Who We Are
William Julius Wilson Institute at Harlem Children’s Zone is a national resource for place-based, people-focused solutions that open pathways to social and economic mobility.
Named for one of our nation’s most prolific scholars on poverty and inequality, and founded and led by Geoffrey Canada, Founder and President of Harlem Children’s Zone, and Kwame Owusu-Kesse, CEO of Harlem Children’s Zone, William Julius Wilson Institute works with on-the-ground collaborators and national partners to deliver comprehensive strategies, support services, and tools that systematically root out poverty and close opportunity gaps in neighborhoods across America.
William Julius Wilson Institute is a central hub for place-based services and programs, and for backbone organizations to access the supports they need to be successful.
What We Do
Through our work with communities, one million young people will be connected to opportunities that place them on a pathway to social and economic mobility. These outcomes will drive and be driven by systems change and scalable solutions that are informed by research and practice.
We believe place-based work requires and must center the development of cradle-to-career supports to achieve economic and social mobility. Despite momentum in the place-based field, outcome disparities persist and the most impacted populations are lost in averages. Place-based efforts that are not designed by and for those most marginalized risk advancing social and economic mobility and fail to serve those most in need.
Through direct work with a set of places, as well as broader field-building efforts, William Julius Wilson Institute will build an ecosystem that enables high-impact, place-based work, and effectively resources and empowers proximate neighborhood leaders as integral to driving sustainable change in the most vulnerable communities.
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About William Julius Wilson
William Julius Wilson, Lewis P. and Linda L. Geyser University Professor, Harvard University
William Julius Wilson is a sociologist and Harvard University professor who has authored seminal works on urban sociology, race, and class. His work has identified the importance of neighborhood effects and demonstrated how limited employment opportunities and weakened institutional resources exacerbate poverty in American cities.
His books include Power, Racism and Privilege (1973), The Declining Significance of Race (1978), The Truly Disadvantaged (1987), When Work Disappears (1996), The Bridge over the Racial Divide (1999), There Goes the Neighborhood (2006, co-author), Good Kids from Bad Neighborhoods (2006, co-author), and, most recently, More than Just Race: Being Black and Poor in the Inner City (2009).