October 16, 2008 | Read Time: 2 minutes
When Sen. Barack Obama announced more than a year ago that he would like to spread to other cities the model used by a New York charity to fight poverty, his chances of winning the Democratic nomination for president were far from certain.
Today, the Illinois senator is not only his party’s candidate, but has a real chance of winning the White House in November. And Geoffrey Canada, head of the charity whose work Mr. Obama promoted — the Harlem Children’s Zone — is determined to be ready with a plan.
“We have really tried to prepare for when and if we are asked what our advice would be, to be able to be smart about giving that advice to him,” he says.
Mr. Canada’s widely acclaimed organization pioneered the Harlem Children’s Zone Project, which provides a comprehensive set of educational, medical, and social services to residents in a 100-block area of Harlem.
The group, with a budget of more than $60-million that comes from private and government sources, also operates several charter schools.
‘Promise Neighborhoods’
Senator Obama in July 2007 announced a plan to fight poverty that included creating “promise neighborhoods” in 20 cities modeled after the Harlem project, which he said was “literally saving a generation of children in a neighborhood where they were never supposed to have a chance.”
He said the government would provide half the money, and philanthropies and businesses the rest. While that would cost “a few billion dollars” a year, he said, “we will find the money to do this because we can’t afford not to.”
Mr. Canada says he is tapping poverty and education experts to help him propose a way to takehis project national. They include PolicyLink, a research and advocacy group in Oakland, Calif; Peter Edelman, a professor of law at Georgetown University and former official in the U.S. Health and Human Services Department under President Clinton; and Michelle Cahill, director of urban education at Carnegie Corporation of New York and a former senior counselor to Joel Klein, the New York schools chancellor.
He said they are looking, for example, at flaws in the Model Cities program, which was created during the 1960s “war on poverty” to help revitalize urban neighborhoods but got entangled in political patronage.
“My timetable is to have this really in good shape by the time the election happens,” Mr. Canada says.
And if Senator Obama doesn’t win? Mr. Canada says the Harlem Children’s Zone model, which includes charter schools, should appeal to Republicans too because of its “no-nonsense approach” that includes firing teachers and principals who do not perform.
