Thursday, February 19, 2015

The Philanthropic Work of Harris Rosen


Once in a while, you stumble upon stories that are truly inspirational. The one with businessman Harris Rosen's philanthropic work falls into that category. By investing money in a drug-infested and violent neighborhood in Florida, the results have been truly amazing:


Twenty years ago, the Orlando, Fla. neighborhood of Tangelo Park was a crime-infested place where people were afraid to walk down the street. The graduation rate at the local high school was 25 percent. Having amassed a fortune from his success in the hotel business, Rosen decided Tangelo Park needed some hospitality of its own.


[…]


Rosen, 73, began his philanthropic efforts by paying for day care for parents in Tangelo Park, a community of about 3,000 people. When those children reached high school, he created a scholarship program in which he offered to pay free tuition to Florida state colleges for any students in the neighborhood.


In the two decades since starting the programs, Rosen has donated nearly $10 million, and the results have been remarkable. The high school graduation rate is now nearly 100 percent, and some property values have quadrupled. The crime rate has been cut in half, according to a study by the University of Central Florida.


Featured image: Taken from the Harris Rosen article in the magazine of the University of Central Florida.

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