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Our mission is ambitious. When Geoffrey Canada founded Harlem Children’s Zone (HCZ) in 2000, he envisioned a community-responsive organization that would strengthen the foundations of neighborhoods by rooting out poverty on every front — block by block and need for need. Twenty years later, we have a generation of proof that place-based solutions to systemic inequities can turn the tide of poverty and open pathways to opportunity and mobility. As the pioneer of a holistic approach — serving an entire neighborhood, comprehensively, at scale — HCZ has received national recognition for its unprecedented results, transforming how we fight poverty and racial inequities across the U.S. and around the world. From early childhood, education, and career programs to community outreach and wellness initiatives, HCZ is breaking the cycle of intergenerational poverty. More than 1,100 of our scholars have graduated college. Now they’re building careers, families, and promising futures for their children and their children’s children.

Our children and families in Harlem are facing new challenges due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Working side by side with leading anchor institutions in Minneapolis, Oakland, Newark, Detroit, Chicago, and Atlanta, Harlem Children’s Zone conceived and implemented a COVID-19 Relief and Recovery plan to supercharge efforts in Harlem and launch initiatives in partner cities to address Black communities’ most critical pandemic-related needs. This effort includes a comprehensive, multi-pronged approach to emergency relief and recovery, focusing on five crucial areas to help offset the pandemic’s impact on communities. The five critical areas are:

• Emergency financial relief
• Protecting our most vulnerable
• Bridging the digital divide
• Zero learning loss
• Mitigating the mental health crisis

With your generosity, we can provide vital wrap-around services and supports for the children and families of Central Harlem.

Every contribution, big or small, makes a difference in two overarching ways:

• You make a meaningful and tangible difference in individual lives and communities at large. Your donation is passed onto individuals to close learning and opportunity gaps; provide nutritious food, mental health support, and fitness classes; help bring internship and career opportunities to college students and young professionals; and many additional benefits. Need by need, block by block, your contribution builds up communities.
• You help scale the HCZ model to the people who need it most. Your donation supports our efforts to educate people across the United States and the globe about place-based solutions and how to implement them in under-served and impoverished communities.

We couldn’t do what we do without our supporters. They are the lifeblood of our work. We are grateful to each and every one of you who’ve given a donation, big or small, throughout the decades. We wish we could honor each of you here. A few donors share why they support HCZ.