President Obama keeps promise, creates "first major federal antipoverty effort in decades"

[ProSense]

Promises To Keep: The Obama Poverty Plan

The 'Promise Neighborhoods' plan has the policy world abuzz about the first major federal antipoverty effort in decades. But the effort has not yet been launched, and details are hard to come by.

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President Obama keeps promise, creates initiative described as the "first major federal antipoverty effort in decades"

The program is comprehensive: What You Missed: Open for Questions on the Neighborhood Revitalization Initiative

U.S. Department of Education Awards Promise Neighborhoods Planning Grants

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The planning grants of up to $500,000 will support the work in a diverse set of communities in major metropolitan areas, small and medium-size cities, rural areas, and one Indian reservation. The President has requested $210 million in his fiscal 2011 budget, including $200 million to support implementation of Promise Neighborhood projects and $10 million for planning grants for new communities.

The 21 Promise Neighborhood grantees are:

• Abyssinian Development Corporation ( New York)
  
• Amherst H. Wilder Foundation (St. Paul, Minn.)
  
• Athens Clarke County Family Connection, Inc. (Athens, Ga.)
  
• Berea College (Clay, Jackson, and Owsley Counties, Ky.)
  
• Boys & Girls Club of the Northern Cheyenne Nation (Northern Cheyenne Reservation, Mont.)
  
• California State University – East Bay (Hayward, Calif.)
  
• Cesar Chavez Public Policy Charter High School (Washington, D.C.)
  
• Community Day Care Center of Lawrence, Inc. (Lawrence, Mass.)
  
• Delta Health Alliance, Inc. (Indianola, Miss.)
  
• Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative (Boston)
  
• The Guidance Center (River Rouge, Mich.)
  
• Lutheran Family Health Centers (New York)
  
• Morehouse School of Medicine, Inc. (Atlanta)
  
• Neighborhood Centers, Inc. (Houston)
  
• Proyecto Pastoral at Dolores Mission (Los Angeles)
  
• United Way of Central Massachusetts, Inc. (Worcester, Mass.)
  
• United Way of San Antonio & Bexar County, Inc. (San Antonio, Texas)
  
• Universal Community Homes (Philadelphia)
  
• University of Arkansas at Little Rock (Little Rock, Ark.)
  
• Westminster Foundation (Buffalo, N.Y.)
  
• Youth Policy Institute (Los Angeles)

To address the challenges faced by students living in communities of concentrated poverty, Promise Neighborhoods grantees and their partner organizations will plan to provide services from early learning to college and career, including programs to improve the health, safety, and stability of neighborhoods, and boost family engagement in student learning.

Secretary Duncan was joined at the announcement by Melody Barnes, the director of the White House Domestic Policy Council, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Shaun Donovan, and Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius.

"As shown in Promise Neighborhoods and HUD's Choice Neighborhoods Initiative, transforming distressed neighborhoods into communities of opportunity means connecting housing and development resources to education and access to economic opportunity," said Secretary Donovan.

"Strong communities start with healthy children who have safe places to live and play and high quality educational opportunities that put them on the road to success," added Secretary Sebelius. "Creating these strong communities requires everyone, including the federal government, to work together."

More than 300 communities from 48 states and the District of Columbia submitted applications for Promise Neighborhoods planning grants.

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Choice Neighborhoods

Introduction

The Choice Neighborhoods initiative will transform distressed neighborhoods and public and assisted projects into viable and sustainable mixed-income neighborhoods by linking housing improvements with appropriate services, schools, public assets, transportation, and access to jobs. A strong emphasis will be placed on local community planning for access to high-quality educational opportunities, including early childhood education. Choice Neighborhood grants will build upon the successes of public housing transformation under HOPE VI to provide support for the preservation and rehabilitation of public and HUD-assisted housing, within the context of a broader approach to concentrated poverty. In addition to public housing authorities, the initiative will involve local governments, non-profits, and for-profit developers in undertaking comprehensive local planning with residents and the community.

Additionally, the Department is placing a strong emphasis on coordination with other federal agencies, with the expected result that federal investments in education, employment, income support, and social services will be better aligned in targeted neighborhoods. To date, the Departments of Education, Justice and Health and Human Services are working with HUD to coordinate investments in neighborhoods of concentrated poverty, including those targeted by Choice Neighborhoods.

The White House Neighborhood Revitalization Initiative (PDF)