Crystal West, 18 (left) and Princella Walker, 16 with Sharon Adams of the Walnut Way Conservation Corp. in Milwaukee at a conference sponsored by the Harlem Children's Zone. They want to improve their chance to become one of President Obama's Promise Neighborhoods. Beth Fertig

NEW YORK, NY November 11, 2009 —One way that President Obama wants to reduce child poverty is by creating 20 so-called Promise Neighborhoods. These neighborhoods would each offer a network of tightly coordinated health care and education services to serve children from birth through high school. Obama’s concept is modeled after the Harlem Children's Zone, which sponsored a conference this week for people from other cities and towns to learn how to replicate its work. WNYC's Beth Fertig has more.

REPORTER: The Harlem Children’s Zone gets a lot of attention because of its size and scope. The agency serves more than 17,000 children and adults a year in a 100-block area of Harlem. It offers classes for pregnant mothers, intensive pre-school programs and it runs two charter schools. It also has a dynamic president, Geoffrey Canada, who believes too many education programs don’t start early enough.

CANADA : We’ve got lots of kids right now who we know are in trouble and we’re trying to save. And yet if we spend all of our time saving those kids, and no time preventing kids from going into the system that we know is going to destroy them, we will simply always be putting energy into trying to rescue kids.

REPORTER: That focus on prevention is what attracted 1,400 people from non-profits and agencies all over the country to Canada’s conference this week. Sharon Adams had come with 11 other adults and two high school students from Milwaukee.

ADAMS: Our council alderman, our president is here, our member of our board.

REPORTER: Adams works for the Walnut Way Conservation Corporation. She’s already partnering with other local players to replicate what Geoffrey Canada calls a conveyor belt of services from birth through high school.

ADAMS: We have children who are actively engaged in our programs. We have an administrative and political will that wants this to happen. We have an investor who’s a funder who wants this to happen and we’ve completed a quality-of-life plan that has placed education as a top.

REPORTER: Adams hopes that planning will ensure Milwaukee’s selection as one of Obama’s Promise Neighborhoods. Virtually everyone at the conference had the same goal, including Brenda Howerton, a county commissioner from Durham, North Carolina.

HOWERTON: We’re gonna get one of the grants. (Laughs)

REPORTER: Howerton acknowledged the hard work of actually building a Promise Neighborhood would require private companies to match any government grants. But she was equally confident they’d come through.

HOWERTON: We’re just gonna get what we need.

REPORTER: In the middle of a recession?

HOWERTON: You know there’s just no conversation, it’s just gonna happen!

REPORTER: Even without a recession, however, the Harlem Children’s Zone is still a tough act to copy. Geoffrey Canada has built a $75 million annual budget by cultivating big donors on Wall Street, such as the chairman of American Express. Canada is also politically savvy. He’s been a prominent supporter of Mayor Bloomberg’s education policies –- and his agency has received hundreds of millions of dollars in city contracts over the past decade.

But Johnny Dupree, the mayor of Hattiesburg, Mississippi, said smaller communities could still use their own connections.

DUPREE: We still have access to American Express card, I carry an American Express in my wallet. We still have access to Walmart -– we have two Walmarts in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. How about that? We just may not have the access, the immediate access to the president of the company of whatever. But we know people who know people.

REPORTER: And he said those companies have an interest in making sure they have an educated pool of workers and customers in every community. But there are other challenges besides the financing. Building a network of services relies on high-quality staff, especially to prepare young children for school. Conference goers were interested in that.

WOMAN: What actually are the parenting skills that make up the nine month – the nine week curriculum because we’ve looked at research.

REPORTER: The Harlem Children’s Zone also uses data to track which programs are most effective, something that impresses would-be donors. And it runs all of its programs. In other communities, non-profits will have to collaborate in new ways. There are also logistical issues. A woman from the Mississippi Delta drew gasps when she said most of her residents live 45 miles away from a supermarket.

As the conference drew to a close on Tuesday, U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan gave the attendees a bit of a reality check. He said the government would be selective in choosing its first round of Promise Neighborhoods. And he encouraged them to tie their programs to schools.

DUNCAN: So this is not just about a good idea, it’s not just about good will or good intentions.

REPORTER: But right now, the government is only offering a total of 10 million dollars in planning grants, to be divided by 20 communities. There’s no financial commitment beyond that stage. However, non-profit leaders note that the Harlem Children’s Zone also started small. For WNYC I’m Beth Fertig.

For more information visit our news blog.