An update from Chicago
In today’s Chicago Tribune, a report on the Harlem Children’s Zone and a round-up of local efforts to replicate the project through the federal government’s Promise Neighborhood initiative:
Leaders in at least three Chicago neighborhoods — Woodlawn, Logan Square and Chicago Lawn — plan to apply [for a Promise Neighborhood grant].
Bishop Arthur Brazier, longtime head of The Woodlawn Organization, is working with University of Chicago officials to craft a plan for the neighborhood. The city’s education and crime woes call for a bold, comprehensive strategy, he said.
“You can’t deal with these problems with a $25,000 untested program here, and a $30,000 program over there,” said Brazier, referring to past efforts in Woodlawn. “We’ve been programmed out, and we still have the same problems. We need a communitywide effort that includes the schools, the police, the hospitals, the politicians, the universities all working together.”