MIAMI – Boosting its commitment to help immigrants become engaged members of society, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation will use a new $6 million American Dream Fund over the next four years to support local organizations that serve and advocate for immigrants.
In at least a dozen of the U.S. communities where Knight serves as a funder, the American Dream Fund will be the local component of the foundation’s $13.5 million Immigrant Integration Initiative. The project aims to welcome newcomers into American life by encouraging civic participation, focusing in particular on naturalization and English language proficiency. The new fund will help link local immigrant groups to national and state organizations working on public policy change.
“Our goal is to make certain that hard-working, tax-paying immigrant families achieve the American Dream of economic self-sufficiency and individual liberty, as well as ensuring that immigrants enjoy basic human rights – freedom to hope and freedom from fear,” said Lisa Versaci, director of Knight’s National Venture Fund, which oversees the fund.
“Through the American Dream Fund, we want to ensure that organizations servicing immigrants in Knight communities have the operating support they need to increase civic participation and also are part of a broad national effort to affect policy change,” said Versaci.
The fund will be administered by Public Interest Projects, New York-based philanthropy advisers with a deep expertise in the area of immigration. Knight’s local advisory committees will recommend potential grantees for the fund. Applications to the American Dream Fund will be by invitation.
“All policies affecting immigration are made at the federal level, but they have a huge impact at the local level. Local groups need to have a way to communicate to national advocacy groups, and national groups need to hear what they have to say,” said Michele Lord, program manager at Public Interest Projects.
The American Dream Fund will begin awarding grants by the end of 2005, beginning with the 12 Knight communities that have the largest foreign-born populations or have experienced the most rapid growth in their immigrant populations. Those cities are: Boulder, Colo.; Charlotte, N.C.; Detroit; Fort Wayne, Ind.; Lexington, Ky.; Long Beach and San Jose, Calif.; Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties, Fla; Philadelphia; St. Paul, Minn.; and Wichita, Kan. One to two grants will be awarded to each of the 12 communities in 2005. Grants will generally range from $20,000 to $25,000 per year for a two-year period.
Knight Foundation is the American Dream Fund’s sole contributor. However, Knight coordinates its broader immigrant strategy with several funding partners: Carnegie Corp. of New York, Ford Foundation, Open Society Institute and Joyce Foundation. Other national groups supported by Knight in its work to increase civic participation of immigrants are National Immigration Forum, Center for Community Change, National Council of La Raza and Hispanics in Philanthropy.
The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation promotes excellence in journalism worldwide and invests in the vitality of 26 U.S. communities.