Harlem Children's Zone

Harlem Children's Zone (HCZ) is a world-renowned education and poverty-fighting organization based in New York City. Founded by Geoffrey Canada and led by its current CEO, Kwame Owusu-Kesse, HCZ pioneered the model of place-based, cradle-to-career services that empower young people and families from under-resourced backgrounds to achieve life-changing social and economic mobility.

HCZ built on its national recognition when the Obama administration launched the country's Promise Neighborhoods and Promise Zones initiatives, based on the HCZ model, in 2010 and 2014, respectively. In 2014, HCZ was featured in the award-winning documentary, Waiting for Superman. In 2019, under Owusu-Kesse's leadership, HCZ launched a National COVID-19 Relief and Recovery Effort to help 250,000 individuals in communities disproportionately impacted by the pandemic.