Chattanooga Promise Zone (CPZ)

The Ochs Center research on education and early childhood intervention was the basis for a proposal to create the Chattanooga Promise Zone. The Community Foundation was the lead applicant for the Promise Neighborhood grant, in partnership with Hamilton County, the City of Chattanooga, the Hamilton County Department of Education, the Chattanooga Housing Authority and more than fifty other nonprofit organizations.

The Chattanooga Promise Zone (CPZ) will focus on neighborhoods in Hamilton County within the City of Chattanooga that cover the 'River to Ridge' area - bounded by the Tennessee River and Missionary Ridge. With approximately 14% of the county's population and home to 11,000 young people, this area has the highest concentrations of poverty in Hamilton County.

CPZ will develop locally defined community support project indicators, building upon neighborhood level data already collected by the Ochs Center for Metropolitan Studies - a Chattanooga-based non-profit organization that conducts independent data analysis and policy research. It will also link those indicators with school based data systems - including those used for the Tennessee Value Added Assessment System. Finally, CPZ will regularly use data for continuous improvement through a CPZStat process.

Related Link: Chattanooga Times Free Press article on the Chattanooga Promise Zone