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Home  About Us History
| History | | |  In 1971, Centers for New Horizons (aka Centers) was founded to operate 5 newly constructed "day care" centers built by the Chicago Housing Authority (CHA). The State had asked Chicago Commons (a 100 year old social agency in Chicago) to operate the centers, but Chicago Commons’ executive director Frank Seever advocated strongly that persons of African American descent should operate the new sites. He reached out to Dr. Sokoni Karanja, who had recently completed his dissertation research in Tanzania. Informed by this and other experiences, Karanja, et al founded the newly organized agency on two core ideas: that 1) low income children of African American descent can learn at high levels, and 2) culture is the key to the healthy development of children, families, and communities of African descent in providing the values, traditions and shared history that builds a strong sense of identity and purpose.
From 1971 to 1973, five centers were built on the sites of public housing projects in Bronzeville. The Edison L. Hoard Center, named for Centers’ first chair and strong supporter, opened in Robert Taylor Homes. This was followed by centers in Robert Taylor South, Ida B. Wells Homes, Stateway Gardens, and an infant toddler center in Washington Park Homes. A sixth site, James Pitts was opened to serve children 3-5 years of age in Head Start.
These first centers embodied the two founding principles, ones that remain central to Centers’ work today: - The curriculum is research based and culturally responsive, taught by highly qualified teachers and staff who deeply believe that all children can learn at high levels.
- Culture is foundational. At Centers for New Horizons, all are taught to live through a set of traditional African values that are truly universal – such as community unity, collective work, and economic cooperation. Alongside national holidays, Centers celebrates Kwanzaa, Juneteenth, the birthdays of Gwendolynn Brooks and Malcolm X. Children and youth learn about African and African American s/heroes; staff read and discuss classics of the African diaspora.
 In addition to the first early learning centers, a grant funded by the New World Foundation provided three community organizers to build parent participation in the centers and in the community. Parent Policy Councils were subsequently organized that provided parents a voice in hiring, curriculum and other aspects of center governance and management. By the end of 1973, Centers was serving over 500 children with a staff of over 100 people, of whom 70% were community residents. Later in 1982, at the request of the United Way of Chicago , Centers assumed operations of an early learning center in Altgeld Gardens, a far south side community.
In the late ‘70’s Parent Council members asked Centers for New Horizons to expand its programs, to help families better address economic and parenting needs. Through a new Health and Human Services division, Centers added counseling, foster care, a food co-op and a Family Development Institute, a “school” for parents that taught nutrition and fitness, home management, parenting and discipline, and how to get and keep jobs. Health outreach and senior outreach programs followed. At the same time, Centers added culturally-responsive programs to encourage school aged children to stay in and succeed in school and for nearly ten years ran its own school, First Cataract. And in response to growing family economic stresses, Centers ran a food co-op for several years as well as a community development corporation, Ahkenaton.
By the late ‘80’s, with growing community needs and finite resources, Centers turned more centrally to the strategy of developing partnerships, rooted in its conviction that the African American community has within itself the capacity to heal and build, and that, while investments from outside the community are needed, they should be guided by the community. From this principle, Centers helped organize: - The GREAT Coalition (1982), a group of community institutions and leaders who sought to build community capacity for collective action;
- The South Side Partnership (1989), a group of community, banking, and philanthropic leaders that leveraged millions of dollars of community investment, including a facelift of King Drive that extends into to China Town;
- The Mid South Planning and Development Commission (1992), which grew out of a community plan spearheaded by the South Side Partnership;
- Parent Power (1989), engaging hundreds of Bronzeville parents in the successful campaign for school reform legislation;
- The Wells Community Initiative (1989), an effort to build a healthy, participatory community within the Ida B. Wells Homes;
- The Grand Boulevard Youth Consortium (1994), a collaborative of organizations that sought to strengthen the community’s response to children and youth;
- The Lugenia Burns Hope Center (1995), a leadership development and organizing institute for Bronzeville;
- The Grand Boulevard Federation (1996), a community collaborative that grew out of a State human services delivery re-design project;
- The Phillips Charette (1996), a community collaboration that gained $12 million in capital improvements and new leadership for Wendell Phillips Academy High School; and
- The South Side Credit Union (2003), a community development financial institution that seeks to increase residents’ access to banking, savings, and fair lending services
Over the past decade, while continuing to participate in partnerships, Centers has focused on continuous improvement of its own programs and services. Centers has: - Gained accreditation of the entire organization by the Council on Accreditation (COA);
- Gained National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) accreditation of six of its early learning centers, instituting a nationally recognized research based curriculum and adding programs like State Pre-Kindergarten;
- Created employment programs to more directly address families’ economic self-sufficiency needs; and
- Expanded its after school programs, creating the Youth and Family Development Program and, within it, a model “community school” within Wendell Phillips Academy High School.
 With the demolition of the public housing that domiciled so many Centers for New Horizons families, Centers has stepped up its efforts over the past few years to provide stability for families in transition, keeping their early learning centers open by relocating them in schools and other facilities, providing outreach and assistance in maintaining stable housing, and assisting them in finding jobs.
Through the years, Centers for New Horizons has received some affirming accolades for its work. Centers is a past recipient of the Chicago Community Trust’s James Brown IV award and the SaraLee Foundation’s Spirit Award. In 1994, Dr. Karanja received a MacArthur Fellowship for his work in building Centers. In 2005, Centers received the Bank of America Foundation’s Neighborhood Builders Award. Today, Centers continues as a leader on the cutting edge of best practices in education and innovation in community building, focusing in the present and future, as it always has, on building ‘Kujitegumea” or Self-Reliance in the African American community.
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