John Churchill appointed Knight Foundation’s Philadelphia program director

John Churchill seen in a professional photo MIAMI – Knight Foundation is pleased to announce the appointment of John Churchill as the new Philadelphia program director. A lifelong resident of Philadelphia and a strong advocate of democratic values, Churchill brings with him a wealth of experience and expertise in executive leadership. His success and accomplishments in his most recent position as business strategist at WSFS Bank, the largest locally headquartered bank in the greater Philadelphia area, demonstrates his commitment to transforming the city into an exceptional place to live, learn and work.

Across Philadelphia Knight Foundation has played a significant role in fostering a more vibrant and engaged community. Through initiatives such as Reimagining the Civic Commons, the foundation has focused on creating dynamic public spaces that encourage interaction and connection among residents.

“We are thrilled to welcome John as our new Philadelphia program director,” said Kelly Jin, vice president of Community and National Initiatives at Knight Foundation. “His passion for our mission, combined with his business acumen and dedication to the city, will invigorate our work. We look forward to the positive impact he will undoubtedly have on Philadelphia.”

In his new role, Churchill will work toward enhancing the city’s public spaces, amplifying Philadelphia’s economy, and promoting an active public life. He believes in creating an environment that encourages community participation and collaboration. Churchill welcomes the opportunity to partner with local organizations, institutions and individuals who share a vision for a thriving Philadelphia.

John Churchill can be reached at [email protected], and he eagerly anticipates engaging with fellow Philadelphians to learn more about their work and vision for the city.

ABOUT KNIGHT FOUNDATION

We are social investors who support a more effective democracy by funding free expression and journalism, arts and culture in community, research in areas of media and democracy, and the success of American cities and towns where the Knight brothers once published newspapers. KF.org

Miami, FL – Knight Foundation announced new investments in two leading, Miami-based climate-science organizations, Miami Waterkeeper and the Everglades Foundation. This funding will support the growth and impact of both organizations, and expand their capacity to inform residents and accelerate community participation in the development of climate resilience solutions.

Miami is a city uniquely vulnerable to rising sea levels and climate change due to its geographical location and porous limestone foundation. Flooding events have quadrupled over the past three decades, and it is estimated that up to $23 billion of property could be underwater by 2050. Knight’s support aims to ensure that Miami residents are well-informed and actively involved in creating solutions that make the city more resilient, allowing Miami to adapt and thrive.

Miami Waterkeeper advocates on behalf of Miami’s watershed, emphasizing the adaptation to rising seas and maintaining access to fresh water. The Everglades Foundation has been at the forefront of Everglades restoration and climate resiliency solutions across Florida. Both organizations, with grants of $5 million and $3 million respectively, will grow their reach. They will be able to expand their capacity to translate the science they produce into products that are easily understood by residents and create new opportunities for community engagement.

“We are ideally suited to lead climate action with Miami squarely at the center of this global conversation,” said Rachel Silverstein, Miami Waterkeeper’s executive director and waterkeeper. “With a focus on clean water, ecosystem protection, and sea level rise resiliency, we are committed to community outreach and engagement as a key component to addressing the scourge of climate change.”

“The inspiring support of Knight Foundation will help the Everglades Foundation harness the power of new technology to translate our science team’s research into resiliency storytelling that helps decision-makers, teachers, supporters and the public-at-large understand how Everglades restoration is Miami’s most powerful tool in mitigating the harmful impacts of climate change,” said Eric Eikenberg, CEO of the Everglades Foundation. “In addition to protecting our drinking water wells from encroaching saltwater due to sea level rise, a restored Everglades will bolster our coastal mangroves that provide a storm buffer for urban communities. The Everglades wetlands also provide massive carbon sequestration capacity and Everglades restoration is the key to protecting this carbon sink.”

Knight Foundation’s investment in Miami Waterkeeper and the Everglades Foundation reflects its commitment to increasing resident participation in Miami’s vibrant community life. Through these investments, Knight envisions a future where Miami residents, businesses and civic leaders actively collaborate to address the complex challenges of climate change and build a more resilient city.

“When it comes to climate change, every one of us is a stakeholder in the future,” said Raul Moas, senior director at Knight Foundation. “Both Miami Waterkeeper and the Everglades Foundation have been successful in driving solutions, and these funds will empower them to integrate new digital approaches that amplify their impact and foster meaningful community participation in shaping climate solutions.”

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Media Contact: Rebecca Dinar, Director/Communications, Knight Foundation, [email protected] or 305-908-2646.

KNIGHT FOUNDATION

We are social investors who support a more effective democracy by funding free expression and journalism, arts and culture in community, research in areas of media and democracy, and in the success of American cities and towns where the Knight brothers once published newspapers. https://kf.org

MIAMI WATERKEEPER

Miami Waterkeeper focuses on clean water, ecosystem protection, and sea level rise resiliency. First, we tackle issues of clean water throughout the Biscayne Bay watershed, from the Everglades to our coral reefs. Second, we protect the ecosystems that depend on that clean water, including corals, seagrasses, and mangroves. Finally, we focus on sea level rise resiliency, which guides all areas of our work. We employ a multidisciplinary approach, which includes science, policy & advocacy, and education & outreach.
www.miamiwaterkeeper.org

THE EVERGLADES FOUNDATION

For a quarter of a century, The Everglades Foundation’s commitment to restore and protect the Everglades has been driven by science. Founded in 1993 by two outdoor enthusiasts — the late George Barley and Paul Tudor Jones II — The Everglades Foundation works tirelessly to bring people together and provide a powerful voice for Everglades restoration at the state and national levels.
www.evergladesfoundation.org

In the News

press mention

Knight puts $8 million into push to make Miami ‘the most climate literate city in the nation’

June 27, 2023

To produce the Miami Animo Summit, a two-day gathering of premier venture capital investors, limited partners and startup CEOs from across the Americas.

Miami, FL – January, 25 – The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation is proud to join Miami-Dade County and Citadel CEO Ken Griffin in providing seed funding for the newly formed nonprofit Miami-Dade Innovation Authority, Inc. (Innovation Authority). In her annual State of the County address on January 25, 2023, Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava announced the launch of the Innovation Authority, which will supply grants to pioneering companies working to solve pressing community challenges related to climate, health, housing, transit, and more.

“Miami-Dade County is the new frontier of tech innovation and entrepreneurship. The Innovation Authority will help us embrace our future and our destiny. This is all about seizing and accelerating opportunity,” said Alberto Ibargüen, president of the Knight Foundation. With $3 million from the Knight Foundation, $3 million from Miami-Dade County, and $3 million from Griffin, the Innovation Authority pilots an original model in which companies that receive grants will be invited to test new technologies in collaboration with Miami-Dade County with the goal of fast-tracking solutions to key challenges the county currently faces.

With this approach, the Miami Dade Innovation Authority will work with private sector funders to support startups, leveraging both public and private dollars to maximize impact, while creating a path for entrepreneurs to test new technologies at scale. By inviting businesses to pilot community solutions in partnership with local government, Innovation Authority facilitates inventive resolutions to community challenges while simultaneously further positioning Miami-Dade as a destination for high-growth companies.

“We’re saying to entrepreneurs everywhere that we’re open for business, and we’re inviting the private sector to join us as we unlock more streamlined, more cost-effective solutions to big public sector problems,” said Mayor Levine Cava. “I am grateful to the Knight Foundation and Ken Griffin for this major investment in innovative problem-solving right here in Miami-Dade.”

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Media Contact: Rebecca Dinar, [email protected], Director/Communications

About the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation

As social investors, Knight Foundation supports democracy by funding free expression and journalism, arts and culture in community, research in areas of media and democracy, and in the success of American cities and towns where the Knight brothers once published newspapers.

The ground breaking ceremony for Summit Lake Park in Akron, OH – a Knight Community.

The Engagement Lab at Emerson College released “Solving for Trust: Innovations in Smart Urban Governance” in November 2022, a Knight-supported report that examines how city governments gain and retain the trust of their constituents in a time where crisis of trust in institutions has risen. Emerson College’s Eric Gordon shares more below.

Despite their best efforts, governments around the world are experiencing a crisis of trust. The rise of misinformation, racial injustice, and growing inequality worldwide, all exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, are to blame, according to the Edelman Trust Barometer (a survey that measures perceptions of trust in nonprofits, the media, business, and government in 28 countries). It’s a situation with huge impact, among them creating challenges for governments to deliver the most basic services.

That’s why a team of researchers decided to explore how technology is being used to restore trust in the public service sector. In a new report, supported by Knight Foundation, Solving for Trust: Innovations in Smart Urban Governance, Eric Gordon, a professor at Emerson College in Boston, and Tomás Guarna, a Ph.D. student at Stanford University, share examples of how city leaders and technologists are actively deploying digital tools and novel data-analysis techniques to ensure continuity among service delivery and building trust among their constituents.

Using technology has not been the only approach taken to address this crisis. Some democratic cities around the world have invested heavily in public engagement efforts – emphasizing relationships that bolster the human face of government organizations – but they are slow to have impact at scale. Public engagement efforts typically include more and better communication between people and institutions, while novel uses of technology question the role of government in people’s lives, tweaking how and when communication happens. While these techno-centric solutions are immediately available and scalable, they pose important challenges for sustainable practice.

In addition, Gordon and Guarna have found that using technology not only enables interaction, but it also transforms how and why decisions are made, information is distributed, and actions are taken. The report’s authors view these efforts as early thought experiments – not success stories – that make clear that city agencies are addressing the trust problem directly.

Through nearly 30 semi-structured interviews with technologists and city leaders in Argentina, Spain, and the United States, the report lays the groundwork for a practice field that seeks to reimagine how trust gets built and sustained in the public sector. We offer seven recommendations for city leaders, scholars, and policymakers to connect existing practice to the bigger picture of smart governance.

Practitioners should…

Connect interventions to diagnoses. Cities need to be clear in communicating the nature of the problem they’re trying to solve before attempting to solve it. Civic technology interventions will be more effective when they are part of broader strategies to foster trust in institutions.

Think critically about proxies. Much more attention is needed in making the connection between the trust relationship developed with human or machine proxy and the institution. Also, cities should be mindful of the problems they might present.

Critically explore the use of AI in creating trust. As cities invest in digital concierge or human proxies, there is a need to understand what kind of relationship is desirable to achieve sustainable benefit for the institution.

Recognize that all technology has values; know yours. Cities should represent their values in digital interfaces so that users understand intentionality and the institution can be held accountable.

Realize that how data storage gets communicated matters. How institutions talk about data storage and mobility will determine how and why people trust it. Institutional leaders working with technically complex solutions need to bring skilled communicators onto their teams.

Disaggregate “the public” carefully. And be wary of dashboards. All smart governance efforts need to start with the premise that there is no one public. There is a need to better understand how disaggregation of data should be communicated and when. Public dashboards that communicate ineffectively can damage trust-building efforts.

Listen smartly. The investment in pervasive listening to align institutional values with those of the constituency may lead to beneficial outcomes. Listening technologies should be understood as public goods, not as techniques that are monopolized by government officials.

To address the growing crisis, it’s imperative that we begin to connect the dots among seemingly disparate experiments. Establishing trust in institutions is a practicality with immediate and long term consequences. We need to be thinking about not only how technology is helping us to emerge from an existing crisis, but at the same time, how it is shaping the infrastructure of democratic institutions for generations to come.

Eric Gordon is a professor of civic media at Emerson College, and the founder and director of the Engagement Lab; follow him on Twitter at @ericbot.