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Good evening.

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It is such a blessing to work[br]at the Harlem Children's Zone,

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an African-American-led organization[br]that has pioneered the field

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of comprehensive place-based services,[br]from cradle to career.

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And that word, "comprehensive,"[br]is so key to what we do.

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You know, most interventions[br]focus on one piece

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of a complicated, giant puzzle.

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But that's not enough to solve the puzzle.

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You don't solve education[br]without understanding the home context

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or the home environment[br]of our young scholar.

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Or the broader context of health,[br]nutrition or criminal justice.

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The unit of change for us[br]is not the individual child,

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it's the entire neighborhood.

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You have to do multiple things[br]at the same time.

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And we have 20 years of data[br]to prove that this works.

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We've had 7,000 graduates[br]of our baby college,

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we've eliminated the Black-white[br]achievement gap in our schools.

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We've reduced obesity rates[br]in our health programs

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and have close to 1,000 students[br]enrolled in college.

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We weave together[br]a net of services so tightly,

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so that no one will fall[br]through the cracks.

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And we've inspired global practitioners.

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We've had over 500-plus[br]communities across the US

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and 70-plus countries

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come and visit us to learn our model.

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You see, the problems of the globe,[br]and the problems of the world

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are not neatly siloed into buckets.

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So therefore the solutions[br]must be comprehensive,

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they must be holistic.

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And now we're in the midst[br]of a global pandemic.

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COVID-19 has revealed to us[br]what we always knew to be true.

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The poorest among us pay the highest price[br]with their lives and their livelihood.

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And that's playing out every day[br]in the African American community,

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where we're 3.6 times[br]more likely to die of COVID

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than our white counterparts.

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We're seeing those health disparities[br]on the ground in New York City,

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our nation's epicenter.

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And to compound the impact[br]of the health disparities,

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there's significant economic devastation,

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where one in four[br]of our families in Harlem

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report food insecurity,

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and 57 percent report a loss of income[br]or a loss of their job.

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But to better understand the work[br]of the Harlem Children's Zone,

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I want to share a story with you,

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about a second-grade scholar named Sean.

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Sean is a beautiful Black boy

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whose smile would light up[br]any room that he's in.

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And when quarantine began in March,

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we noticed that Sean[br]wasn't attending virtual school.

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And after some investigation,

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we've come to learn that Sean's mom[br]was hospitalized due to COVID.

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So he was at home[br]with grandma and his baby sibling,

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who was his only viable support system,

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since Sean's father is incarcerated.

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Grandma was struggling.

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There wasn't much food in the household,

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limited diapers,

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and Sean didn't even have a computer.

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When mom was released from the hospital,

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their challenges deepened,

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because they could no longer[br]stay with grandma,

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due to her preexisting health conditions.

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So Sean, his baby sibling and his mom[br]had to go to a shelter.

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Sean's story is not atypical[br]at the Harlem Children's Zone.

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We know Sean and millions like him[br]all across the country

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deserve to have everything[br]that this world has to offer,

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without inequality[br]robbing them of that opportunity.

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All the result of racism

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and historical and systemic[br]underinvestment

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are now compounded by COVID-19.

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Our comprehensive model

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uniquely positions the Harlem[br]Children's Zone in the fight of COVID.

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The success that we have[br]on the ground in Harlem

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makes it imperative,

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and it is our responsibility[br]to share what we know works

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with the country.

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We have developed a comprehensive[br]COVID-19 relief and recovery response

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for our community,

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that was surfaced from our community,

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focused on five primary areas of need,

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and already servicing[br]families like Sean's.

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They are the following.

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One, emergency relief funds.

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We know that our families need cash[br]in their hands right now.

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Two, protecting our most vulnerable.

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We know our families need access[br]to essential goods and information.

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So that is food, that's masks,

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that's a curated resource list[br]and public health campaigns.

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Three, bridging the digital divide.

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We believe that internet[br]is a fundamental right.

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So we need to ensure[br]our families have connectivity,

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and also all school-age[br]children in a household

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have the proper learning devices.

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Four, zero learning loss.

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We know that there's a generation[br]of students at risk

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of losing an entire year[br]of their education.

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We need to make sure that we are providing[br]high-quality virtual programing,

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in addition to having safe[br]reentry planned for school reentry.

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And five, mitigating[br]the mental health crisis.

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There's a generation at risk[br]of having PTSD,

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due to the massive amounts[br]of toxic stress.

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We need to ensure that our families[br]have access to telehealth

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and other virtual supports.

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We have six amazing partners[br]across six cities in the United States

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that are adopting our model[br]for their own context in their community.

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They are Oakland, Minneapolis,

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Chicago, Detroit, Newark and Atlanta.

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In addition to those partners,[br]we have three national partners,

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who will be sharing our model[br]and sharing our strategies

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through their network,

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in addition to amplifying our impact[br]by policy advocacy.

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We will have impact on three levels.

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Individual impact on the ground in Harlem,

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across a number of outcomes in education,

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in health, in economics,

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reaching 30,000 people.

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There's community-level impact[br]across six cities,

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again through our amazing partners,

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that will reach an additional[br]70,000 people.

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And then national impact,

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not only through policy advocacy,

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but through capacity building at scale.

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Our answer to COVID-19,

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the despair and inequities[br]plaguing our communities,

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is targeting neighborhoods[br]with comprehensive services.

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We have certainly not lost hope.

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And we invite you to join us[br]on the front lines of this war.

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Thank you.