Paul Tough

Writer & Speaker

Tuesday, December 8th, 2009

National League of Cities

In Nation Cities Weekly, the magazine of the National League of Cities, Michael Karpman writes about the November conference on replicating the Harlem Children’s Zone model:

HCZ’s results are the reason why more than 1,400 local leaders from more than 100 communities gathered in New York at a recent conference co-sponsored with PolicyLink, a national research and action institute seeking to advance social and economic equity.  Speakers included New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg; Newark, N.J., Mayor Cory Booker; Savannah, Ga., Mayor Otis Johnson; Secretary of Education Arne Duncan; White House Domestic Policy Council Director Melody Barnes; White House Office of Urban Affairs Director Adolfo Carrión; Children’s Defense Fund President Marian Wright Edelman; American Express Chairman and CEO Kenneth Chenault; HCZ President and CEO Geoffrey Canada and PolicyLink CEO Angela Glover Blackwell.

Most communities represented hope to receive federal planning grants under an Obama Administration proposal to create up to 20 Promise Neighborhoods modeled on HCZ. However, cities that do not receive federal support still plan to forge ahead. As one school district leader stated, “this is our mission — we’re going to do this whether we get the money or not.”


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