1.0 GETTING INSPIRED From the streets of Harlem: a neighbourhood approach to supporting children and young people can teach us about tackling disadvantage in North Camden.
In the United States, tight-knit areas of disadvantage in inner cities have led to generations of young people growing up in neighbourhoods rife with crime, drugs and the symptoms of disadvantage. For 20 years, attempts have been made to tackle these issues, most recently with exceptional levels of success. One model has been so successful President Obama pledged to fund its duplication across the country. Known as ‘Promise Neighbourhoods’ the approach takes its lead from a new model of support crafted in the streets of Harlem, New York, and known as the Harlem Children’s Zone. Harlem Children’s Zone is a non-profit organisation which operates an all-encompassing system of education and social services for one 100 block neighbourhood in Harlem. The services interlink, creating a ‘pipeline’ of support, which carries children from nursery, through every aspect of their lives, on to college. The approach aims to build a tipping point, where a strong, healthy and high-achieving community offers an attractive alternative to the lure of the street. Back in the UK, Save the Children has produced a report to explore the potential for creating ‘Children’s Zones’ in England. Following the principles of HCZ, a ‘zone’ would connect all the services working within one location, integrating their delivery to establish a single flow of provision, or ‘pipeline’, following an agreed vision and adhering to community led values. The report argues that the potential for this new approach could not have come at a better time: “Children’s zones sit well with the changing nature of policy in England. They are local developments at a time when the emphasis is shifting from national to local initiatives. They offer a means of bringing together local service providers in a coherent way at a time when provider-autonomy and opening up services to the market are highly valued. Children’s zones offer a potentially powerful way of tackling disadvantage, using existing resources at a time when resourcing is under pressure.” Who should lead a Children’s Zone approach? In the UK, unlike the US, existing service provision is more established, and often led by, and accountable to, national priorities. Whilst successful efforts have been made to join up services, the pressures of adhering to a shifting pattern of national priorities, leave many services unequipped to lead the type of pioneering approach which is having such an impact in Harlem. Save the Children argue this new model should not be led by central direction: “There is no prospect for the foreseeable future of holistic approaches to improving children’s outcomes in disadvantaged areas being developed through central direction. If such approaches do emerge, it will be through local initiatives – and if they are to address children’s needs in a doubly holistic sense, they will need to find ways to secure the commitment of highly autonomous schools.” 3
“AN ALL ENCOMPASSING, ALL-HANDSON-DECK, ANTI POVERTY EFFORT THAT IS LITERALLY SAVING A GENERATION OF CHILDREN.” President Obama on the HCZ model