MIAMI — Continuing its commitment to the residents of the Mississippi Gulf Coast affected by Hurricane Katrina, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation has awarded $170,000 in grants to grassroots organizations helping immigrants join with the rest of the community to have a voice in the rebuilding process.

The investments are part of Knight Foundation’s $6 million American Dream Fund, which supports local groups in Knight communities helping immigrants become engaged members of society, and helps them link to national and state organizations working on public policy changes.

The grants support three groups working in the Biloxi area, targeting in particular the growing Vietnamese and Latino populations. The grantees are:

• The Mississippi Immigrant Rights Alliance (MIRA!), $50,000 over two years. MIRA! has been at the forefront of efforts to assist immigrant victims in Hurricane Katrina as well as protect the rights of immigrant workers who are part of the rebuilding effort. Knight’s funding will support outreach to immigrant communities.
• Boat People SOS Inc., $50,000 over two years. Boat People SOS is a 26-year-old national community-based organization supporting the Vietnamese immigrant population. Knight’s funding enables the group to establish a Mississippi Gulf Coast office, which will assist Southeast Asian hurricane victims who, for linguistic and cultural reasons, have difficulty accessing services and participating in civic discussion. The group will also work to develop a citizenship and integration program.   
• National Alliance of Vietnamese American Service Agencies (NAVASA), $70,000 over two years. NAVASA, a national organization, will use Knight funding to help Vietnamese residents work with the broader community in efforts to rebuild Biloxi. The group will in turn re-grant $20,000 of Knight’s funds to the East Biloxi Center, which has been key in meeting residents’ needs in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

The American Dream Fund grants, which were first awarded in December of last year to groups in 14 of the 26 communities where Knight Foundation works, are scheduled to be given semi-annually to help immigrants in those communities become active civic participants. But Knight made an exception and expedited the grant awards to meet Biloxi’s urgent needs.

“We knew we had to make these grants now. If Biloxi is going to rebuild the fabric of community, everyone must be included. And that doesn’t only mean making sure people have a place to sleep and food to eat. It also means making sure everyone has a say and a stake in the new Biloxi that will emerge,” said Beverly Blake, Knight’s interim program director for Biloxi.

Knight Foundation gave more than $2 million in aid to Biloxi in the weeks following the hurricane. One million dollars formed half the funding for the Governor’s Commission on Recovery, Rebuilding and Renewal. The work of the commission — including a series of an intensive public design workshops — has resulted in a detailed plan offering 200 separate recommendations for rebuilding the Gulf Coast. Knight Foundation continues to help spearhead the implementation efforts. Another $1 million was split between first responders, the American Red Cross and The Salvation Army.

Knight Foundation’s American Dream Fund strives to make certain that hard-working, tax-paying immigrant families achieve the American Dream of economic self-sufficiency and individual liberty, and to ensure that they enjoy basic human rights — freedom to hope and freedom from fear. The fund is the local component of Knight’s $13.5 million Immigration Integration Initiative, which is managed by the foundation’s National Venture Fund and aims to welcome newcomers into American life by encouraging civic participation, naturalization, voting and education. To learn more, visit www.knightfdn.org/immigrants.

While Knight Foundation is the sole contributor to the American Dream Fund, the foundation coordinates its broader immigrant strategy with other funding partners, including Carnegie Corp. of New York, Ford Foundation, Open Society Institute, Joyce Foundation and the Evelyn & Walter Haas, Jr. Fund. National nonprofit groups supported by Knight in its work to increase immigrant civic participation are the 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 journalism excellence worldwide and invests in the vitality of Biloxi and 25 other U.S. communities where its founders owned newspapers. Visit www.knight.org to learn more.