Help youths 'one block at a time'

from St Louis Today

By Steve Giegerich
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
04/03/2008

St. Louis — The nationally recognized educator and activist credited with a renaissance that has bettered the lives of thousands of children in Harlem suggested Wednesday that the improvements can be repeated in St. Louis.

The educator, Geoffrey Canada, said resolving the social ills plaguing impoverished St. Louis neighborhoods and schools would require a united effort by social service agencies, the city government, the school district, nonprofits, colleges and universities and, most critically, the private sector.

Canada, the president and executive director of the Harlem Children's Zone, was in downtown St. Louis Wednesday to address the annual conference of Parents as Teachers, the Maryland Heights-based national group that advocates for young children and families.

He said sparing children from poverty was a block-by-block endeavor.

"That's what we did," Canada said in an interview prior to his speech. "We started with one block, and nobody believed we would make a difference. Then we moved to a second block and then a third and fourth block. ..."

The organization now provides comprehensive social and educational services to the residents, most of them disadvantaged children, on 98 blocks in central Harlem.