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Good evening.

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

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an African-American-led organization
that has pioneered the field

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

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

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You know, most interventions
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
without understanding the home context

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or the home environment
of our young scholar.

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

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

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it's the entire neighborhood.

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You have to do multiple things
at the same time.

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

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

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

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We've reduced obesity rates
in our health programs

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

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We weave together
a net of services so tightly,

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so that no one will fall
through the cracks.

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And we've inspired global practitioners.

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We've had over 500-plus
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,
and the problems of the world

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are not neatly siloed into buckets.

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So therefore the solutions
must be comprehensive,

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they must be holistic.

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

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

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

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

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

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than our white counterparts.

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

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our nation's epicenter.

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And to compound the impact
of the health disparities,

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there's significant economic devastation,

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where one in four
of our families in Harlem

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report food insecurity,

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

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But to better understand the work
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
any room that he's in.

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And when quarantine began in March,

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we noticed that Sean
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
was hospitalized due to COVID.

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So he was at home
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
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
had to go to a shelter.

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

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We know Sean and millions like him
all across the country

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deserve to have everything
that this world has to offer,

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without inequality
robbing them of that opportunity.

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All the result of racism

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and historical and systemic
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
Children's Zone in the fight of COVID.

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The success that we have
on the ground in Harlem

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makes it imperative,

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and it is our responsibility
to share what we know works

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with the country.

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We have developed a comprehensive
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
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
in their hands right now.

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Two, protecting our most vulnerable.

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We know our families need access
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
and public health campaigns.

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Three, bridging the digital divide.

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We believe that internet
is a fundamental right.

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So we need to ensure
our families have connectivity,

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and also all school-age
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
of students at risk

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of losing an entire year
of their education.

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

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in addition to having safe
reentry planned for school reentry.

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And five, mitigating
the mental health crisis.

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There's a generation at risk
of having PTSD,

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due to the massive amounts
of toxic stress.

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We need to ensure that our families
have access to telehealth

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and other virtual supports.

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We have six amazing partners
across six cities in the United States

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that are adopting our model
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,
we have three national partners,

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who will be sharing our model
and sharing our strategies

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through their network,

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in addition to amplifying our impact
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
across six cities,

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again through our amazing partners,

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that will reach an additional
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
plaguing our communities,

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is targeting neighborhoods
with comprehensive services.

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We have certainly not lost hope.

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

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Thank you.