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Opportunity: Promise Neighborhoods Program Application Now Available Deadline: May 21, 2010 Info: The U.S. Department of Education's Office of Innovation and Improvement has released a notice requesting applications for one-year planning grants under the new Promise Neighborhoods program. With $10 million in funding available for this fiscal year, the program will provide up to 20 grants of between $400,000 and $500,000 for the development of a plan for creating a seamless continuum of "cradle-through-college-to-career solutions" to improve children's educational and developmental outcomes in distressed, high-poverty communities. Nonprofit organizations - including faith-based groups and institutions of higher learning - representing targeted geographic areas are eligible to apply for these competitive planning grants. Applicants must operate a school or partner, in coordination with the appropriate local educational agency (LEA), with at least one school in the geographic area to be served. The Department also "strongly encourages eligible applicants to partner with entities such as the LEA; federal, state and local government leaders; and providers of family and community supports." The Promise Neighborhoods program is based on the experience of initiatives such as the Harlem Children's Zone (HCZ). HCZ provides a critical mass of children in a high-poverty, 97-block New York City neighborhood with a comprehensive pipeline of social, health, educational, and community-building programs and services from birth through college. Recognizing the interrelated challenges faced by communities with high concentrations of poverty, the Promise Neighborhoods program is designed to improve outcomes for children by building a continuum of academic programs and family and community supports centered around effective schools. The Department of Education will host three webinars: one on May 3 at 1:00-2:00 p.m. EDT, to provide an overview of the program, and two pre-application webinars on May 5 at 1:00-5:00 p.m. EDT and May 10 at 12:00-4:00 p.m. EDT. The deadline for Notice of Intent to Apply is May 21. The application deadline is June 25. Applications will be reviewed this summer with grant awards announced in September. President Obama's fiscal year 2011 budget proposal includes $210 million for five-year implementation grants and additional one-year planning grants. Links: Get the application here. Register for webinars here.
What We'll Change:
• The impact of the current economic context on Black men and boys is stark. In New York City, 49% of Black men are unemployed. At the beginning of the 1990s economic expansion, the unemployment rate for Blacks was 12.7%; by comparison, whites had an unemployment rate of 5.0%. Between 1992 and 1999, 17% of the net job growth came from jobs ranked in the worst 10% based on job earnings. In contrast, during the 1960s, the worst 10% of jobs contributed less than 2% of net job growth. In addition, the creation of bad jobs was accompanied by a “racially polarized job expansion”: over ¾ of the net expansion in the worst 10% of jobs went to African Americans and Latinos, while whites received ¾ of the net expansion of the best 20% of jobs. • If you have a criminal record, the odds of securing a good paying job are dramatically decreased. In Chicago, for example, having a felony record makes you ineligible for such jobs as being a barber or driving a school bus. • …The majority of fathers who fail to meet child support obligations are uneducated, unskilled, and – perhaps most significantly – disconnected from social supports that might help them overcome these deficits. • Black men live 7.1 years less than other racial groups • On any given day in the United States, nearly one in every three black males in their 20s is in jail, in prison, on probation, or on parole. • Currently, more than 2 million people are incarcerated in the United States, and Black men make up nearly 50% of that population. Nationally, 46% of prison inmates and 42% of jail inmates are Black, yet Blacks are only 12% of the overall population. • Black males have a 29% chance of serving time in prison at some point in their lives, as compared to 16% for Hispanic males and 4% for white males. |
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