This recommendation provides general support for the Harlem Children's Zone. The Harlem Children's Zone is a comprehensive community-building initiative focused on improving outcomes for poor children and their families in Harlem. During the last grant period, the Harlem Children's Zone completed the third/final phase of a nine-year planned expansion aimed at increasing its service area from 60 to 100 blocks and increasing the number of educational programs/services available to zone residents. Recommended support will enable the Harlem Children's Zone to continue efforts to expand its reach to serve more children, build a new K-12 Promise Academy Charter School, advance its early childhood work, and continue the independent evaluation and longitudinal study that document and track success of participants.

This grant will provide general purpose support to Interfaith Funders, a learning community and informal affinity group of grantmakers working to expand sources of support for faith-based community organizing. Interfaith Funders commissions and disseminates research on faith-based community organizing; sponsors workshops, funder briefings, and other learning sessions; and convenes practitioners to consider issues that challenge the field.

This grant will enable Michigan's Children to continue its intermediary efforts via the Improving Outcomes for Out-of-School Youth in Michigan project. As the statewide intermediary for this initiative, Michigan's Children has brought unprecedented attention to the issue of students failing to graduate from high school by working with key state departments, interagency task forces, and communities to assess the current investments and public policies that create barriers or opportunities for young people to complete school. Recommended support will allow Michigan's Children to continue to provide advocacy support and targeted technical assistance to local partnerships across the state interested in advancing strategies to reconnect dropouts to education and/or career training opportunities.