a welfare dependent mother, an alcholic-drug using father, an older sister, an older brother, and younger triplets. Kotlowoitz describes the horrors of an ill-maintained housing project completely taken over by gangs, where murders and shootings are an everyday thing. Kotlowitz does a fine job at portraying ghetto life; those who are outside the American dream. He succeeds at putting a face on th people trapped inside the housing projects with virtually no hope of escape. One can truly feel a sense of great loss for the family, and a great deal of hope for the two young boys. You can truly feel yourself hoping that things will work out for them, and you can really feel like you know these young men on a personal basis. Kotlowotz spent a great deal of time with the boys so he could portray the world from the eyes of a child growing up in the ghetto, and he does an amazing job.
Raquel and Melanie are two poverty stricken students that attended University Height’s High School in the South Bronx, because their school was not federal funded, it lacked resources; so it does not come as a surprise, perspective students like Melanie and Raquel have more of a ...
In "Still Separate, Still Unequal: America's Educational Apartheid," Jonathan Kozol addresses the deafening issues that urban public schools in America remain segregated, underserved, and their respective state unrecognized. Kozol was apprised of the tragedy via the study of unconscionable statistics on the actuality of non-diverse schools. He determined that an inordinate number of elementary schools continue to be segregated by race; regardless of the complexion of the area in which they reside. Numerous studies identify that many blacks are still living in poverty or in lower income neighborhoods. Consequently, the location of schools has a profound effect on the quality of the student’s education. Funding is directly affected by the affluency
Being able to understand the development of a child is vital in aiding that child during that process. Parents play a vital role in this regard by offering the necessary support. On the other hand, once the child has been enrolled in a kindergarten or a preschool, most of the responsibilities of shaping the child are transferred to the teachers. This makes it vital for teachers to be able to help the child during their developmental stage. In this field report, the learner visits one kindergarten and one preschool to assess the learning environment. A comparison is made between these two schools as well as comparison with those proposed in Meier in her book The Power of Their Ideas: Lessons for America from a Small School in Harlem. The fieldwork also includes interviewing of two teachers and one Principal of one of the kindergarten schools.
"Catching Them Early" profiles the extraordinary efforts of Richmond's Lincoln Elementary School to ensure a bright future for its children. Ninety-nine percent of the kids attending Lincoln qualify for federal meal subsidies; many have family members in a gang. So the school makes special efforts, including the hiring of outreach workers, to provide the kind of support kids need to stay in class and do well.
Currently there are about 600,000 people who live in the South Bronx and about 434,000 who live in Washington Heights and Harlem. This area makes up one of the most racially segregated areas of poor people in the United States. In this book we focus on racially segregated areas of poor people in the United States. In this book we focus on Mott Haven, a place where 48,0000 of the poorest people in the South Bronx live. Two thirds of the people are Hispanic, one-third is black and thirty-five percent are children. There are nearly four thousand heroin users, and one-fourth of the women who are tested are positive for HIV. All of this, and much more in one little area of the South Bronx. In the middle of all this chaos and confusion are children. Children who have daily drills on what to do if gunshots are heard, children who know someone who has died of AIDS, children who have seen someone been shot right in front of their face wondering if its their father, children who long to be sanitation workers, and children who die everyday. The lives of these children almost seem lost with depression, drugs, and death all around them.
"Building Partnerships to Revitalize America's Neighborhoods." HBCU Central (Winter 2002): 1-6. Winter 2002. Web. 2 May 2012.
Harlem Nights is a block of violence and poverty. One of those nights I lost my best friend, Tyson. We used go out and “hustle” so we could come up with a meal, which is what we were doing that night. We had nothing to live for during that time in our lives, but we were in it together. But, one night, everything went downhill.
Throughout the nation, education inequality affects many minority students that have low-income which reinforces the disparity between the rich and the poor. The amount of children that have a socioeconomic background of poverty in the United States is estimated to be 32.4 million (National Center for Children in Poverty, 2011). Since many of these children are from
school ill take by having children in it year round. In the long run, maintaining a school for a full
Another benefit is for the lower-income families to enroll children in a higher quality early education program that might otherwise be affordable in the private market. In 1997, the Minneapolis school district began testing kindergartners. Those studies found that many students from low-income families began school not knowing the names of letters, how to count from one to 20, and some could not even recognize colors and shapes. The testing showed a significant gap between students of color and their white classmates. Since the Minneapolis School district started offering full day kindergarten they have seen an overwhelming difference in the learning of the low-income, African-American, American Indians, and Latinos. For example, the number of letter sounds acquired by full day students was 30% higher than their half day peers (Pugmire, 2002). Looking at these studies and knowing we have many low-income and diverse races in the Mesa School District there is a wonderful benefit to support full day kindergarten. For those students that need more time and support, giving it to them in the front end, will save a great deal of remediation and less money in the back end.
A lack of year-round schooling can damage neighborhoods. In neighborhoods where children are largely left unsupervised because of the lack of affordable summer childcare,