Promise Neighborhood project has leader

September 13, 2011 at 3:44AM

Angelique Kedem has been named the new director of the St. Paul Promise Neighborhood initiative. She bested more than 70 candidates and will replace Hamilton Bell, who resigned in July to become principal of a school in the city.

Kedem has spent the past six years leading the implementation of systemwide reforms in Minnesota's juvenile justice system and jurisdictions across the country. She has managed collaborative programs and led stakeholders in planning, logistics and implementation of programs that transform and improve the lives of youths, according to a statement on the program's website.

Kedem, who lives in St. Paul, will begin her new job Oct. 3.

The Promise Neighborhood project began this month when St. Paul received $750,000 in local and federal grants to flood a 250-block area around two low-performing elementary schools with educational, social, medical and municipal services.

The schools, Jackson and Maxfield, are in the Frogtown and Summit-University neighborhoods, among the poorest areas of St. Paul.

A forum on the Promise Neighborhood initiative will be held Sept. 22 from 5:15 to 7 p.m. at the Lao Family Community of Minnesota, 320 W. University Av., St. Paul. Kedem and members of the group's advisory board will on hand.

DAAREL BURNETTE II

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