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By CHARLES BLOW, NY TIMES
Around the corner came a little golden ball of sunshine named Madison, dressed head to toe in pink, hair arranged in Afro puffs, one wrist covered in turquoise beaded bracelets, arms opened wide. She wrapped those arms around a teacher’s legs, hugged them close and looked up with the kind of smile that sets the world right.
Madison is 4 years old. She is happy and thriving. This is her second year of Head Start in the basement of a building that houses the poor and homeless in one of Manhattan’s poorest neighborhoods.
I met Madison and 50 other little rays of hope at the Dorothy Day Apartments on Riverside Drive in West Harlem. The building is the sixth in the neighborhood run by Broadway Housing Communities, and the first to include a day care center serving both the building and the community. This former drug den is not only beautiful, but it also pulses with pride and hope and happiness.
It’s just what I needed to see. Writing about children and the poor and the vulnerable these days, there aren’t very many bright spots — but this is one.
The children are bathed by natural light that floods into the basement through skylights. The floors are covered by beautiful green ceramic tile made to look like slate. The walls are painted a sunrise yellow, lined with thick wooden moldings and covered with well-framed pieces of art — some by the children, some donated. The courtyard, which had been filled with six feet of garbage, is covered with mats and used as an area where wee little legs that barely have kneecaps can be folded into funky shapes for daily yoga.
Above the day care center are six floors of housing for 190 people, more than half of whom are children and all of whom were either homeless or in extreme poverty. Many of the adults are the hardest cases: those recovering from drug addiction, those with chronic diseases like H.I.V. and those with mental disabilities. In fact, most of the adults suffer from some form of disability.
And on the top floor is an art gallery that opens onto a sweeping veranda, lined with flowering plants and with some of the most magnificent Hudson River views in the city.
It is easy to forget that you’re in a low-income housing building. The administrators joked often when I was there about the chic woman who had jumped out of a cab and inquired about rents because she wanted a river view, only to be told to her befuddlement that the building was for the poor. “She was shocked,” they chuckled.
There are no security guards. There is no commotion. There are no signs of institutional living like names above doors. There isn’t even so much as a crayon mark on any of the walls. This is an oasis of civility and tranquility and culture inhabited — and to some degree, self-policed — by people whom the world would rob of those dignities.
So why so much emphasis on beauty and art, I asked?
One administrator responded resolutely: “You don’t just give a person four walls to live in. You give them something to be inspired by.”
Ellen Baxter, the founder and executive director of Broadway Housing Communities, an unassuming woman whose braided ponytail swept the middle of her back, chimed in that “art and nature show the other side of poverty.” She continued, “Poverty denigrates people and dehumanizes people.”
Another administrator said that the environment helped to “stabilize the parents to provide a platform for the children.” And those children, she said, can create “pathways out of poverty” for the whole family.
As Lady Bird Johnson once famously said, “Where flowers bloom, so does hope.”
The administrators talk a lot about community and citizenship and the building being a village of people supporting and protecting each other, and it strikes me how apropos the village metaphor is.
They have taken the most extreme cases, given them a warm, safe, stable and, yes, beautiful place to live, while treating them with dignity and respect. And the transformations of the adults, and, more important, the outcomes for the children have been incredible.
The Dorothy Day Apartments have been open since 2003, and they have had no arrests and no teenage pregnancies, unless you count the girl who was pregnant when she moved in.
Most of the children went through the Head Start program in the basement, which now mostly serves the surrounding community. None of the children have dropped out of school. A handful have even earned scholarships to the city’s better private schools. Of the 10 children who have graduated from high school, eight have gone on to college and one has just graduated from college. (None of the adults in the building have ever been to college.)
The building runs mentoring programs and literacy programs and English as a second language programs. It maintains a computer lab and this week launched a partnership with what is essentially an international, Internet-based book club for boys in the building. (The girls’ group will begin next week.) It’s fantastic.
I know what you’re asking now, because it’s the same thing I asked: how much does something like this cost, because it sounds too good to be true?
Well, the cost of the building plus renovations was $17 million. So if it houses 190 people, that works out to about $89,500 a person, not including most of the children served by the day care center.
But let’s put that into the context of prison construction, for instance. According to the New York State Commission of Correction, 1,000 new jail beds will have been built between the end of 2007 and the end of 2011 in the counties of Albany, Essex, Rensselaer and Suffolk at a cost of $100,000 per bed.
Furthermore, as Broadway Housing Communities points out on its Web site, “permanent supportive housing for an individual costs taxpayers $12,500 annually, compared to annual costs of $25,000 for an emergency shelter cot; $60,000 for a prison cell; and $125,000 for a psychiatric hospital bed.”
In the long run it’s a bargain and builds more productive citizens — starting with little girls like Madison who bring the sunshine into the basement.
Recently, United Way was approached by DonorsChoose.org with an exciting opportunity that we would like to share with you – and make $7,500 available to worthy education projects in our community.
DonorsChoose.org is an online charity that makes it easy for people to help meet classroom needs and/or support classroom projects all across the country. And, thanks to a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, DonorsChoose.org is partnering with local businesses and civic organizations to fund classroom projects in Hillsborough County.
Our United Way has agreed to help distribute these electronic gift cards to the public. The eCards are absolutely free to you. The only restrictions are that they need to be redeemed online before April 11, 2011, and that they have to be used to support classroom projects from Hillsborough County Schools as per the Gates Foundation, who provided the grant for the program. The first 300 people signing up will receive a $25 eCard to use for educational programs at local classrooms. You get to choose the school and program.
To get one of the eCards (sent to you via email) all you need to sign up with our Raise Your Hand for Education initiative. This campaign is uniting people from all walks of life to show their support of Tampa Bay kids learning and earning their high school diplomas. United Way believes education is the best path out of poverty and recognizes that everyone in the community should have the opportunity to get more kids through school and to high school graduation.
To sign up go to www.UnitedWayTampaBay.org/pledge It takes about three minutes to sign up and pledge your support for education. By signing up, you will receive periodic information and recommendations on how you can tutor, mentor and volunteer to help students throughout Tampa Bay. As well, you could even win an iPad for signing up!
After enrolling, you will receive a confirmation and within a few days, you’ll receive an email with the DonorsChoose.org eCard.
To use the gift eCard:
1) Visit: www.donorschoose.org/hillsborough2011.
2) Enter the code you receive in your email.
3) Choose a classroom project to support.
Remember, be sure to spend your gift card before it expires on April 11, 2011.
On behalf of United Way of Tampa Bay, DonorsChoose.org and the Gates Foundation, we are thanking all who participate!
On March 31, United Way is asking America to do just that. We’re hosting the United Way Education Town Hall (10 am – noon ET). We’ll have a live conversation – online and offline – with hundreds of Americans who care about education. We’ll join parents, students and teachers to talk with national education leaders, including U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, at Trinity Washington University in Washington, DC.
The conversation will kick off the national report we’re unveiling, Voices for the Common Good: America Speaks out on Education, which will contain findings from a listening tour of communities across the country, focus groups and a national survey on education. We’ll also talk about what United Way could do in response, especially in terms of recruiting people with the passion and commitment to make a difference.
Hosted by CNN’s Soledad O’Brien, the Education Town Hall will be a chance for anyone to be part of this conversation. The event will be webcast at the town hall website, but you can join the conversation in progress! Visit the United Way Town Hall website.
United Way’s Response to the Recent Earthquakes and Tsunamis in Japan and the Pacific
The hearts and minds of the United Way movement around the world are with the people of Japan. With communications disrupted by the disaster, we were finally successful on March 12 in connecting with Central Community Chest of Japan. They are safe, but they have not been able to contact all of the local Community Chests in disaster-stricken areas. Central Community Chest of Japan is convening local Community Chests to create one central fund and are collaborating with government, local businesses and other nonprofits to coordinate response on the ground.
As soon as we have solid information about the central fund, we will immediately provide this information to the United Way network. We are not activating the United Way Worldwide disaster fund but will direct to the local fund. The Community Chest of Korea has already committed $500,000.
Here are the ways we are helping now:
• United Way Worldwide is planning to create an electronic link for the disaster relief fund; stay tuned to this website for more information as it develops;
• For the time being, United Way’s existing International Donor Advised Giving (IDAG) Program provides an immediate opportunity for individuals or organizations wanting to make donations to disaster efforts of greater than $5,000 – click here for more information;
• As there are hidden costs and complications associated with contributions of goods or services, we are discouraging unsolicited product donations;
• Those trying to locate U.S. citizens living or traveling in Japan are directed to contact the U.S. Department of State, Office of Overseas Citizen Services toll free from within the U.S. at +1.888.407.4747, from outside the U.S. at +1.202.647.5225 or on their website
We’ll keep you posted as more information is available and follow us on Facebook and Twitter.
It is a simple thing. Just raising your hand to show you believe in something. It is a moving gesture that shows initiative, courage and commitment. And through the Internet, you can symbolically raise your hand to support education with a few keyboard clicks.
United Way is strategically focused on providing vital, strategic programming to help children and youth attain success in school. Our goal is to see ninety percent of our kids graduate from high school in 2019. We are creating and supporting community efforts to give our kids the best resources and support to achieve this goal.
United Way of Tampa Bay is asking “do you believe in the importance of education?” We are asking people like you to stand tall and raise your hand. Show that education is essential to the future of your family, our community, the state and the nation. Education is the single, best way to create self-sufficient citizens and families in the future.
You can take the pledge online and show your support of education by clicking on this ONLINE PLEDGE link. What does the pledge include? Here is the checklist of our pledge program:
I believe that education is a building block for a good quality of life, that we all win when a child succeeds in school. I believe that the success and vitality of our community depends on how well we educate our children today.
I believe that every child deserves great schools and great teachers, but they alone are not enough. I believe it also takes strong families, a stable home life, good health, and supportive communities.
I believe that high school dropouts are years in the making and that early intervention is the key to success. I want every child in Tampa Bay to enter school ready to learn, read proficiently by 4th grade, make successful transitions to middle school and to high school, and graduate from high school on time.
I believe in the power of parents and family members, teachers, students, businesses, human service systems, civic associations, faith-based organizations, elected officials, and members of the community, working together for the common good.
I believe in making choices based on sound research.
I believe the time to stand up and LIVE UNITED for Education is now – for our kids, our community and our country.
Therefore, I raise my hand for education in support of our community’s efforts to ensure that all children grow into successful adults.
We promise to periodically update you with news and information on activities and events, statistics, volunteer projects and other ways you can stay connected to the positive ways we can keep kids in school and moving toward graduation. And, if you work or live in Hillsborough or Pinellas Counties and sign our pledge, you will be entered to win an Apple iPad!
