One Man's Millions Turn a Community in Florida Around

http://pensacolatoday.com/2015/05/tangelo-parks-lessons-for-pensacola/

by Randy Hammer
May 27, 2015

A couple of decades ago nearly half of the students dropped out of school in Tangelo Park, a community just outside Orlando.

Today, nearly all of Tangelo’s seniors graduate.

An article ran in The New York Times on Monday that profiled how a wealthy Orlando businessman pumped $11 million into the troubled community and created a turnaround that the reporter described as a “striking success story.”

Harris Rosen made his fortune in the hotel businesses and decided 21 years ago to see if he could make a difference Tangelo Park.

Some the key takeaways from the article:

— Nearly all seniors graduate from high school and most go on to college on full scholarships Rosen has financed.
— Young children head to kindergarten ready to learn, and many are reading already because of free day-care centers and a prekindergarten program Rosen also finances.
— Property values have risen in community.
— Crime has plummeted.

Rosen said the program he created in Tangelo Park is rooted in something that’s missing in many U.S. neighborhoods: Hope.

Here’s Rosen’s quote that stood out to me:

“If you don’t have any hope, then what’s the point?”

This reminded me of something Malcolm Thomas said during a CEO roundtable that the Studer Community Institute held in April.

“I used to talk about it’s poverty, poverty,” said Thomas, Escambia County School District superintendent. “I’ve really changed my tune in the last couple of years. Now I’m talking about a culture of low expectations. There are pockets of people in our community who don’t expect to do any better than what they’re currently doing. That is the problem.”

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Tangelo Park, however, is a community of just 3,000 people. And as Alvarez points out, “While heartwarming, can it be replicated?’

The piece that’s particularly relevant for Pensacola is Tangelo Park’s focus on early childhood education, which Thomas and others in Escambia say is critical issue here.

You can read the story here: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/26/us/tangelo-park-orlando-florida.html