Geoffrey Canada is a man of great vision, great passion, and impressive determination to win a battle against poverty, disadvantaged circumstance, and hopelessness for the children of our nation’s harshest neighborhoods. He is the 2008 recipient of the Austin College Leadership Award.
Hundreds of uniformed elementary school children line up shoulder to shoulder, backs against the halls of Promise Academy Elementary School and face each other to recite the Promise Academy creed. “We will go to college,” the children proclaim in unison. “We will succeed.” This scene is one man’s vision, struggling against all odds to become a reality. It unfolds each day in Harlem, New York City, one of the nation’s most troubled neighborhoods. Harlem’s Children Zone, a non-profit, community-based organization trying to enhance quality of life for children and families in Harlem, works not to simply keep the children of Harlem from dropping out of school or facing much harsher line-ups, but to allow them the chance to reach their full potential.
“You play to win the game. We’re not playing to see how many children we can stop from being murdered, how many we can stop from dropping out of school or becoming pregnant,” said Canada, CEO of Harlem’s Children Zone (HCZ), who has led the non-profit’s efforts for 17 years. “We’re trying to see how many of our kids we can make sure go to college, come out with jobs, and become successful. Can we intervene early enough so we actually disrupt what had been a conveyor belt leading children into jails and prisons and lives of poverty and despair?”
Canada has been on that conveyor belt. He grew up in the South Bronx in New York City with his mother and three brothers. “We were growing up in and living in these apartments with roaches, mice, and rats,” Canada said. “I felt like I was a good kid, and my mother was a nice lady, and I just didn’t understand. You just think, why me?”
Canada said early experiences shaped him into the leader he is today and inspired him with his life’s mission. “I knew I wanted to go into those places where children feel no one cares, and say ‘I not only care, but I’ve got a plan’,” Canada said. “I’ve got a way for you to get out, to change your community, and to change life circumstances so that you’re going to have a chance to live out your dreams.”
Zoning In
In 1983, Canada joined the truancy-prevention program, Rheedlen Centers for Children and Families, in New York City. In 1990, as president and CEO, he began to make changes that would result in Rheedlen’s restructuring and renaming to Harlem’s Children Zone. To Canada, the first step in saving Harlem’s children was reaching them early and staying with them through college. Canada’s next concern was scale. He said some programs could save children “by the fifties or maybe the hundreds,” but thousands needed help.
The next big step was revolutionizing communities. “Part of the strategy of saving poor children is that you’ve got to transform the communities these young people are growing up with,” Canada said. “If you allow the community to stay disorganized and chaotic, you might help these children, but the children born in the next generation are going to face the same obstacles.”
To tackle these issues, Canada transformed his organization, reorganizing Rheedlen’s board to focus on fundraising efforts needed for his more ambitious and expensive plan. Canada’s philosophy, which included running his non-profit like a business with clear-cut strategic goals, high accountability standards among employees, benchmarks, and annual reports, contributed to HCZ’s growth and success.
Beyond What the Eyes Can See
“He’s a fearless leader,” said Larry Mills, president of Bowdoin College who nominated Canada for the Austin College Leadership Award. “In a way most people couldn’t imagine, he took his vision and expanded it to solve the problem. He’s not only visionary, but also innovative and fearless.”
Canada’s success and determination can’t be pinned simply on his business skills, fundraising efforts, or even charisma and passion. Sometimes vision involves refusing to accept what the eyes see. “There are lots of excuses for failure in our work: broken families, single-parent households, poverty, illiteracy, health challenges, drugs, and gangs,” Canada said. “If you buy into any of those factors being the reason children don’t succeed, you will simply fail in this business.”
In 2007, HCZ served 16,000 children and families through parenting workshops and child development classes in Baby College, head start childcare programs, kindergarten through ninth grade classes at the Promise Academy, after-school media and fitness programs, the Employment and Technology Center for middle and high school students, and college preparation and success programs.
No gangs, drug use, or level of poverty slow Canada down. “The problem is something which must be overcome, and it means that you may have to spend weekends, you may have to spend evenings, or you may have to work longer hours, but in the end, if you won’t accept failure, you will succeed,” Canada said.
Vision for a Nation’s Children
After 17 years of fighting against the odds, progress keeps Canada energized. In 2004, Canada opened his charter school for Harlem’s children to combat poor results at traditional public schools. HCZ has expanded from its original 24-block area of coverage to 100 blocks. Canada’s ultimate goal is to establish a continuous pipeline of involvement, engaging parents before the children are born and continuing involvement with the children through college.
Canada is assembling a conveyor belt leading to success and fulfillment of dreams, and the nation has taken notice. Canada has been featured in Time Magazine, on 60 Minutes and Oprah, and earned numerous awards. He said success and publicity have encouraged similar efforts in other cities. In fact, Canada believes progress is being made all over America.
“I really, really believe in America, and we are close to creating the kind of communities across America that reach the standards that were first laid out in the Constitution by the founding fathers of this country,” Canada said. “We have been making progress toward a country where people — regardless of income, race, religion, or sexual orientation — have an equal opportunity to make it.”
Progress gives Canada hope for future leaders like our nation’s next president. “I think the challenge in this political election is to elect somebody prepared to do what’s necessary for the children of this country, regardless of whose ox gets gored,” Canada said. To Canada, the purpose of such efforts is undeniably simple: to help young people develop the skills necessary to become independent adults who can provide for themselves and their families, and contribute to society.
“I think the American Dream, for most Americans, is not to grow up to be president,” Canada said. “It’s to have food, to have warm clothes or air conditioning, just basic stuff that you consider to be an average life. I think that’s the least we should offer the children of America, not the most. That has always driven me, and it still drives me today.”
Canada Urges Students to Prepare for Moments of Opportunity
As Austin College 2008 Leadership Award honoree Geoffrey Canada concluded his comments at the campus convocation March 6, a hush hung in the air before the applause — long and loud — grew among the audience gathered in Wynne Chapel.
Canada had moved his audience — to laughter, to tears, and hopefully, to action. He laughed at himself and situations in which he finds himself, but there is little to laugh about in his quest to bring hope and possibility to young people.
As CEO of Harlem Children’s Zone, Inc., Canada works every day on behalf of thousands of young people growing up in 100 blocks of Harlem — young people whose futures likely would include incarceration or death by violence without his intervention.
Canada expressed the importance of saving America through saving its youth, especially in the neighborhoods where poor minority children live. He explained that politicians and others seen as the nation’s leaders “don’t have a clue” about the need to reform education. Canada’s program provides for the whole child — physical, mental, spiritual, and emotional — and the home life of the child as well. The programs of Harlem Children’s Zone address those needs at a cost of $3,500 per child per year.
When faced with objections that his program is too costly, Canada cites the costs of incarceration per inmate each year. He said leaders are more than willing to continue putting tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars into the justice system, but are not as willing to make similar efforts in improving education and opportunity for all children.
Canada told Austin College students it would take people like them, who make sure their actions are guided by ethics and a moral compass, to save America. “Too many young people don’t have passionate voices willing to fight for them,” Canada said.
“Are you getting reading for your leadership moment?” Canada asked his audience. “You don’t know when or where it will come. You are preparing now for your moment to change America.”
Canada closed his remarks with the poignant recitation of his poem “Take a Stand.”
Don’t Mess with Mother Nature
Not since 1924 had there been a “significant snow event” in north Texas in March, according to the National Weather Service. But Mother Nature has her own agenda. When Geoffrey Canada’s lecture ended at noon, huge white flakes greeted guests leaving Wynne Chapel. By the end of a luncheon with Mr. Canada, accumulations were becoming substantial. At the close of the book signing, all those connected with the Leadership Awards Gala scheduled for that evening in Dallas were furiously making calls to the Highway Department to determine road conditions. In Dallas, there was no snow in sight. On campus cars were stuck in snow that quickly reached eight, then nine inches.
Considering the number of students, staff, faculty, and convocation attendees who needed to reach Dallas via treacherous roads and the still-furiously falling snow, the decision was sadly announced: the gala was cancelled.
Of course, Mr. Canada received his award, but with none of the ceremony intended — no chance to honor him “in style” before a large group of Austin College friends, no involvement of the scheduled master of ceremonies Henry Winkler, no opportunity to meet with individuals and business leaders who had generously sponsored the gala event.
Mr. Canada was part of the decision-making, agreeing that the storm made the travel too dangerous to ask so many people from north Texas to make the trip to Dallas. He, though, was pleased to have had the chance to speak to students. “If I was able to do only one event,” he told President
Oscar Page as Page deliberated the cancellation, “I am very happy I was able to speak to young people.”