Growing up, Natalia Pierre was surrounded by younger cousins. Being the older child, she became the de facto big sister, keeping her cousins safe and on the right path. That nurturing role blossomed into a passion for empowering young people — helping them succeed just as she did her own family. Natalia followed that passion to a career in teaching — a role she has held at Harlem Children’s Zone Promise Academy for over a decade. At our top-performing charter school, Natalia has helped a generation of scholars thrive academically and build bright futures for themselves and their families ..read more

When DeniLee Peroza’s son, Reginald, enrolled at Harlem Children’s Zone Promise Academy, he wasn’t the only one who joined the Promise community. His family came along, too. Reginald, a first-grader, benefits from our high-quality curriculum, social-emotional learning, and after-school programs. At the same time, he and DeniLee attend family events together at our West Side Community Center, and they learn about health and wellness at Healthy Harlem.  When the family was going through tough times, HCZ Promise Academy was by their side to provide family support. “My dad was very sic ..read more

Shania Sanders, a junior at HCZ Promise Academy Charter Schools, has a lot to be proud of: she’s taking Advanced Placement classes, is a member of the National Honor Society, and represents her class in Student Government. Next year, she’ll add two highlights to her impressive resume: high school graduate and student at Emory University on a full-ride scholarship. “That’s how ready my baby is to succeed,” says Shania’s mom, Lisa McNear. From the moment she joined Three-Year-Old Journey — our program for HCZ Promise Academy scholars who secure early enrollment in kindergarten at our top ..read more

Harlem Children’s Zone (HCZ) Wealth Builds — an audacious new initiative that aims to end intergenerational poverty and close the wealth gap by empowering young people and families to build successful financial futures — is featured in The New York Times. The story, “A Plan to Help Harlem Students Build Wealth: Start Them Off With $10,000,” explores Wealth Builds’ Youth Opportunity Fund (YOF), one of nine research-backed pillars the initative deploys. Through YOF, our scholars receive an investment fund they can withdraw from in adulthood for wealth-generating activities, such as paying for ..read more

In a few weeks, our HCZ Promise Academy and Zone Programs high school seniors will walk across the graduation stage and into the next chapter of their lives. But first, they had to decide where they were going to college! To mark that big decision, we held National College Signing Day 2024. Hosted by our College Success Office (CSO), the annual event is an opportunity for our community to come together and celebrate our seniors for getting into and choosing the college they will attend in the fall. During National College Signing Day 2024, scholars explored the college experience with themed ..read more

Brandon Sydnor and Housainatou Balde, Harlem Children’s Zone scholars attending the University at Albany, have big dreams. Brandon wants to be a leader in the sports management field; Housainatou wants to own a successful business. But dreams don’t come easy: they take hard work, resilience, and often, college and career support.  Now in college, Brandon and Housainatou are getting that support from programs in our comprehensive, cradle-to-career pathway of services for college-age scholars: College Success Office (CSO) and Wealth Builds. As we always say at HCZ, you may leave the Zo ..read more

In her third year at Harlem Children’s Zone Promise Academy, Janel Strother went from teaching kindergarten to teaching third grade math. The transition wasn’t easy. Third graders are a little bit more of a handful than kindergarteners. And, rather than teach a range of subjects, Ms. Strother had to develop and deliver specialized lesson plans for one subject. Thankfully, as a teaching fellow, Ms. Strother was assigned to co-teach her class with a lead teacher, Latasha Bryan. Through this unique mentorship opportunity, Ms. Bryan helped Ms. Strother gain the skills and confidence to succeed ..read more

Harlem Children’s Zone CEO Kwame-Owusu Kesse and Founder and President Geoffrey Canada will share the work and impact of Harlem Children’s Zone, and host a screening of “Harlem Rising”, a documentary about the history of HCZ, at SXSWEDU in Austin, Texas in April 2024. We are excited for Mr. Owusu-Kesse and Mr. Canada to join SXSWEDU, an annual conference that “brings together the brightest minds in education to share ideas, network, and create the future of teaching and learning,” according to the conference website. You can catch Mr. Owusu-Kesse and Mr. Canada at the following SXSW EDU sessi ..read more

At Harlem Children’s Zone (HCZ), we believe college is the catalyst for our young people’s success. It empowers them to earn a degree and build bright careers. It helps them achieve their dreams — however they define them. That’s why everything we do at HCZ is geared toward getting our scholars (as we call our students) to and through college. This effort starts when they are born and continues all the way to when they get their first jobs. Our results speak for themselves:  Nearly 100% of our scholars are accepted into college each year. 1,000+ our scholars are enrolled at univer ..read more

Four decades ago, Geoffrey Canada came to Rheedlen Centers for Children and Families with nothing but a dream — a dream to transform a neighborhood and change the odds for young people residing there.  What a difference 40 years makes. Through the work of Mr. Canada and Harlem Children’s Zone (formerly Rheedlen Centers), the organization he founded, thousands of children in Harlem — and now, across the country — are building bright futures for themselves and their families. Mr. Canada had made his dream a reality. We were thrilled to honor Mr. Canada for his 40 years at HCZ with a ce ..read more