Geoffrey Canada - Leveling the Playing Field: Helping Poor Children Succeed Lecture

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Geoffrey Canada has a radical new idea: if you really want to change the lives of inner-city kids, change everything all at once—their schools, families, and neighborhoods. As President and CEO of the revolutionary Harlem Children’s Zone in New York City, he has dedicated the past 20 years of his life to helping the most impoverished, at-risk youth beat the odds. Radically ambitious and startlingly simple, Canada’s programs are on the cutting edge of preventing youth violence and fostering community development.

What Canada has done for a 24 block neighborhood in Harlem has been groundbreaking, replicated in communities across the country. Through programs such as the Beacon School, Community Pride Initiative, Harlem Gems, Harlem Peacemakers, and the Promise Academy, a new generation of charter school, he has developed a network of services that reach most of the 6,500 children and their families living in the Harlem Children’s Zone.

Canada knows inner-city life firsthand. Having grown up in the South Bronx, he went on to earn a Master’s Degree in Education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Recently, Canada was honored with the prestigious McGraw Prize for education. In his vibrant, hands-on presentation, he teaches communities about improving the lives of today’s youth, one child at a time.

Since 1990, Mr. Canada has been the President and Chief Executive Officer for Harlem Children's Zone, which The New York Times Magazine called "one of the most ambitious social experiments of our time." In October 2005, Mr. Canada was named one of "America's Best Leaders" by U.S. News and World Report.

>>>Click here to learn more about the Harlem Children's Zone.