Harlem-based antipoverty program to train Camden agencies

The cradle-to-career approach to combating generational poverty that has made the Harlem Children's Zone a national education model may be coming to Camden.

State officials and the Center for Family Services, which runs more than 40 social service programs in South Jersey, signed an agreement Tuesday to begin a yearlong planning mission aimed at implementing the program's principles in the Cooper-Lanning Square section of Camden.

The agency will receive training and technical support during the study year from the Harlem Children's Zone of New York City. The same assistance will be provided to La Casa de Don Pedro, a nonprofit social services agency in Newark, where a similar program will be planned, according to state officials. The state will pay $24,000 for each group's training, said Richard Vespucci, a state education spokesman.

The Harlem Children's Zone's involvement with Camden and Newark will be the most intensive it has undertaken, said a spokesman for the nonprofit organization, which has trained about 70 groups around the country and delegations from 24 countries.

"What we're doing with New Jersey is unique," said Marty Lipp, the spokesman. "We have not done this before."

Since the early 1990s, the Harlem Children's Zone has expanded from a one-block pilot program to nearly 100 blocks. Its approach is centered on the belief that children and families must be assisted on multiple fronts in order to thrive.

The agency, which has a $77 million annual budget, teaches parenting skills, offers preschool, operates charter schools through high school, and provides support for students who continue on to college. It also offers an array of social and health programs.

In the Camden effort, the Center for Family Services' staff will undergo the training, but it will not be on its own.

The center is a member of the Cooper Lanning Camden Promise Team, a growing partnership involving Camden Mayor Dana Redd, school district officials, neighborhood groups, Rowan University, Rutgers University, Cooper University Hospital, and other area businesses, foundations, and community institutions.

The partnership, with Rowan as lead agency, also is seeking a federal Promise Neighborhoods planning grant, an Obama administration program inspired by the Harlem Children's Zone.