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Hudson delegation heads to Harlem seeking youth funds
By Jamie Larson
Hudson-Catskill Newspapers
HUDSON — The City of Hudson’s Youth Center has received funding to send community leaders, focused on initiatives that impact Hudson’s youth, to the “Changing the Odds: Learning from the Harlem Children's Zone” conference in Harlem.
The Harlem Children’s Zone, or HCZ, is being used as a model by President Barack Obama for a neighborhood initiative program that, if passed by Congress, would deliver $520,000 grants to 20 cities with hardship populations to help build HCZ-like programs. Hudson officials attending the conference hope to make the case that Hudson deserves to be among the 20 selected cities.
Youth Director Trudy Beicht, Hudson’s Fourth Ward Supervisor William Hughes, Columbia County Director of Social Services Paul Mossman, Hudson Treasurer Eileen Halloran, and other officials are expected to attend.
The national two-day conference, scheduled for November 9 and 10, will bring together more than 1,000 leaders from non-profit, community, government and philanthropic organizations to learn how to replicate the HCZ models aimed at breaking the cycle of generational poverty for thousands of children and families.
The HCZ is designed to work with families, from the time that they are expecting a baby until college graduation. HCZ states their goal is to change the climate of the community so that even children not involved with the Children's Zone benefit.
HCZ’s programs, which include asthma prevention, dental, medical and psychiatric care, early childhood education, charter schools, and after-school activities, reach about 8,200 young people out of 11,300 in Central Harlem.
Hughes said he has been researching the HCZ and believes Hudson would be an excellent location for one of the 20 grants, given that 29 percent of the city’s residents live below the poverty line according to the Columbia County Planning Agency. He said that while Hudson is a small upstate city, competing for the funding against much larger metropolises, it would behoove the government to select many different types of cities for a trial run of the initiative.
“I don’t think they can model this just on big cities,” Hughes said. “I’m looking to go down to make the argument to get Hudson on the short list.”
Hughes also gave credit to Beicht for getting Hudson invited to the event and said, regardless of the funding, the officials will be able to learn a lot from the trip.
Geoffrey Canada, president and CEO of HCZ, was named to this year’s “Top 50 Power and Influence” list by The Nonprofit Times. Canada’s message is about using a "conveyor belt" of programs to nurture a child through each stage of development.
In Harlem, a HCZ statement reads, it is estimated that 73 percent of children are born into poor families. The area has the highest rate of foster care placement in the city. Its unemployment rate is about twice that of the city as a whole. The Children’s Zone’s programs have already had a significant impact. Math test scores of sixth-graders entering the Children’s Zone’s charter school have risen 35 percentage points in just a few years. In the Zone’s middle school, students, who are largely African American, score as high as white students in the city in math. In a neighborhood with low high school graduation rates, about 550 alumni of HCZ’s after-school program are in college.
The Obama administration has singled out the Harlem Children’s Zone as a model for other cities to boost poor children, and First Lady Michelle Obama recently called Canada, “one of my heroes”. Now the Obama administration seeks to replicate Canada's model in 20 cities in a program called Promise Neighborhoods and has set aside $10 million in the 2010 budget for planning.
For further information, contact Youth Director, Trudy Beicht at 518-828-0017.
The Harlem Children’s Zone, or HCZ, is being used as a model by President Barack Obama for a neighborhood initiative program that, if passed by Congress, would deliver $520,000 grants to 20 cities with hardship populations to help build HCZ-like programs. Hudson officials attending the conference hope to make the case that Hudson deserves to be among the 20 selected cities.
Youth Director Trudy Beicht, Hudson’s Fourth Ward Supervisor William Hughes, Columbia County Director of Social Services Paul Mossman, Hudson Treasurer Eileen Halloran, and other officials are expected to attend.
The national two-day conference, scheduled for November 9 and 10, will bring together more than 1,000 leaders from non-profit, community, government and philanthropic organizations to learn how to replicate the HCZ models aimed at breaking the cycle of generational poverty for thousands of children and families.
The HCZ is designed to work with families, from the time that they are expecting a baby until college graduation. HCZ states their goal is to change the climate of the community so that even children not involved with the Children's Zone benefit.
HCZ’s programs, which include asthma prevention, dental, medical and psychiatric care, early childhood education, charter schools, and after-school activities, reach about 8,200 young people out of 11,300 in Central Harlem.
Hughes said he has been researching the HCZ and believes Hudson would be an excellent location for one of the 20 grants, given that 29 percent of the city’s residents live below the poverty line according to the Columbia County Planning Agency. He said that while Hudson is a small upstate city, competing for the funding against much larger metropolises, it would behoove the government to select many different types of cities for a trial run of the initiative.
“I don’t think they can model this just on big cities,” Hughes said. “I’m looking to go down to make the argument to get Hudson on the short list.”
Hughes also gave credit to Beicht for getting Hudson invited to the event and said, regardless of the funding, the officials will be able to learn a lot from the trip.
Geoffrey Canada, president and CEO of HCZ, was named to this year’s “Top 50 Power and Influence” list by The Nonprofit Times. Canada’s message is about using a "conveyor belt" of programs to nurture a child through each stage of development.
In Harlem, a HCZ statement reads, it is estimated that 73 percent of children are born into poor families. The area has the highest rate of foster care placement in the city. Its unemployment rate is about twice that of the city as a whole. The Children’s Zone’s programs have already had a significant impact. Math test scores of sixth-graders entering the Children’s Zone’s charter school have risen 35 percentage points in just a few years. In the Zone’s middle school, students, who are largely African American, score as high as white students in the city in math. In a neighborhood with low high school graduation rates, about 550 alumni of HCZ’s after-school program are in college.
The Obama administration has singled out the Harlem Children’s Zone as a model for other cities to boost poor children, and First Lady Michelle Obama recently called Canada, “one of my heroes”. Now the Obama administration seeks to replicate Canada's model in 20 cities in a program called Promise Neighborhoods and has set aside $10 million in the 2010 budget for planning.
For further information, contact Youth Director, Trudy Beicht at 518-828-0017.
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