9/25/09: Please join us for our Annual Luncheon, one of Solid Ground’s most important outreach and fundraising tools, raising critical support for our 30 programs working to end poverty in Seattle/King County. This year's keynote speaker is Geoffrey Canada of the Harlem Children's Zone, Inc. In his 20+ years there, Mr. Canada has become nationally recognized for his pioneering work helping children and families in Harlem and as a passionate advocate for education reform.

Since 1990, Mr. Canada has been the President and Chief Executive Officer for Harlem Children's Zone, which The New York Times Magazine called "one of the most ambitious social experiments of our time." In October 2005, Mr. Canada was named one of "America's Best Leaders" by U.S. News and World Report.

In 1997, the agency launched the Harlem Children's Zone Project, which targets a specific geographic area in Central Harlem with a comprehensive range of services. The Zone Project today covers 100 blocks and aims to serve over 10,000 children by 2011. The New York Times Magazine said the Zone Project "combines educational, social and medical services. It starts at birth and follows children to college. It meshes those services into an interlocking web, and then it drops that web over an entire neighborhood....The objective is to create a safety net woven so tightly that children in the neighborhood just can't slip through."

The work of Mr. Canada and HCZ has become a national model and has been the subject of many profiles in the media. Their work has been featured on "60 Minutes," "The Oprah Winfrey Show," "The Today Show," "Good Morning America," "Nightline," "CBS This Morning," "The Charlie Rose Show," National Public Radio's "On Point," as well in articles in The New York Times, The New York Daily News, USA Today and Newsday. Click here to read more about Geoffrey Canada.

RSVP: Please join us as an individual guest, or consider hosting a table! We will ask for a suggested minimum donation of $150 per person. For more information, or to reserve your spot at the event, please contact Anna Ramos at annar@solid-ground.org or 206.694.6857. To sign up to be a Table Captain, contact Zanne Garland at zanneg@solid-ground.org or 206.694.6862.