CHARLESTON PROMISE NEIGHBORHOOD
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Mission Statement
Charleston Promise Neighborhood (CPN) is a 501c3 nonprofit organization that received its IRS nonprofit status in May 2010. Since its founding, the organization has implemented evidence-based, high-quality, impactful programming in some of the toughest schools in Charleston County School District (CCSD) and their surrounding attendance zones. CPN’s mission is “to provide and facilitate comprehensive programs and services that support children, strengthen families, and mobilize residents to action.” Our organization’s vision is that “Charleston Promise Neighborhood is a place where residents are engaged in their community and every child is on track to succeed in life.”
About This Cause
Charleston Promise Neighborhood is a place-based organization pouring its commitment, support, and resources into the under-served community known as “The Neck”, a 5.6 square mile of Charleston County. Our current community demographics reflect the following: • Population. Home to over 25,000—5,000 of whom are children under the age of 18*. • Income. The median annual income of $42,420**, is far less than surrounding counties—Charleston ($63,459), Dorchester ($66,438), and Berkeley ($62,994)—and the state of South Carolina ($52,306). • Poverty. Of people living in poverty in North Charleston, 52.9% are black families (compared with 26.2% of white families), and in Charleston, 43.7% of those living in poverty are black. • Education. More than 25% of residents lack a high school diploma—more than 2 times that of the broader Charleston County area (12%). While startling, these statistics are just that, numbers reflecting our community as it is now, not representative of the transformation within a generation to which CPN has been committed since its inception in 2010. As cited in the Post & Courier, “Quality education and its connection to economic opportunity and growth remain a major battleground for people of color in Charleston”, according to a report released in October 2019, and updated one year later. “Divided by Design: Findings from the American South” is the result of a year-long research project that spans nearly 30 communities across 13 states. It stemmed from E Pluribus Unum, an initiative spearheaded by former New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu. The report includes results from a 1,800-person survey on attitudes on race and class across the 13 Southern states. E Pluribus Unum, meaning “out of many, one” in Latin, studied the intersection of race and class across the South and the opportunity barriers that some Southerners still face. Racial inequities have been “baked into our institution,” Landrieu said, visible through disparate incarceration rates and poor educational and health outcomes. According to the report, race remains “this nation’s most traumatic issue. Legacies of slavery and Jim Crow are visible everywhere you look if you care to look,” Landrieu said. The E Pluribus Unum team met with more than 800 people through one-on-one interviews, small group sessions, and random-sample focus groups to create the report. In addition, researchers conducted focus groups in Charleston with non-college-educated white, black and Latino residents. Members of the black focus group said education was by far a “top priority for building a better future,” according to the report. “The black residents in that group really felt that education was the main way forward, as the investment in supporting strong educational systems for their children … would be critical to shifting the tide on poverty, shifting the tide on life outcomes and economic opportunity outcomes,” said Programs Director Roxanne Franklin Lorio. Conversations surrounding educational equity in Charleston have surged to the forefront in recent years, as the school district grapples with making big decisions aimed at providing more equitable opportunities for all its students. Charleston’s conversation comes amid a broader statewide debate over education reforms, a debate fed in part by The Post and Courier’s five-part series, Minimally Adequate. As widely reported, high-quality Early Childhood education is a critical lever in closing opportunity and achievement gaps, providing a firm foundation for a successful educational career. The Hanover Research Firm evaluated the impact of 4K programming on later elementary school outcomes such as MAP and SC READY test scores, attendance, and discipline. The project’s scope was to examine outcomes for two cohorts of students--those who attended 4K compared with students who did not. Analyses were also conducted that controlled for student poverty to provide a more similar comparison group, as 4K generally serves students from low-income families. Three CPN schools are considered 90/90/90 Schools (i.e., schools with the following characteristics: 90% or more of the students are eligible for free and reduced lunch, 90% of more of the students are members of ethnic minority groups, and 90% or more have not met the district or state academic standards in reading or another area). With this distinction, CPN continually offers benefits to increase students’ likelihood to be prepared and excel, which is why we invest over 75% of our resources and programs into increasing academic and social outcomes for our students. Our programming is modeled after the highly effective Harlem Children’s Zone, a national, evidence-based model for breaking the cycle of poverty in which Education + Family/Community + Health = Results. CPN supports all three of these factors in its designated schools. Focusing on supporting “the Whole Child”, CPN has always been driven by the belief that the success of our children and the strength of the community go hand in hand. Their needs are inseparable and must be addressed together in order to break the cycle of generational poverty and to give our children their shot at the American dream. In turn, CPN provides all of these whole child tenets of service within our schools, ensuring that each child, in each school, in our community is healthy, safe, engaged, supported, and challenged. Although this particular request is for funding to support the educational initiatives within Expanded Learning Time (ELT), School-Day Supports, and Parent & Community Engagement, all of our Programs are detailed below; 1. Expanded Learning Time (ELT)—afterschool & summer academic and enrichment programs for ~50 students/day (~200 pre-COVID) 2. School-Day Supports—CPN-funded resources providing teacher professional development and student field experiences, 3. Parent & Community Engagement—programs and events designed to empower and engage community and families beyond the school day, 4. KidsWell Health & Wellness Clinic—school-based clinics designed to improve student's access to quality healthcare, and 5. (NEW) Mary Ford Early Childhood and Family Engagement Center—an expanded collaboration with CCSD to launch a high-quality, early learning center and to provide support services for families, which will include parenting classes, adult education, health and wellness programs, etc.