Saturday, November 9, 2013

The Harlem Children's Zone Organization

The organization that I chose to sign up to is The Harlem Zone. In this week's newsletter, which was my first one, the organization was praising their president Geoffrey Canada. Geoffrey Canada received the National Freedom Award. Since 1991, the award honors individuals who have made significant contributions to the battlw for civil and human rights, and who have helped create opportunity for the disenfranchised both in the US and around the world. The organization is focused on the bettering the youth of today. The program also offers a baby college. The baby college is a nine week program for expectant parents and parents with a child up to three years old. I think this is a good idea. The workshops promote reading to children and verbal discipline over corporal punishment. The organization focuses on a variety of issues in the early childhood setting. Their objective is to build a safety net woven so tightly that children cannot slip through. What a wonderful objective/focus! Some of their porgrams include:

THE THREE YEAR OLD JOURNEY

The Three-Year-Old Journey works with parents of children who have won the HCZ Promise Academy charter school lottery. Held on Saturdays over several months, it teaches parents about their child's development, building language skills and parenting skills.

GET READY FOR PRE-K

The Get Ready for Pre-K program brings in new Gems students before the start of the school year. The six-week summer session runs for extended hours during weekdays like the regular Gems program, helping children acclimate to the new schedule and readying them to start school in the fall.

HARLEM GEMS®

Harlem Gems is an all-day pre-kindergarten program that gets children ready to enter kindergarten. Classes have a 4:1 child-to-adult ratio, teach English, Spanish and French, and run from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. HCZ runs three pre-kindergarten sites, serving 200 children.

As far as diversity, the newsletter did not go into depth about it, but throughout the website it is evident that the program changes to suite the needs of the community.  I am pleased with the work the Harlem Zone is doing for their community. I look forward to the next newsletter.
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6 comments:

  1. UnknownNovember 9, 2013 at 3:54 PM

    Hi Jackie, it would be so good to know that children aren't slipping through because so many children are. As an educator we should all want to reach every child, ensuring that every child is reaching his or her full potential. I'm gonna check this sight out to see if I can learn even more from them and possibly gain some knowledge from their approaches. Enjoyed your post!!

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  2. PenelopeNovember 9, 2013 at 5:25 PM

    The baby college sounds like a great program! I admire the Harlem Children's Zone for providing so many great opportunities for the parents and children in their area. Lamaze classes do a great job of preparing for labor/delivery and basic infant care, but they don't touch on the deeper topic of parenting skills. We have a similar program for teenage mothers and expectant teens in our area. It would be great if all areas could have a baby college program available for all expecting women and families.

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  3. Cheryl SingletonNovember 10, 2013 at 3:41 PM

    Jackie,
    What an excellent organization! I especially like the baby college. I think this is so important to teach parents how to correctly handle certain situations. This comes in handy when you are a new parent and are tired and cranky. Also teaching them how to discipline without spankings can help with anger issues and future aggressive children.

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  4. DJourneyNovember 10, 2013 at 8:52 PM

    Jackie,
    I love their objective of "... to build a safety net woven so tightly that children cannot slip through." This is important because so many children fall through the cracks,and fall behind. It is our jobs as educators to ensure that no child falls through these cracks, and that they all are given an opportunity to academically succeed.

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  5. AnonymousNovember 11, 2013 at 3:42 AM

    Hello Jackie,
    Look like all three programs have the right thing going for children. I believe as long as children have quality teacher in their care and hands-on-materials along with high technology programs a child can come successful from all different levels. Having hands on workshop is a great idea for children because they a chance to see other children and learn how to work as a team. Good resources 



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  6. UnknownNovember 16, 2013 at 4:19 PM

    Thanks for your comments, guys! I concur!

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