Bronx

Taking It Local

|

The Comprehensive Community Revitalization Program (CCRP), which ran from 1992 through 1998, concentrated its efforts on struggling South Bronx neighborhoods along the Cross Bronx Expressway that had since the 1960s and 1970s been battling depopulation, arson, declining business activity and job loss.

Bronx

An Act of Faith

|

The HCZ model might not work in every depressed urban center. But something else might work in those cities—or might already be working, albeit outside the media spotlight or the White House’s embrace.William Strickland, like Canada, has dedicated most of his adult life to working to counter urban poverty. He established the nonprofit Manchester Bidwell Corp. in 1968, in Pittsburgh’s toughest district, first as an arts education resource for local schoolchildren and later, when Pittsburgh’s steel industry collapsed, to provide vocational training for unemployed workers. Today, the corporation works with Pittsburgh public schools, placing artists in the classroom and offering a broad swath of after-school, summer and evening programs for kids and adults.An overwhelming majority of teenagers who participate in Strickland’s programs—90 percent—graduate from high school.

Education

Test Pattern

|

On standardized tests in 2009, the Harlem Children’s Zone’s Promise Academy I fared well compared to most other schools in its upper Manhattan district (District 5), and rivaled city- and statewide averages.

Education

Making Connections

|

The Harlem Children’s Zone has benefited from its relationship to influential institutions, powerful politicians and financial powerhouses.