About promise neighborhoods
Promise Neighborhoods is a U.S. Department of Education initiative focused on breaking the cycle of inter-generational poverty by significantly improving the educational and developmental outcomes and overall life prospects of children and youth in our most distressed communities. The core idea behind the initiative is that providing both effective schools and strong systems of support to children, youth and their families in poverty and thus meeting their health, social services, and educational needs will offer them the best hope for a better life.
Inspired by Geoffrey Canada’s Harlem Children’s Zone, Promise Neighborhoods take a place-based, data-driven approach to ensuring the long-term success of children, families, and neighborhoods.
In 2012, Promise Heights became a U.S. Department of Education Promise Neighborhood grantee—only one of 50 nationwide—to create a pipeline of integrated and comprehensive services which support children to succeed, thrive, be inspired to stay in school, and aspire to college and career.
In 2018, Promise Heights was further recognized by the U.S. Department of Education and received a $30 million five-year implementation award.
Place-based Solutions for Upton/Druid Heights
Upton/Druid Heights stretches one mile along Pennsylvania Avenue from its intersection at Martin Luther King Boulevard to the northern boundary at North Avenue and eastward to Eutaw Place.
Alongside community residents and partners, we have spent the last decade planning, creating, and implementing a place-based strategy to significantly improve the educational and developmental outcomes of children and families in the West Baltimore neighborhoods of Upton/Druid Heights (U/DH.)
More Resources
Promise Heights awarded a $30M Promise Neighborhood Implementation Grant
The U.S. Department of Education has awarded Promise Heights, an initiative led by the University of Maryland School of Social Work (SSW), a five-year, $30 million grant to continue its efforts to improve the lives of children and families in the West Baltimore neighborhood of Upton/Druid Heights.
U.S. Department of Education — Promise Neighborhoods Resource Center
Promiseneighborhoods.ed.gov is a training and technical assistance center funded by the U.S. Department of Education.
neighborhood data snapshot for Promise Heights - Upton Druid heights
Upton and Druid Heights: Neighborhood History
Upton/Druid Heights is the first African American community in Baltimore. It was Baltimore’s premier African American community replete with jazz clubs, dance halls, theaters, and other hubs of the African-American community and home to educated, professional property owners, including doctors, lawyers, and retailers. The Baltimore chapter of the NAACP was founded there, which was visited by famous leaders of the national civil rights movement such as Booker T. Washington, W.E.B. DuBois, and Marcus Garvey.
This neighborhood was the center of local Civil Rights Movement and was a renowned entertainment district. Churches nurtured many civic institutions such as the YMCA.