Harlem Children's Zone comes to Spfld

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (WWLP) - Springfield children may soon participate in an ambitious social experiment.

Local leaders gathered at the Basketball Hall of Fame Wednesday to learn how they can get involved in a highly successful program called Harlem Children's Zone.

Geoffrey Canada founded the program that combines education with social and medical services for under privileged kids. "The problem is children don't come in individual slices. We've got to serve the whole child. We haven't as a field figured out how we serve a whole family so that kids don't slip through the cracks. To do that we decided we'd do a zone approach," he said.

The project currently covers 100 blocks in Harlem and serves more than one thousand children.