October 15, 2009 | Read Time: 1 minute
President Obama has proposed spending $10-million in 2010 to help nonprofit groups plan efforts similar to the Harlem Children’s Zone, a program that fights poverty by providing multiple sources of aid to families in a single neighborhood.
United Neighborhood Centers of America, an umbrella group for neighborhood social-service centers, has published a “planning how-to guide” for groups that hope to apply for the so-called Promise Neighborhood money.
Among the tips:
- Figure out how to collect and evaluate data about the neighborhood that is the focus of the project.
- Serve an area that has a minimum childhood-poverty rate of 40 percent, or at least 30 percent if combined with other problems like high crime rates and low academic achievement.
- Identify possible collaborators — schools, health clinics, religious institutions, human-services groups, corporations.
- Enlist support from elected officials, including mayors, city councils, school boards, and state legislators.
- Seek private money from sources like community foundations, United Ways, and wealthy individuals who sit on boards of participating organizations.
- Identify a single anchor organization and select a central leader to provide a coherent message and image to the public.
The complete guide is available online at http://www. alliance1.org/Public_Policy/Neighborhoods/pn_planning_guide.pdf.
