GULFPORT, MISS. — In its continuing commitment to help the City of Gulfport rebuild, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation has awarded city leaders a $108,000 grant to support the City’s earlier public design workshops known as charrettes, which produced the Smart Code master plan to guide the redevelopment and revitalization of Gulfport.

In February, as follow-up to the October charrette, the Governor’s Commission on Recovery, Rebuilding and Renewal — co-funded by a $1 million Knight Foundation grant — Gulfport hosted a six-day “Rebuilding and Planning Workshop” to focus specifically on the City’s needs. 

“The City is extremely grateful to Knight Foundation for all they have done and continue to do to help South Mississippi recover from Hurricane Katrina,” Mayor Brent Warr said.  “Thanks to the Mississippi Renewal Forum and the City’s planning workshops, we have conceptual plans to rebuild a bigger and better Gulfport, and I cannot thank Knight Foundation enough for their recognition of our efforts and their generous financial contribution towards our charrette process.”

“What we’re really investing in are the people of the Mississippi Gulf Coast. They have shown time and again since Hurricane Katrina took its devastating toll, that they have the resilience and the will to rebuild their communities better than ever,” said Beverly Blake, regional program director for Knight Foundation.

The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation promotes journalism excellence worldwide and invests in the vitality of U.S. communities, including the Mississippi Gulf Coast, where the Knight brothers owned newspapers. For more, visit www.knightfdn.org.