Children's Initiative Communities in Florida
Florida presently has five designated Children's Initiative communities. All five efforts are modeled after the nationally known Harlem Children's Zone.
New Town Success Zone is a partnership of public and private organizations that are developing a continuum of services to help children and their families living in the New Town neighborhood achieve the goals of healthy development, academic success and well-being of the neighborhood's children. The mission of the New Town Success Zone is to provide a place-based continuum of services from prenatal to college or post secondary training for the children and their families living in the neighborhood. In 2012, the New Town Success Zone was designated a Florida Children's Initiative.
In 2008, Florida Statute 409.147 specifically created the Miami Children's Initiative (MCI) within the Liberty City neighborhood. Miami Children's Initiative is a 501 C (3) nonprofit organization focused on transforming Liberty City into a prosperous community. In partnership with Liberty City's residents, youth, religious centers, schools, businesses and nonprofit organizations, they seek to address the needs of the community by investing in its children. MCI believes that Liberty City's strength lies in the undeveloped potential of its youth and that through focused strategic work the potential of each child can be unleashed.
The Parramore Kidz Zone was launched by the City of Orlando on July 1, 2006 as part of a comprehensive effort to revitalize Orlando's highest crime, highest poverty neighborhood. The Parramore Kidz Zone replicates aspects of the Harlem Children's Zone to create positive child-rearing conditions that will result in lower teen pregnancy rates, improved school performance, and decreased juvenile crime and child abuse rates. Unlike the Harlem project, the Parramore Kidz Zone is implemented by a coalition of nonprofit organizations and neighborhood residents. The Parramore Kidz Zone was designated as a Florida Children's Initiative in June 2009.
The Sulphur Springs Neighborhood of Promise (SSNOP) is a collaborative effort of residents, educators, service providers, government agencies, business leaders and funding partners who have joined together to implement an educational program in which children thrive academically. The goals are to create a culture that promotes the caring, nurturing and successful education of children and to offer support services for the family and community in positive and productive settings.
The SSNOP community initiative strives to provide a child-focused educational delivery system that is family-friendly and easily accessible within the neighborhood.
The Overtown Children and Youth Coalition serves Miami's Overtown neighborhood, an area where children and families face extreme levels of poverty, low academic achievement and health disparities. Intensive rehabilitation and redevelopment are necessary to improve the health, well-being and livelihood of children living there. The Overtown Children and Youth Coalition is a group of professionals, institutions, government officials, residents and youth charged with implementing the Children and Youth Master Plan to improve outcomes for all of Overtown's children.