| Despite its proximity to Brooklyn, New York's downtown commercial and cultural centers, the borough's Crown Heights neighborhood is among the most underserved areas in New York City. African Americans and German Jews have co-existed in Crown Heights for more than 160 years, but recently the neighborhood has experienced significant changes in its racial and ethnic makeup, as well as its housing and economic well-being. The resulting racial tensions have been blamed for the neighborhood's well-publicized riot in August 1991. Local stakeholders also blame many of Crown Heights' problems on its division, in 1984, into the two geopolitical neighborhoods of North Crown Heights and South Crown Heights. Of the two sections, North Crown Heights is comparatively more disadvantaged in all socioeconomic categories.
The Community Outreach Partnership Center (COPC) at Medgar Evers College (MEC) of the City University of New York will work with its community partners to address critical deficiencies in the Crown Heights neighborhood that transcend the North/South boundaries imposed in 1984. The COPC target area includes neighborhoods along the northern border and western half of Crown Heights North, and along the southwestern boundary of Crown Heights South. Most of the area's poorest residents live in this target area, which suffers from high unemployment and school dropout rates. Only 63 percent of adults over age 25 have a high school diploma and 23 percent live below the poverty line. Eleven percent of the population was unemployed in 1995 and 28.7 percent received some form of public assistance. Critical health issues include alarming rates of sexually transmitted diseases, asthma, tuberculosis, and substance abuse.
COPC initiatives will be carried out through a new MEC program called The Crown Heights Economic Advancement Resource Network (CHEARN). CHEARN, to be established within MEC's Small Business Center, will focus its activities on economic development, neighborhood revitalization, workforce development, youth education, and harm prevention. Partners include MEC faculty and students, local merchant groups, and faith-based economic development agencies. Other partners include the Community District Planning Boards, the Office of the Superintendent of School District 17, the New York City Board of Education, the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce, trade organizations, the United Federation of Teachers, the New York Urban League, the United Way, the New York State Department of Labor, elected officials, and local employers.
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