National Community Activist Has Hopes for Detroit

Geoffrey Canada, founder of the Harlem Children's Zone

The second day (Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2009) of the Promise Neighborhood Conference in New York opened by a welcome from the recently re-elected Mayor of New York – Michael Bloomberg.

The first panel of the day consisted of Otis Johnson Mayor of Savannah, GA; Cory Booker, Mayor of Newark, NJ (and star of the Sundance Channel’s documentary, “Brick City”); Ron Sims, Deputy Secretary of HUD; and Adolfo Carrion, Director of the White House Office of Urban Affairs.  Two of the panelists — Johnson and Sims–were there during the civil rights struggles; the other two, recognized that many battles remain to achieve equality of opportunity for all children.  I was inspired and overwhelmed by the knowledge that the White House brought both generations into its circle and allowed them to tell their stories.

Several messages came to me loud and clear in that session:

1.  Excellence does not exist in a vacuum.

2.  We tend to operate in a “State of SEDENTARY AGITATION.”

3.  We all know what the problems are, but yet we all continue working in different directions.

4.  We need to articulate a SHARED SET OF VALUES for our city and region.

5.  A Zip code should just be an address,  NOT a predictor of life outcomes.

6.  The only impediment we have is ourselves.

I was fortunate enough to join Geoffrey Canada (pictured), founder of the Harlem Children’s Zone, on an elevator ride in the hotel.  After a “fawning” hello, I told him that I was sorry to have missed his presentation at the Independent Sector conference in Detroit last week – November 6.

He responded with, “I am rooting for Detroit.”  I assured him that WE ALL ARE!

The Hope of Promise Neighborhoods

A successful 3rd grade math class in the HCZ

About 1,400 individuals from around the country, representing community planning teams from well over 100 cities, have come to New York City this week to learn more about Promise Neighborhoods, a federal initiative based on the Harlem Children’s Zone.

The Harlem Children’s Zone (HCZ) is an anti-poverty program that has created amazing outcomes for children. The Promise Neighborhoods initiative has learned HCZ’s “secret weapon:” you’ve got to support children from the womb through college. President Obama is now calling on the formation of 20 Promise Neighborhoods. I traveled to New York to find out what this model could mean for Detroit.

Yesterday (Monday, Nov. 9) began with opening remarks from Angela Glover Blackwell, founder and CEO of Policy Link and Melody Barnes, director of President Obama’s Domestic Policy Council. Barnes described how departments are being aligned around urban and metropolitan agendas.

A series of four workshops surrounded inspirational talks by Kenneth Chenault, CEO of American Express, and Geoffrey Canada, the driving force behind the Harlem Children’s Zone. We finished the day with an after-dinner speech by a true American treasure – Marian Wright Edelman, CEO of the Children’s Defense Fund and an icon in the historical fight for civil rights and children’s rights.

While the day was inspiring, my take away was the drumbeat around data, accountability, measurement, outcomes, results, metrics, etc. That’s what D-ACIS is all about: How can we measure the effectiveness of good ideas?

My favorite quote of the day came from an HCZ Board member – “This is a bad place to be average!”

I’m looking forward to sharing with you what I learn today.