by Mike Sharkey
Staff Writer
Thirty-seven years ago, a group of concerned residents and city officials in New York formed the Rheedlen Centers for Children and Families. Today, those centers are known as the Harlem Children’s Zone — a non-profit community-based organization that works to enhance the quality of life for children and families in some of New York’s toughest neighborhoods.
Next week, a 15-member contingent from Jacksonville will visit the Harlem Children’s Zone in an effort to see how some of the programs being used there can be applied here in Jacksonville, particularly in the two areas Mayor John Peyton has deemed “Seeds of Change” neighborhoods.
Among those going are Children’s Commission Executive Director Linda Lanier, Peyton, former Sheriff Nat Glover, City Council President Michael Corrigan, Council member Mia Jones and several others. Lanier said the list just seemed to grow the more she talked about making the one-day fact-finding trip.
“I knew the mayor wanted to go. Then Susie Wiles (Peyton’s communications chief) wanted to,” said Lanier. “A couple of our board members said they wanted to go and so did a couple of City Council members.”
Lanier said everyone going is paying their own way and only she is planning to stay overnight. The rest will fly up Tuesday morning, tour the facility and fly back.
“Everyone going is either an elected official or someone that brings something to the table,” said Lanier, adding her husband Michael is going. He’s the vice president of community health at Baptist Medical Center and Lanier feels having someone from the medical community on the trip will help shed light on one the major problems that kids in poorer neighborhoods face. “Asthma is the biggest reason kids miss school and the biggest reason parents miss work.”
The Harlem Children’s Zone is a 26 square-block area in the New York neighborhood. Its 15 centers serve 12,500 children and adults, including 8,600 at-risk children. According to the Center’s Web site, the emphasis of the Harlem Children’s Zone isn’t “just on education, social service and recreation, but on rebuilding the very fabric of community life.”
If that sounds similar to the ideals behind Peyton’s Seeds of Change initiative it’s because the goals are alike. Lanier said the Harlem Children’s Zone is a model, a way of providing care for the entire area. That includes quality child care, after school programs, mentoring programs and behavioral health services.
“Like the mayor’s Seeds of Change neighborhoods, we want to bring all the services and resources to bear on the neighborhoods,” said Lanier. “We may decide what we see is not for us.”
If the contingent likes what it sees — or likes aspects of what it sees — the next two steps are funding and implementation. Lanier said you can’t simply pick the worst neighborhoods in Jacksonville and start incorporating major change in a relatively short period of time. She said natural assets and community leadership are a must before changes can be introduced. The worst neighborhoods, she said, may not be ready for or accepting of change. They may also be simply too dangerous and the best way to impose change is to chip away by changing the surrounding neighborhoods.
Lanier said poverty is the single biggest problem facing children in Jacksonville and calls it the “poverty constellation.”
“Everything spins off that,” she said. “Where there’s poverty, there’s more crime. Parents work more than one job just to keep food on the table. That means the kids are alone more. Poor kids have more asthma because they are subject to more rat and roach droppings. It’s the constellation of poverty.”
Lanier said the Harlem Children’s Zone has proven successful, but the changes are often slow and difficult to measure.
“This will not be fixed in one mayoral administration,” said Lanier of the problem in Jacksonville. “It takes time. We didn’t get this way in a year.”
The following have indicated they are going on the fact-finding trip the Harlem Children’s Zone in New York:
• Michael Corrigan, Council president
• Vickie Drake, member of the Duval County School Board and ex-officio member of the Jacksonville Children’s Commission Board
• J. Randall Evans, Fresh Ministries
• Former Sheriff Nat Glover, community volunteer
• Connie Hodges, United Way of Northeast Florida, Inc.
• Mia Jones, City Council
• Linda Lanier, Jacksonville Children’s Commission
• Michael Lanier, Baptist Medical Center
• Michael Munz, The Dalton Agency
• Davalu Parrish, The Bridge of Northeast Florida, Inc.
• Pam Paul, community volunteer
• Mayor John Peyton, City of Jacksonville
• Nina Waters, The Community Foundation
• Susie Wiles, City of Jacksonville
• Jim Williams, Duval County Public Schools