To create a winter-themed creative placemaking campaign on 210 storefronts at K&A and reshape the negative narrative associated with the Kensington neighborhood and provide opportunities for local businesses to collaborate.
Program Area: Communities
To deliver a civic engagement program designed to develop, connect, inform, engage, empower and retain Philadelphia’s young professionals for the broader benefit of the city.
On Oct. 23, 2019, Knight announced nearly $700,000 in new investments to foster a more connected, vibrant and prosperous Historic West End. Charles Thomas, Knight director in Charlotte, shares more about our work in the area below.
Charlotte is at a crossroads, or at several crossroads, really.
As you walk past the cranes and construction and hear reports of 60 new people arriving daily, it’s easy to overlook our bustling city’s persistent challenges related to economic mobility and opportunity.
With Charlotte’s growing economy and rapid development, historic and underserved neighborhoods outside of center city are experiencing rapid transition. Residents in these communities — such as those in the Historic West End — are excited about the chance to reap the benefits of growth. However, they also fear being priced out and displaced because they won’t have a voice in the development process or decision-making.
At Knight, we feel this is a critical moment in Charlotte’s growth to invest in a more informed and engaged community by supporting an approach to development that puts residents at the center of the conversation in order to foster vibrant, inclusive places with high economic opportunity.
Since 2015, Knight has focused our efforts in the Historic West End district at Five Points and the three neighborhoods adjacent to Johnson C. Smith University. The goal is to take advantage of new, substantial public and private investments in the area to design and implement a vision that reflects the desires of its residents, students and businesses. Our investments focus on three areas:
- Promoting community engagement and ensuring Historic West End residents are connected to and participating in the corridor’s growth.
- Increasing the neighborhood’s capacity to develop and drive a community vision.
- Supporting the creation and programming of public spaces and hubs that foster interaction and connection among residents.
Our investments have included support for Charlotte Center City Partners and Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC), coordinating community development, building neighborhood capacity and developing anti-displacement strategies; the Five Points Community Collaborative and Historic West End Partners’ efforts to engage residents and support small businesses in the corridor; capacity building for the West Side Land Trust; and the pilot of Urban Main Street with the City of Charlotte to revitalize commercial districts. We also supported Project LIFT’s work to engage parents and improve digital literacy and internet connectivity for West End families. Including nearly $700,000 in new funding announced today, Knight has invested more than $5 million in West Charlotte since 2015.
Charlotte is at a crossroads, facing tough decisions that require input from grassroots leaders, nonprofits and private businesses alike. To ensure our city’s growth supports all Charlotteans, it’s critical that residents have access to the tools and resources necessary to guide public and private investment to foster neighborhoods of high opportunity.
What narratives are we going to choose to shape our city? At Knight, we hope Charlotte’s story can be one of connected communities and economic opportunity for all.
Charles Thomas is Knight’s director in Charlotte. You can follow him on Twitter at @cthomasclt.
Photo (top): West Charlotte community residents and friends participating in the land trust’s second community charrette. Courtesy of West Side Community Land Trust.
Contact: Lauren Dickinson, Communications Officer, John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, 305.908.2694, [email protected]
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Oct. 23, 2019 — The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation today announced nearly $700,000 in new funding for nine projects aimed at expanding economic opportunity, supporting resident engagement, and increasing vibrancy in Charlotte’s Historic West End. The new funding brings Knight’s total investment in West Charlotte to over $5 million since 2015.
From a community-led land trust, to an initiative to strengthen the area’s business district, to an economic development study, several of the projects focus on enabling residents of the Historic West End to improve their ability to shape and benefit from the rapid growth being experienced by the Charlotte region. Other projects — including a fellowship program to engage residents in neighborhood improvement efforts and the development of a community-based journalism initiative — are focused on helping the community stay connected, discuss important issues and better preserve the West End’s identity in a time of change.
“Charlotte is experiencing impressive growth in population, ideas, and opportunity—yet this brings new challenges,” said Charles Thomas, Knight Foundation program director in Charlotte. “As our city moves forward, long-term success hinges on ensuring all neighborhoods and residents can participate in and benefit from our region’s progress. These nine projects will do just that for the Historic West End, helping it secure its spot as an inclusive and thriving residential, commercial and university corridor.”
The projects receiving support are:
Historic West End Partners ($160,000): To support Historic West End Partners hiring full-time staff, providing programs to develop small businesses, and elevating the brand of the Historic West End.
West Side Community Land Trust ($125,000): To increase the capacity and presence of the West Side Community Land Trust by supporting full-time staff and the acquisition and development of several properties.
GlennOaks Media LLC ($125,000): To engage residents in a community-based journalism initiative with Qcitymetro, which will host a series of events to determine residents’ news needs and employ a reporter to cover issues affecting the neighborhood.
The City of Charlotte ($100,000): To build on the engagement around Charlotte’s Aging in Program and to improve connecting residents with existing resources to improve quality of life.
League of Creative Interventionists ($75,000): To support the Charlotte League of Creative Interventionists’ 2019 Fellowship program, which will recruit four fellows to engage and train Historic West End residents and youth in beautifying, activating and programming Lakewood Park.
Five Points Community Collaborative ($46,700): To support programming and events that advance neighborhood engagement and collaboration among the three neighborhoods at Five Points in Historic West End.
Northwest Corridor Council of Elders ($32,000): To advance the capacity of the Council of Elders – a gathering of West Side community leaders – to host community convenings and events that foster a shared vision and goals for Historic West End residents.
The City of Charlotte ($14,865): To support a business and economic development study of the intersection of Beatties Ford Road and Lasalle Street, with a focus on findings that can inform and support resident engagement.
United Way of Central Carolinas ($14,000): To strengthen neighborhood leadership by working with and training leaders from several neighborhood organizations through Duke University’s Nonprofit Certificate Management Program.
Learn more about this announcement in a blog post by Knight’s Charlotte Program Director Charles Thomas.
About the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation
Knight Foundation is a national foundation with strong local roots. We invest in journalism, in the arts, and in the success of cities where brothers John S. and James L. Knight once published newspapers. Our goal is to foster informed and engaged communities, which we believe are essential for a healthy democracy. For more, visit kf.org.
Image (top): 50 Plates community dinner, courtesy of League of Creative Interventionists. Photo Credit: DeOren Robinson.
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To support the launch of Passport, a program that trains and connects diverse founders in low-growth businesses with each other and with prospective investors, to enable these businesses to transition to higher-growth.
To create an open source Swim Philly toolkit to accelerate City-led and resident-supported activation of public pools.
To offer the DiverseForce On Boards Program, providing the training necessary for leaders of color to achieve greater effectiveness as organizational leaders while making a social impact.
To support the expansion of the Black Men Talk Tech conference.
To use WHYY’s PlanPhilly as a platform to report on Philadelphia’s public spaces, civic assets, and their intersection with neighborhoods and community engagement practice.
To host a pilot program providing NewTown Macon small business loan holders and other downtown Macon entrepreneurs free acess to online accounting software and bookkeeping and business management training.
To support the launch of the Function Collective, an investment club focused on early-stage Seed and Series A venture investments