Kimberly Mitchell pushes Children's Zone approach to combating poverty

from The Sun Sentinel

Nicole Brochu | COLUMNIST

Kimberly Mitchell talks a lot. And lately, all the West Palm Beach commissioner wants to talk about is the Harlem Children's Zone, a revolutionary social experiment that is transforming New York's grittiest neighborhood from the loop of poverty and crime into a breeding ground for civic responsibility, empowered parenting and college aspirations.

If Harlem, Mitchell asks, why not West Palm Beach? Why not the north end of a cosmopolitan city where gang violence has cut down dozens of youths, where the majority of kids qualify for free lunch at school, where crime had become such a norm that it took a horrific gang rape at a public housing complex to snap city leadership from its complacent stupor?

Mitchell was high on Geoffrey Canada's concept months before the Dunbar Village attack, so this isn't some knee-jerk stab at grandstanding. And she's hardly the only member of Canada's fan club.

Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama is singing the Children's Zone's praises. Oprah and 60 Minutes highlighted its almost miraculous effects on a community many had written off long ago. Florida House Speaker Marco Rubio made it one of his "100 innovative ideas." And cities across the U.S. want to adopt Canada's winning formula.

It's a formula that's both ingenious and intense. Canada identified a 24-block area of Harlem, where 61 percent of the 3,400 children live below the poverty line, and he immersed it in services that recognize the importance of getting to troubled kids early — parenting classes, truancy programs, a charter school where every kid gets a college fund with admission, nutrition classes, health care assistance, even art and tae kwan do classes.

But this is no typical outreach effort. Canada's people go door-to-door, documenting which parents sign. Those who don't get repeat visits that involve parents at any cost, even extending movie passes and free groceries for the promise of joining one program.

The approach works. Because of demand, Canada has since broadened his zone to 60 blocks and plans to encompass 91 blocks, with 61,000 children, by 2009. And he's doing it largely with private and foundation dollars.

It's easy for Mitchell to get excited, to want to try to copy all of Canada's programs at once. But Tana Ebbole, CEO of the Children Services Council of Palm Beach County, convinced her she can't "eat the elephant in one bite." So she's starting out with the trunk: the Baby College, a nine-week course that teaches expectant and new parents how to care for young kids and make them thrive.

Her initial zone of interest: a 50-block area of the north end that includes the city's poorest black neighborhoods. She envisions Pleasant City Elementary as a home for Canada's Beacon program, which targets 5- to 21-year-olds for after-school, tutoring, counseling, recreation and other services.

To some, Mitchell may come off like a walking cliché: The white girl devoted to black causes. The debutante who rescued strays as a kid and stuck up for the underdog. Except that this bleeding heart drips Republican red, and unlike most politicians today, Mitchell lived up to her do-gooder ideals.

The fifth-grader who thought she coined "black is beautiful," who chose the African nations for a class assignment on the Olympics because no one else would, grew up to become an investment banker. Only, she turned down the Wall Street firms and pursued minority-owned Loop Capital Markets.

When the good ole boys in Tallahassee told her she couldn't, she put together Florida's first black-owned property and casualty insurance company in 2004, recruiting its officers and getting rules passed to make it work.

So when Mitchell says she's determined to pull her city's poor neighborhoods from poverty, her breathless words come with a ring of authenticity. And some genetic integrity. Her father, Edgar Mitchell, was the sixth astronaut to walk on the moon, a man who doesn't understand can't and won't stand for no.

The astronaut's daughter and her Children's Zone plan is infectious. She's gotten key people excited about the notion, from state Rep. Susan Bucher, D-West Palm Beach, and County Commissioner Addie Greene to the United Way and the Urban League.

But it will take more to make this concept a success in West Palm. The Harlem Children's Zone works not just because it's brilliant, but because of Canada's obsessive dedication.

For Mitchell, success will mean getting through Mayor Lois Frankel, her nemesis in all things political. The two have been virtual enemies, on the opposite side of most every issue. Each feels the other is out to get her, even as they seemingly fight for the same causes, like helping the poor.

It's the kind of political cesspool that can kill the worthiest of projects. And it may be this do-gooder's biggest challenge yet.

Nicole Brochu can be reached at 561-243-6603 or nbrochu@sun-sentinel.com.