Harlem Children’s Zone (HCZ) CEO, Kwame Owusu-Kesse, and scholars from Promise Academy Charter Schools were featured on “CBS Sunday Morning” in a national news segment highlighting HCZ’s work to empower the health and wellness of our young people by addressing the full ecosystem of factors that help them thrive.
In the piece, which explored the impact of obesity on America’s children, Mr. Owusu-Kesse shared the array of efforts HCZ has undertaken through our Healthy Harlem initiative. This includes fitness and cooking classes offered to scholars and families across our sites, and our Harlem Harvest, through which HCZ has distributed nearly 400,000 pounds of free, fresh, organic produce to the Harlem community since 2020.
However, Mr. Owusu-Kesse underscored that issues like obesity cannot be viewed in isolation. Rather, they must be treated as symptoms connected to a broader constellation of factors — what he calls “The Social Determinants of Thriving.” By focusing on the full set of conditions and supports that shape a child’s trajectory — from stable housing and education to health and wellness, economic mobility, and social capital — HCZ is preparing our scholars to succeed in college, their careers, and life.
“It’s about wrapping our arms around our community,” Mr. Owusu-Kesse told CBS News Chief Medical Correspondent Jonathan LaPook. “That is the secret sauce of Harlem Children’s Zone. We were designed to hit a critical mass of young people so that you shift culture.”
Watch the full segment on the CBS News website.