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FSA gears up for new programs May. 31, 2015 @ 06:42 PM Katie Jansen ORANGE COUNTY — Armed with $90,000 from the Orange County social justice fund and inspired by a recent trip to New York City to learn from a successful anti-poverty organization, the Family Success Alliance is preparing to launch its first two programs to help area children succeed. The Family Success Alliance, geared toward creating a pipeline that supports children from the cradle all the way to college or a career, plans to fund two “zone navigator” positions to be filled by people from each pilot zone chosen for the program. The two pilot zones – referred to as Zones 4 and 6 – are east of I-40 and part of Chapel Hill and Carrboro, respectively. Colleen Bridger, health director at the Orange County Health Department, said the zone navigator is meant to be a “bi-directional navigator,” meaning that the navigator will both help families connect to services already available and report back about what additional services are needed. The Family Success Alliance will also implement a kindergarten readiness program – a four-week program available to children who have never been to preschool. The program will help children adjust to being in a classroom, Bridger said. Representatives of the Family Success Alliance recently visited the Harlem Children’s Zone, an organization that works to break the cycle of poverty for children in New York City. Now a national model for other organizations and serving more than 12,000 kids, the Harlem Children’s Zone started small – with a one-block pilot zone in the 1990s. “I was struck by how, even 20 years into the project, there’s this scrappiness in the ‘do whatever it t akes’ mentality,” Bridger said, adding that she feels this is what sets the Harlem Children’s Zone apart from other organizations. Although Bridger said she learned a lot by visiting various services and programs offered by the Harlem Children’s Zone, she sees the Family Success Alliance taking a slightly different approach. While the Harlem Children’s Zone is primarily a self-enclosed entity that offers services to its youth, the Family Success Alliance plans to partner with resources and services that already exist in the community. “Here in Orange County, we’re fortunate to have a lot of resources,” Bridger said. This, she said, could counteract the fact that the Family Success Alliance doesn’t have a large budget or startup grants for funding.