Stacy Richardson, Mayor-elect Andy Berke, Travis McDonough and Andrew Kean, from left, stand at a podium during a news conference at the Development Resource Center.A project similar to Mayor Andy Berke’s $250,000 effort to start a baby college in Chattanooga based on Harlem’s cradle-to-college model was attempted four years ago.
A community-led effort known as the Chattanooga Promise Zone was going to target the neighborhood around the Harriet Tubman public housing site to teach parents how to get their kids ready for elementary school and to provide the support inner-city students needed to graduate.
The Ochs Center for Metropolitan Studies showed that in Hamilton County, 25 percent of children are at risk of not being ready for kindergarten.
The Ochs Center generated public support for the idea by holding a forum in 2009 to talk about the program’s model: the Harlem’s Children Zone, a holistic approach to preparing children for graduation starting from the cradle.
Berke’s wife, Monique, who worked for the Ochs Center, said then that she was amazed at the amount of local interest in the idea.