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Kenny Gamble Spearheads Philly Neighborhood Initiative

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - The city's Grays Ferry and Point Breeze neighborhoods are using a federal grant to draw up a plan to transform their neighborhoods.

They call it a "cradle to career" concept: a neighborhood where children get early childhood support, quality schools, and a path to a career.

Music producer and educator Kenny Gamble's Universal Companies is one of  21 groups nationwide to have won a half-million-dollar federal grant to plan what are being called "Promise Neighborhoods."

Jim Helman, with the Grays Ferry Partnership, was delighted.

"We have a chance, a rare chance, to change the lives of our children and youth, their families, and our community for the better -- forever," he said today.

Universal has to submit its plan to the feds by September.  The US Department of Education will decide which plans are worth more funding to help turn the plans into reality.

Reported by Mike DeNardo, KYW Newsradio 1060.

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