Education is Important to Canada, Geoffrey Canada

They say you can never forget where you come from.

Geoffrey Canada surely didn't. The Harlem native, born January 13, 1952, returned home in 1983 to help underprivileged children in Harlem.

He first started working with the Rheedlen Institute's Truancy Prevention Program, which was geared on children between five and 12 years old who were abused.

Canada was named President of Rheedlen in 1990 and expanded the program and renamed it the Harlem's Children Zone. The program covered 97 blocks and offered tutoring, recreational skills and community outreach programs.

The program has continued to expand throughout the past several years and in 1997 was up to 11 sites throughout Manhattan and in 2009, President Obama chose to copy 20 sites off of the Harlem Children's Zone foundation throughout the U.S.

In 2011, Canada was named one of Time's Top 100 people for his work with the Harlem Children's Zone.

Canada at the 7th Annual Common Sense Media Awards

More information on the 60-year-old Harvard graduate can be found on Biography's website.

Information for this article was found on Harlem's Children Zone's website, Time, Biography, and The New York Times. 


These sites were chosen because they are either, major news outlets that are reputable or sites directly associated with Geoffrey Canada so the information on the site should be correct and up-to-date.