Upcoming Speeches

I’ll be giving a number of speeches over the next month, including talks at:

– a conference on a “multicultural/multiracial future” this Sunday at my church: Middle Collegiate Church, in New York City

– a fundraising luncheon for Mainspring Schools in Austin on April 29.

– education conferences organized by my publisher, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, next month in Atlanta and New Orleans.

– an event on May 16 at the Holton Career and Resource Center in Durham, N.C., organized by the East Durham Children’s Initiative.

– a school-readiness symposium in Baltimore on May 18, organized by Ready at Five.

Promise Plans in Savannah

From the Savannah Morning News, a report on Mayor Otis Johnson’s effort to construct a “cradle-to-college” youth program in Savannah:

The effort, lead by Youth Futures and the mayor, has been the subject of planning sessions by local groups and agency leaders for a year. The unnamed local program, patterned after the successful Harlem Children’s Zone, has identified the local Rotary clubs for the first piece of 6 months to kindergarten and is seeking community help to complete the process.

Planners have pledged to pursue the effort locally with or without the Promise Neighborhood designation.

“We are not trying to replicate the Harlem Children’s Zone here in Savannah, only the success,’’ Chisolm said.

Savannah zone news

In the Savannah, Georgia, Morning News, a story about the effort to replicate the Harlem Children’s Zone in that city:

The local group has worked for almost a year to prepare its case to become one of the 20 Promise Neighborhoods President Barack Obama announced support for early in his administration. The preparations have continued, although no requests for proposals have been received.

[Geoffrey] Canada brought his vision to Savannah last year, and [Mayor Otis] Johnson has made the local program modeled on the Harlem Children’s Zone a personal priority. It builds on efforts he headed while executive director of the Youth Futures during its first decade to improve the lot of children and families. Both Johnson and [Edward] Chisolm, [executive director of the Chatham-Savannah Youth Futures Authority], joined by committee members, have made it their goal to pursue the program even if denied being chosen as one of the 20 cities selected for planning funding.