Two L.A. nonprofits get $500,000 each in grants to create programs for low-income and minority students
Two Los Angeles nonprofit groups have received $500,000 each in federal grants to create programs modeled on a high-profile Harlem effort to help low-income and minority students from cradle through college, federal officials announced Tuesday.
The federal “Promise Grants” are an anti-poverty and education-reform initiative in one, an approach many experts applaud but also say is expensive, with goals that are difficult to achieve.
The grants will go to the Youth Policy Institute, based in Los Angeles, and Proyecto Pastoral at Dolores Mission in Boyle Heights. The funds are for planning a broad-based, community initiative that would emulate the Harlem Children’s Zone project of Geoffrey Canada.
The zone covers a 97-block area of Manhattan and has a $48-million budget, or about $5,000 per child annually, not including government funding for schools that substantially surpasses education spending in California. Mothers can begin to participate in its programs when they are pregnant, and services follow their children throughout their education.
The two L.A. organizations will be in the running next year for federal grants of $10 million to $20 million; but ultimately the effort, if it follows the Harlem model, will depend on private funding and a more effective use of government funding for schools.
All told, federal officials handed out planning funds to 21 groups, including a Boys & Girls Club, universities, a housing organization and healthcare nonprofits in areas from New York City to the Northern Cheyenne Reservation in Montana.
Start your day right
Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
