This summarizes an initiative in Charlotte called the Empowerment Zone. The zone is located at the Pressley Ridge Apartments and brings together non-profits to provide resources like education, parenting classes, and summer programs directly in the community. The goal is to help families succeed by focusing aid where they live, rather than asking them to travel for services. Partnerships between charities, businesses, schools and the city are seen as key to expanding this model to other disadvantaged neighborhoods.

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3. . DAVID T. F0STER lll - dtfoster@charlotteobservercarm
Iirtor Courtney Enos helps Cierra_Clawson,lo, with her homework at the Gharlotte
Empowerment Zone at the Frcssley Ridge Apartments.
EMPOWERMENT their home and their commu- as Urban Restoration, are of-
ffi from 18
bold initiative our eity needs."
NeXus has crafted s.ix pro-
grams for Pressley Ridge, in-
cluding day care/preschool ed-
ucation, sulnmer school and
even parent training.
Noah Manyika is the found-
er of NeXus, and his dream is
for the success in Pressley
Ridge to prompt nonprofits to
create zones in all of Char-
lotte's troubled areas.
"Money will always be in
short supply for the schools, so
we need to ask ourselves as a
society: Are we going to just
give up, or are we going to start
tryrngto do things differently?"
he says. "How about instead of
asking the child to come to us
for help, we focus resources on
nity, to make sure it is support-
ive of goals in the schools?"
The k*y to making the zones'
work, he says, is forging part-
nerships between charities,
businesses, the faith communi-
ty and government agencies. ,
Among the first of those'col-
laborations was an arrange-
ment with Pressley Hdge
whose 1,500 tenants include 31
homeless families transferred
last year from the Hall House
temporary shelter"
Pressley Ridge has given
NeXus the use of lwo adjoining
apartments for meetings.
Property manager Amber
Thompson says a third will
soon be added to handle grow-
ing attendance.
-*fhat
tells me this is worh
ing," she says, "ft's woirderfiJl."
Other local nonprofits, such
fering aid through program-
rning for parents.
NeXus also has reached out
to the public schools through
Sugar Creek Charter School, to
become thenextlinkin the eln-
powerment zone chain;
Frank Martin is both a foun-
ding board member of the
school and a supporter of the
empowerment zone effort. He
says Sugar CreelCs involve-
ment is stillbeing explored, but
one idea is to create a "fun"
summer school program to be
offered both at the school and
at Pressley Ridge. He'd like to
see it start in 2011.
n'I would hope that the
school would be a catalyst for
other schools," he says, "just
like Pressley Ridge will be a
catalyst for other neighbor-
hoods""