Philanthropy at the community level
In this USA Today article, Millionaire Harris Rosen, a white guy from Hell's Kitchen, NY, has quietly transformed Tangelo Park in Orlando, Forida, a once drug-infested, trouble-plagued unincorporated community.
The twin cornerstones of this effort is Rosen's pledge to provide free preschool education for all 2-, 3- and 4-year-old children, and a college education for all high school graduates in Tangelo Park.Rosen's largess has helped turn things around in this community, which has a little more than 2,400 people and is nearly 90% black.
"Government is just too dense, too stupid, too inept to do this," he says. "If Oprah came down here and saw what we're doing, she would do it somewhere. If I could get (NBA Commissioner David) Stern to come here, I think he would get every NBA team involved in a project like ours" in their cities.
Proper education for at-risk youths is a tremendous positive effect. Involvement in local communities by the wealthy and upper middle class is a huge opportunity to turn things around for decades to come.