Geoffrey Canada, president and CEO of Harlem Children’s Zone, spoke at Independent Sector last night. He was awarded the 2009 John W. Gardner Leadership Award “in recognition of his groundbreaking success in helping children and families in Central Harlem to break the cycle of generational poverty.” In a word, he is amazing. Visionary, inspirational, entertaining… a model for all of us. His work with the Harlem Children’s Zone exemplifies an approach that is receiving a lot of attention at this conference, and rightly so: we cannot work in silos, attacking a problem from one angle only. To be truly successful, we need to think much more holistically. It’s not just violence, or hunger, or education, or parenting skills… to address big problems, we need big solutions – solutions that address all elements of life in the community we’re trying to serve. One organization can try to do that alone, but it is in partnership with others that the true potential for greatness lies.
