Inside the Harlem Project

IT BEGAN as a truancy-prevention programme in socially deprived parts of Harlem, New York. A notfor-profit body, the Harlem Children’s Zone was founded by Geoffrey Canada, an American educator, social activist and author.

In the late 1990s, it expanded its mission to provide additional education and support services to children and families, focusing on a 24-block area.

The idea was to create a positive influence for socially deprived children by providing support services in povertystricken parts of Harlem. The idea was to ensure that “children are surrounded by an enriching environment of college-oriented peers and supportive adults”.

Since launching, the zone has expanded to include almost 100 blocks in Harlem, serving more than 10,000 children.

Key to the zone’s educational scheme is the “Promise Academies” system. It runs programmes that place extra emphasis on language development, showing parents how to help their children expand their vocabulary.

But what marks the zone out is that the academies have longer days and a longer school year than traditional schools, and provide healthy meals plus medical and dental care. Remedial and test-prep classes are held in the morning before school starts or on Saturdays. There are also extensive after-school programmes.