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FYI: N.H. EZ Gets CEO
Baltimore's Killins tapped to administer $100 million in federal money to selected city neighborhoods
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Business New Haven
7/26/99
By: Michael C. Bingham
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The chief operating officer of Baltimore's "empowerment zone" has been named chief executive officer of Empower New Haven, the non-profit corporation which will manage an array of public and private investments in the city over the decade to come.
Sherri Killins, the COO of Baltimore's empowerment zone since 1995, will began work in New Haven August 2. The New Haven empowerment zone encompasses an area housing some 50,000 city residents (about 40 percent of the Elm City's population), as well as part of West Haven. The six New Haven neighborhoods included in the target area are Dixwell, Newhallville, West Rock, Dwight as well as portions of the Hill and Fair Haven.
Said Roger Joyce, chairman of the empowerment zone board, "We were seeking an individual whose experience, commitment and enthusiasm would be strong enough to implement a program as complex as ours."
Experience is something Killins would appear to have, having held down the No. 2 slot in a Baltimore EZ that lists among its accomplishments nearly 3,000 jobs created through business expansions and start-ups, more than 3,000 EZ residents placed in jobs, 276 new homeowners assisted through an EZ venture fund and a reported 38-percent reduction in crime within targeted communities.
Before joined the Baltimore EZ, Killins was director of program administration for the Family Preservation Initiative of Baltimore City, where she administered a $4 million budget to provide services to some 400 families and children.
New Haven has drafted a ten-year plan for its empowerment zone which includes four key areas:
o Economic development and jobs. Under the plan, city residents will be trained for jobs and supported with such services as child care and transportation. The plan seeks to forge partnerships with employers and ensure that their employment needs are met.
o Strengthening neighborhoods. The objective is to create safer, more family-friendly communities through a "neighborhood-driven" planning process.
o "Empowering" individuals and families. Promoting quality of life through delivery of services from child care to transportation to substance abuse.
o Education and youth. Improve students' academic performance, encourage greater parental involvement, reduce truancy/dropouts and promote positive youth development.
"The partnerships that are already established [in New Haven] are a wonderful foundation to build on," Killins says. "The challenge will be to stimulate job-creation and create opportunities for individuals to become economically self-sufficient."
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