Promise Neighborhoods Competition Draws "Tremendous Response"

Secretary of Education Arne Duncan announced today that approximately 339 organizations electronically submitted applications for Promise Neighborhoods planning grants. The final number will be determined following a tabulation of any additional paper applications received by the Department.

The $10 million available in first-year funding for Promise Neighborhoods will support up to 20 organizations with one year of funding to plan for the implementation of cradle-to-career services designed to improve educational outcomes for students in distressed neighborhoods. The application deadline was June 28.

“The response from neighborhoods around the country to this opportunity is tremendous,” U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said. “Promise Neighborhoods brings all of the Department's strategies together—high-quality early learning programs, high-quality schools, and comprehensive supports to ensure that students in some of our most challenged communities are safe, healthy and successful."

Promise Neighborhoods is based on the experience of programs such as the Harlem Children's Zone, which provide a comprehensive set of academic programs, and family and community supports that dramatically improve students' academic outcomes. Under Promise Neighborhoods, nonprofits and institutions of higher education are eligible for one-year grants supporting the design of comprehensive community programs with great schools at the center.

Applications will be reviewed this summer by independent expert reviewers selected from a pool of impartial and qualified educators, researchers, social entrepreneurs and community development practitioners. In September, the Department will announce up to 20 planning grants of up to $500,000. The applications submitted to the Department are for projects serving urban neighborhoods, rural areas and tribal communities.

The competition for planning grants to develop Promise Neighborhoods is the first step in a multiyear process. President Obama's fiscal 2011 budget includes $210 million to support five-year grants to implement plans to offer comprehensive services and to support planning grants in additional communities.

Additional information about the Promise Neighborhoods planning grant applicants will be posted soon on data.ed.gov, a new website that will allow the public to view detailed information on all Promise Neighborhoods applicants and run customized reports and summary analyses on subsets of applicants. The website currently has similar data available for almost 1,700 applicants to the Investing in Innovation program.

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