Harlem Children’s Zone (HCZ) works to “rebuild the very fabric of community life” through a comprehensive set of programs that engage local residents and community stakeholders in providing a safe learning environment and positive opportunities for children and families in New York’s Harlem community. The HCZ Project’s conveyor belt of services stretches from birth through college and includes workshops for parents of young children, early childhood education, public charter schools, collaborations and support for traditional public schools, after-school and summer enrichment programming for youth, and help for teens to gain access to and graduate from college and other post-secondary education opportunities. One of the Foundation’s first partners in youth development, HCZ has grown from 24 blocks to 100 blocks in Central Harlem.

President Barack Obama has repeatedly identified Harlem Children's Zone, led by Geoffrey Canada, as a model to tackle poverty and the barriers low-income youth must overcome to achieve economic self-sufficiency and healthy, productive adulthood. In a videotaped address in 2008, Obama called HCZ "an all-encompassing, all-hands-on-deck, anti-poverty effort that is literally saving a generation of children." The Obama administration's website WhiteHouse.gov calls for creating 20 "promise neighborhoods" modeled after HCZ in poor communities across the country.

An independent evaluation by Harvard University economists Roland Fryer, Jr. and Will Dobbie found that HCZ’s Promise Academy was “enormously effective at increasing the achievement of the poorest minority children.” The report’s full findings and additional data on HCZ’s impact can be found on the organization’s website.

To learn more about Harlem Children’s Zone’s programs, please see:

• Whatever It Takes, a book about Geoffrey Canada and Harlem Children's Zone, written by New York Times Magazine editor Paul Tough in 2008. Both The Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times called it one of the "best books of 2008."
• Building Stronger Communities to Support Healthier Families, an EMCF profile of Harlem Children's Zone
• The Harlem Project, from the The New York Times Magazine, June 20, 2004