Community Impact – Page 51 – Knight Foundation

Program Area: Community Impact

To engage Miami residents in creating new approaches to address pressing urban issues—including affordable housing, transportation and sea level rise—Knight Foundation has announced $1 million in support to the Harvard University Graduate School of Design. With the funding, the school will embed urban researchers in Miami and Miami Beach to better understand the cities’ opportunities and challenges, and launch a multi-year study toward building solutions shaped by residents.

Over the past seMohsen Mostafavi, Harvard University Graduate School of Designveral years, the Harvard University Graduate School of Design (GSD) has engaged with the communities of Miami and Miami Beach to think holistically about their futures as cities. Together, they represent one of the world’s most remarkable cultural and urban landscapes, and we as designers have a responsibility to understand and help ensure its continued vitality. Toward that end, our design faculty have led a series of courses focused on the variety of challenges facing South Florida, and we have convened community and civic leaders to articulate the role of design in ensuring a resilient future for the region and its residents. Building on this work and our momentum, we are very pleased to launch an expanded multi-year study on the Miami region, supported by the Knight Foundation.

As part of this project, we will embed faculty experts and urban researchers in the area to work alongside community leaders and local stakeholders on producing a set of actionable, design-based recommendations. Bringing to bear the cross-disciplinary approach we teach and are continuously working to advance at the GSD, we will work across multiple fields of knowledge and research to develop a set of toolkits, white papers, and other materials for use by community leaders, many of whom will be involved throughout the study. Our aim is that our research and the recommendations it yields are rigorous yet grounded, and that our findings stimulate conversations among decision-makers at all levels across the U.S. on the future of the American city.

In that way, this work serves as the first phase of a new initiative at the GSD we are calling the Future of the American City, which will also include Boston, Detroit and Los Angeles. Collectively, these city-based projects and the initiative overall represent a continuation of the GSD’s history of leadership in applied, project-based design research, and they reaffirm the School’s and the Knight Foundation’s commitment to developing ethical, humanizing approaches to the design of cities.

In Miami, the focus of our new research will include three themes, which we identified together in conversation with community civic stakeholders: urban mobility, affordability and climate change. My colleagues Charles Waldheim, John E. Irving Professor of Landscape Architecture, and Jesse M. Keenan, Lecturer in Architecture, will join me in leading the study.

Final student presentations for Harvard University Graduate School of Design’s 2016 course, “Miami Rise and Sink: Design for Urban Adaptation”

As part of this research, participating GSD faculty will organize three design studios through three courses, one offered each fall semester. Consisting of 12 graduate students and a professor, each studio will conduct independent research together in conversation with leaders in the field. These groups will spend at least a week on the ground in Miami speaking to residents, civic organizations, politicians and others. This model of studio-based, design-driven research is fundamental to the GSD’s core pedagogy, and we believe the intensive, iterative and collaborative nature of this process ultimately works to collapse the distance between theory and impact.

While this next phase of research represents a formal culmination of our institutional commitment to studying and engaging with South Florida’s built environment, we seek to establish a platform for those who envision a path forward for a more inclusive, livable and affordable Miami. In that regard, we are very excited to be partnering with Knight Foundation on this project. Their commitment to strengthening communities across the United States through increased engagement and economic opportunity is important work that aligns with the GSD’s pursuit of a more beautiful, coherent and equitable world. We hope that our work in Miami is a first step toward developing a national discourse on the future of cities and urban life across America.

Miami, FL (March 20, 2018)—To engage Miami residents in creating new approaches to address pressing urban issues—including affordable housing, transportation and sea level rise—the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation today announced $1 million in support to the Harvard University Graduate School of Design. With the funding, the school will embed urban researchers in Miami and Miami Beach to better understand the cities’ opportunities and challenges, and launch a multi-year study toward building solutions shaped by residents. 

“Miami is at the leading-edge of the most vexing challenges that will face major cities around the world in the decades to come. We’re excited to welcome a world-class group of problem-solvers to Miami to partner with leaders and innovators who are already working on these important issues,” said Sam Gill, Knight Foundation vice president for communities and impact.

Part of its Future of the American City effort, which aims to help cities tackle sustainability and resiliency challenges, the Harvard Graduate School of Design study will span the next three years, beginning this spring. Building on the school’s unique, multi-disciplinary model, the effort will use architecture, landscape architecture and urban planning and design, to come up with actionable, efficient solutions that take into account community needs.  

“The Harvard Graduate School of Design is eager to partner with Miami and Miami Beach and to bring the school’s design expertise to bear on a set of complex issues affecting nearly everyone living in those communities on a daily basis,” said Mohsen Mostafavi, dean and the Alexander and Victoria Wiley professor of design at Harvard Graduate School of Design. “In employing the model of the School’s design studios, our goal is to work across multiple fields of knowledge and research and develop a set of actionable, design-based recommendations to share with city and community leaders.”

The Harvard Graduate School of Design is consistently ranked as one of the leading design schools in the world. It has led projects to strengthen and revitalize cities around the globe. These include helping cities implement transportation policies; adapt to sea level rise and develop more resilient models of growth; and design urban environments that support the health and well-being of residents. Its alumni include Philip Johnson, I. M. Pei and Paul Rudolph.

The school’s researchers have been actively connected with the City of Miami and City of Miami Beach for several years. Since 2012, the school has conducted six courses focused on Miami and conducted several major events in the city. Expanding on this work, the school will convene a range of experts, policy-makers and members of the public to contribute to this new effort.

In its research, the school will focus on urban mobility, affordability and climate change, themes that emerged from a series of previous discussions among its researchers and members of the Miami and Miami Beach communities. Following their analysis, students and faculty will offer toolkits, white papers and other materials for review and use by city managers, mayors and other civic leaders, many of whom will be directly involved throughout the study.

“This effort will bring a new community of problem-solvers to Miami, while calling on Miami leaders and innovators to creatively engage around some of our most pressing challenges. At the same time, lessons learned through the experience can be shared with cities across the nation facing similar challenges,” said Sam Gill, Knight Foundation vice president for community and impact.

The research will be led by Mostafavi as well as Harvard Graduate School of Design professors Charles Waldheim, John E. Irving Professor of Landscape Architecture and Jesse M. Keenan, Lecturer in Architecture. The study will include a three-part series of courses being led at the school. This fall, a course will focus on mobility and transit in Miami, particularly Brickell, with a site visit in October 2018. A second course in Fall 2019 will examine the roles of higher education and medical institutions in Miami’s economy, and a third in Fall 2020 will focus on the roles of Miami’s various ethnic neighborhoods in shaping the city’s cultural identity.

Each Harvard Graduate School of Design course will involve 12 graduate-level Harvard students and a professor working in a “design studio,” which involves conducting independent research, then discussing plans with fellow researchers to modify and strengthen their proposals. Each team of students will spend at least one week in Miami to speak with local stakeholders, civic organizations and political and administrative leaders. Representatives from Miami’s civic and political organizations will provide feedback throughout the study.

Harvard Graduate School of Design’s upcoming Miami research is the first phase of its Future of the American City project, a broader urban-study initiative intending to also examine the cities of Los Angeles, Detroit, and Boston. The school plans to host a summit to convene experts from each city to create a national discourse on the future of cities and urban life in America.

Knight Foundation supports informed and engaged communities by identifying and working with partners to help our cities attract and nurture talent, promote economic opportunity and foster civic engagement. This effort will advance Knight Foundation’s work in Miami focused on building the city’s innovation ecosystem, while fueling entrepreneurship and new ideas. It will also help drive a national conversation about how communities can be more engaged in designing their cities to face the challenges of the future.

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 knightfoundation.org.

About the Harvard University Graduate School of Design

The Harvard University Graduate School of Design is dedicated to the education and development of design professionals in architecture, landscape architecture, urban planning, and urban design. With a commitment to design excellence that demands the skillful manipulation of form and technology and draws inspiration from a broad range of social, environmental, and cultural issues, the Harvard Graduate School of Design provides leadership for shaping the built environment of the 21st century. For more information about the Harvard Graduate School of Design, visit gsd.harvard.edu. 

Media Contacts: 

Anusha Alikhan, Director of Communications, John S. and James L. Knight Foundation 305-908-2646, [email protected]

Travis Dagenais, Assistant Director of Communications, Harvard Graduate School of Design 617-496-1143, [email protected]

To support talent retention and civic engagement in Detroit, in connection with other Knight cities, by renewing support for the Urban Consulate in Detroit, a center that hosts non-partisan conversations on topics of civic importance to diverse audiences

Suze Guillaume is a Miami-based social entrepreneur, author and founder of the Beyond Literacy Pop-Up Project. Below she writes about her experience with the Emerging City Champions program, which is accepting applications for its 2018 class until April 2, 2018.

The Beyond Literacy Pop-Up (B Lit Pop-Up) is the first of its kind: The pop-up book cart is a wooden library on wheels. It brings literacy to children and parents where they are, by sharing the art of language through history, culture, stories and books. The book cart features painted shelves (the artwork of 13-year-old local artist Valentina Elao González), inspirational quotes and publications by local writers, as well as a tablet for kids to read e-books. Thanks to the Emerging City Champions Program, B Lit Pop-Up has successfully brought the Miami community together to engage with diverse self-published books and local authors in public spaces.

The first unveiling of the pop-up took place at the Little Haiti Cultural Center, the central hub of Haitian art, history, and culture in Miami. From there, the book cart made seven additional stops on its debut tour of public spaces throughout the city. Wherever the pop-up went, it raised awareness of multicultural authors, artists, innovators and entrepreneurs in South Florida.

“The Emerging City Champions Program supports projects that make their cities more vibrant places to live and work, and there were countless moments during the tour that emphasized the importance of an initiative like B Lit Pop-Up.”

During its stop at the Arcola Lakes Branch Library, self-published authors highlighted their works, including:

  • Child-author (and my son!) Edwin Bonilla, Jr. who showcased, “EJ’s Exciting Road Trip”
  • Florida-based author Jennifer Pierre highlighted her book, “Jaylen and the High Five Machine,” and a doll from her diversity-focused toy company, Melanites 

Attendees instantly connected with our local authors and entrepreneurs, and linking local talent with people in the community made the project even more meaningful.

The pop-up’s inaugural book tour ended in February 2018 and was a source of inspiration for celebrating diversity and Black History Month. Parents and kids gathered at the Lemon City Branch Library in the heart of Little Haiti for the closing ceremony. Local authors, volunteers, community leaders and musicians filled the room with books and instruments to celebrate literacy in a very special way. 

The Emerging City Champions Program supports projects that make their cities more vibrant places to live and work, and there were countless moments during the tour that emphasized the importance of an initiative like B Lit Pop-Up. I cherished the sound of children’s voices running towards the Lemon City Library, eager to interact with the pop-up. Hearing the voice of a little girl sharing that she couldn’t read was and is the inspiration we needed to keep the project going. 

We plan to continue the tour with pop-ups at libraries, parks, colleges and other public spaces, and we hope to partner with larger organizations to expand the initiative. I learned during my time as an Emerging City Champion that finding and elevating the voice of the people in your community is vital for a successful project. At its core, B Lit Pop-Up is dedicated to restoring hope in our communities. 8 80 Cities, the nonprofit that leads the Emerging City Champions program, believed in this project and did an amazing job helping me prepare and execute. When you have passion for your idea and a team of people supporting you, the possibilities are endless. 

Apply today for the Emerging City Champions Program.

Knight Foundation President Alberto Ibargüen delivered the following opening remarks at the Knight Media Forum on February 20, 2018. The remarks have been lightly edited for publication.

Knight Media Forum: Alberto Ibarguen, opening remarks from Knight Foundation on Vimeo

Good morning, everybody. Thank you for being here and welcome to the first Knight Media Forum – the 11th Media Learning Seminar.

I hope you all enjoyed the movie “The Post” last night. I’m not Tom Hanks, and I’m not Meryl Streep, but we’ll have to make do. I really enjoyed the panel with the amazing Dana Priest from the Washington Post and University of Maryland, Jameel Jaffer, who I think is the next Floyd Abrams, and Floyd Abrams himself, who was actually one of the New York Times’ lawyers represented in the film. I asked Floyd afterwards which of the lawyers had played him and he said, “the handsome one.” And then thanks to Jennifer Preston for moderating last night – and Jennifer, thank you and thanks to Robin Reiter – the two key people – for putting all of this together.

I’m Alberto Ibargüen, and for the past dozen years, I’ve had the privilege of leading the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, where our mission is to improve how democracy functions by supporting informed and engaged communities.

The Knight Media Forum is key to that mission. It’s an opportunity for leaders across media and philanthropy to consider the role of news and information in shaping and strengthening communities. This is the theme you’ll hear from everybody at Knight. It’s news for what purpose? For informing and engaging citizens so they are in a better community in a democracy.

These issues were very much on my mind 11 years ago in San Francisco, where I had been asked to speak to the community foundations conference convened by the Council on Foundations. The day before the conference, the San Francisco Chronicle run an op-ed by Dan Gillmor in which he argued that if the foundations at the conference really wanted to impact their communities, they should focus on the survival of local journalism.

The argument was, and is, very simple: For a democratic republic to thrive, it needs the consent of the people. To come to agreement, there has to be common ground so there can be consensus. And to reach that common ground, you need trust.

In our history, we’ve had many periods of division, starting with the very beginning, when we were hardly united in the decision to rebel against Britain.

Time and again, we’ve tested each other, distrusted each other, and then come together. But during this last decade, we have seen trust decline not only precipitously but in tandem with a dramatic drop in the production and dissemination of local news – that basic, commonplace and common-sense information that informs the middle. These are related events.

When we don’t have a neutral middle, the void is filled with opinion. Opinion, however well-intentioned, is not fact and is not whole. One day’s news does not make a full story, but a year’s worth of reliable, verified news creates a community bound together with trust and information.

The middle is the glue that makes that compromise stick. Once that’s gone, everyone is left running toward their own set of facts. That’s not a particularly significant problem for an authoritarian regime, but it is an existential threat for a democratic republic like ours.

That day 11 years ago in San Francisco, I literally scrapped my planned speech and instead channeled Dan Gillmor’s call to action. By supporting local news, Dan argued in his op-ed, community foundations could “play a vital role in ensuring that communities emerge from an inevitably messy media transition with the kind of local information sources we all need.” To predict that the transition from traditional print and broadcast to internet would be “messy” was hopeful, since it implied we’d get through it – and phenomenally understated.

For us at Knight, it was just the beginning. With many of you, we devised the Knight Community Challenge, and within six years, we had received applications from 450 of the country’s roughly 700 community foundations. We awarded 120 grants through that process. 

And we started the annual Media Learning Seminar. I am pleased to say today, the Knight Media Forum has grown to attract the largest, most diverse crowd we’ve ever had. Looking around the room, I see leaders in radio and television, reporters from large and small newspapers, community leaders and digital innovators. The role of news and information in communities has become a critical theme in the work of place-based foundations around the country, and I’m especially pleased to see so many representatives, staff and board members here today from those foundations.

I shouldn’t do this, I know that – it’s dangerous in a crowd like this – but since so many of you have participated in this seminar and this movement, but I really do want to call out four foundations in particular for their commitment and partnership in the work: The Silicon Valley Community Foundation, whose president, Emmett Carson, has taken up this cause in the Valley; our own hometown Miami Foundation and Javier Soto, the president, is here; Philadelphia’s Wyncote Foundation, whose chair, David Haas, has long been a leader in funding nonprofit news and information; and the Community Foundation for Southeastern Michigan, whose president, Mariam Noland, used to be a Knight Foundation trustee, and was one of the people who moved the adoption of this new practice and policy at Knight Foundation, and has worked to ensure that Detroit never should become a news desert. Special thanks to them for their partnership.

Obviously, times have changed since that first Media Learning Seminar. Information produced or presented by Google, Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft and Apple comprises most of what we know, or think we know, as fact. Who saw that coming? Maybe one or two of you, but I didn’t. I don’t need to explain the evolution of news media to this group, but as a reminder of how fast things have changed, think about the fact that, at the first conference 11 years ago, nobody had a smart phone … because they didn’t exist. And imagine that, when we first met, we polled the audience and:

  • 98% said they got their daily news from a newspaper.
  • Twitter was about a year old. At the second year’s seminar, Dianne Lynch, who was then Dean of Ithaca’s Communications School, explained to the audience what their kids were doing on something called “Facebook.”
  • And I don’t think we had even heard of Amy Webb, who would soon thereafter start annually amazing us with her insight on how the media world is trending.

The dawn of the internet age has presented tremendous opportunity to inform and engage the world. I am a prisoner of hope and I am a techno-optimist, but I have to admit that, so far, it has been a tough new century for trust and authenticity.

Building trust remains the fundamental challenge facing American communities. And it is arguably harder now than ever for the average citizen to separate truth from falsehood. As a result, interactions between people with different viewpoints quickly devolve into personal attacks on motives, often devoid of rational, level-headed, fact-based discussion.

It wasn’t always so. From the beginning of the republic to the latter half of the 20th century, media was local and frankly largely verifiable. The information produced overlapped with the geographic areas on top of which we built the structures of government, whether cities, counties or congressional districts. The Founders formalized the role of the press as the staging ground for the middle, a written and spoken battlefield where the wars of words are waged until common ground was reached. And that worked until national broadcasting and later internet broke the geographic tie between media outlets and the communities they served.

Eleven years ago, we could already see that that direct relationship was buckling, and common ground was beginning to recede. As local and regional news has weakened, trust has declined. Based on a Knight Foundation/Gallup poll of 20,000 respondents, which those of you who do polling know is quite a sample:

  • 45% of Americans see a great deal of bias in media coverage. In 1989, that number was 25%. So that number has gone from 25% who saw a great deal of bias to 45%.
  • 66% say media does not do a good job of separating fact from opinion.
  • Less than half of Americans can say that they can name an objective news source. That’s a crisis of trust.

And yet 84% see media as key to our democracy. That gives me some hope. At least there’s a will to discuss how to get there.

This is a place where foundations of all sizes can make a difference. Over the next two days, you’ll hear from foundations and media organizations that are partnering to develop novel ways to report stories and engage audiences, in service of building trust. And you’ll hear from two of the people most experienced, in my view, at delivering neutral information: Tim O’Reilly, who understood the power of internet almost before everyone and who believes passionately in the possibilities of technology, and Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia – one of the few places on internet that truly does live up to the ideal of what democratized access to information can be, but believes just as passionately in the engagement of humans as the decision-makers.

Many believe trust is built on performance and that accuracy in news reporting will be enough to restore trust. Perhaps. But let’s not fail to look outside of traditional news media as we examine this.

Consider, for example, why are libraries continuing to be trusted? Or why has our military gone up 30 points on a trust scale from 57% in the mid-1970s to 87% today. What are they doing?

I think our military has actually done something the media hasn’t: They have been clear about their mission and they have been focused. The mission is to protect, and they have done a brilliant job of remaining apolitical.

Thinking about those lessons – and more broadly, how the media can help strengthen and build trust in communities – is exactly why we’re here.

It’s why we at Knight funded the Knight Institute for the First Amendment at Columbia University, the digital transformation of local news organizations, dozens of digital news startups, scholars offering a wide range of views, and scores of experiments. Our latest grant in this area is to Media Impact Funders, which supports and subsidizes the engagement of community and place-based foundations in their work. Actually, I’m not sure we’ve announced that so Vince, just don’t cash the check yet. But we really can recommend their workshops, webinars and regional gatherings. If I wasn’t supposed to say that until later, I’m sorry.

And, of course, it’s in this spirit that we asked the Aspen Institute to constitute the Knight Commission on Trust, Media and Democracy. That’s a mouthful, but so is this issue. It’s ably led by co-chairs Tony Marx, president of the New York Public Library, and Jamie Woodson, a former Tennessee state senator, who now heads the state’s Collaborative on Reforming Education. Tony will actually share some of the Commission’s early findings and how they relate to today’s conference. We hope that, like the previous Knight Commission at Aspen on the Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy, the Commission on Trust, Media and Democracy will not only probe those issues, but point us in productive directions based on its recommendations.

They actually met here yesterday, and I was really thrilled to hear the range of issues they considered, in the meeting and in hallways – some very practical, some philosophical, including, and this is just from my notes:

  • What can be done to make digital platform companies act more like traditional publishers assuming responsibility for the content? The corollary to that in the debate was also raised: Given their power, do we really want platform companies, with their concentration of power, to act as our editors, as our sensors, maybe making them more powerful than any ministry of information ever imagined?
  • What can be learned from the Chinese system of dealing with information in the digital age? That was a question I didn’t see coming.
  • Are algorithms neutral checks on the power of platforms, or are they expressions of the choices and news judgment of the programmers who wrote the code?
  • If producers of news no longer control its distribution, how can they control their destiny? How can they guarantee their content?
  • Is the commercial future of news viable? Should news organizations move away from advertising models to purely subscription models that can leverage the personalization power of digital technology?
  • What’s the future of public and not-for-profit media?
  • And of course, what’s the role of philanthropy? How can we effectively support sustainable local news operations? How do we provoke thought and ensure the whole community’s interest?

These and more points were raised and there will be more of them as you begin your own discussions. We launched this event 11 years ago because, at that time, the consensus among community foundations was that building an informed community was something separate from the work of community foundations. We sought to change that; and your presence here today is evidence of a profound shift.

I’m excited, and I’m honored to have you all in this room, bringing diverse perspectives to strengthen our understanding of how to ensure our democracy thrives. In communities large and small across the nation, our task is nothing less than to restore trust. It starts here. And it starts with you. Welcome.

Chad Rochkind is the founder of Human Scale Studio, an Emerging City Champion and a Knight Cities Challenge winner. Below he writes about his experience with the Emerging City Champions program, which is accepting applications for its 2018 class until April 2, 2018.

I still believe in hope.

I still believe that there are openings for good people to build a better future despite the daily outrages and absurdities that have become the norm of American life in 2018.

I believe tackling these issues requires us to bring truth and humanity into the room wherever we go.

I believe we need to be brave, have grit and muster the resources we need to build the kind of bright future that people don’t even know is possible.

I believe that when people come together under the banner of a common purpose, it is like oxygen for the human spirit and people gravitate toward it.

I believe all of this because I was in the first class of the Emerging City Champions program.

Emerging City Champions changed the entire trajectory of my life, while enabling me to create lasting transformation in my city. With $5,000 and training from some of the world’s greatest urban thinkers and doers, I sparked a movement that led the City of Detroit and the State of Michigan to completely rethink how the main street of Detroit’s oldest neighborhood functions.

It started with a small parklet. Armed with $5,000 from the program, I was able to work with a café owner, a local architect and a brilliant team of fabricators to create a beautiful public asset inside of a parking space. By creating an area that prioritized people rather than cars, we demonstrated that people-powered places were possible. People had never even thought of such a thing! We used the installation as an opportunity to engage the community around the kind of street they wanted to see in the future. Inside the café, we provided urban engagement tools, such as visual comparison surveys and plans that displayed different views of the street. It became clear that no one wanted a 9-lane state highway running through the heart of the neighborhood.

People were blown away by the parklet and the engagement surrounding it. It made them feel like we could change this huge chasm in the heart of our neighborhood if we worked together.

“I believe that when people come together under the banner of a common purpose, it is like oxygen for the human spirit and people gravitate toward it.”

The Michigan Department of Transportation arrived to demolish the parklet 10 days after it was installed, but the idea had already pushed people to change their mindset. Leveraging that experience, I scaled up the concept and went on to win the Knight Cities Challenge, which supported 12 more installations in Detroit and deeper training for residents who wanted to be part of transforming their neighborhoods. These, combined with the introduction of Open Streets Detroit, a program that closes the streets to car traffic, let the city and state know that the people were clamoring for change.

Less than two years after the initial parklet was built, one of the longest protected bike lanes in America was installed in Detroit. It reduced the lanes devoted to car traffic, and opened up the possibility for pedestrian friendly infrastructure such as café seating and wider walking spaces.

In an era where people are fearful of change and suspicious of each other, one way to make a difference is to create a window into the world that you want. Emerging City Champions opened up that avenue for me by allowing me to test an idea, so that people could see first-hand how a small fix could make a big difference. At the same time, working alongside the community, I was able to better understand what works and what doesn’t, and adjust and scale accordingly.

This vision for inclusive urban development is exactly what the world needs at this moment in our history. And we need more people to take the baton and run with it in cities around the country.

Apply. Join the movement. Be the change.

To support a multi-part series to convene and educate nonprofit and public space leaders around strategies for engaging residents in neighborhoods using technology.

To support CityLab 2018-an annual event produced by The Atlantic, the Aspen Institute and Bloomberg Philanthropies that convenes mayors and other city leaders from around the world to explore sustainable solutions to the most pressing issues cities face. In its sixth year, CityLab will take place in Detroit, MI from October 28-30.

To develop a user-centered digital tool to share available Federal Smart Cities funding information across a broad range of stakeholders, including communities, universities, local industry, and non-profits.

MIAMI—March 5, 2018—The Emerging City Champions fellowship is accepting applications for the 2018-19 cohort. Launched in 2015 with support from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, the program provides upcoming civic leaders with funding and support to launch one project that will enhance public space, urban mobility or civic engagement in their city. Knight Foundation today announced a $250,000 reinvestment in the program.

The Emerging City Champions fellowship is open to anyone who meets the following criteria:

  • They must be between the ages of 19-35.
  • The project must take place in or benefit one of the 26 communities where Knight invests.
  • Projects must contribute to improving public space, urban mobility or civic engagement.
  • Applications must include a multimedia submission that describes their project.

The deadline to apply is Monday, April 2, 2018 at 11:59 p.m. EST. Successful applicants will be awarded $5,000 for their project, and receive ongoing mentorship, networking and capacity building opportunities. Interested applicants are encouraged to participate in a Facebook Live event on Wednesday, March 14 at 12 p.m. EST, where representatives of 8 80 Cities will answer questions about the program.

Visit www.emergingcitychampions.org for more information and to apply.

“Emerging City Champions has been a great vehicle for finding and supporting new voices and civic innovators in Knight’s communities. The funding and the training opportunities have supported champions as they have tested and, in some cases, successfully scaled projects that make their cities more vibrant places to live and work. As the program enters its fourth year we’re excited to expand the network of champions, and to strengthen civic leadership in Knight communities,” said George Abbott, Knight Foundation director for community and national initiatives.

The Emerging City Champions fellowship is for young people on the cusp of making transformative impacts in their cities. Emerging City Champions is a launchpad for up-and-coming civic innovators. Successful applicants have established themselves as dynamic problem solvers, but may lack the resources, connections or network to achieve their potential. Some participants may be seeking to scale up the impact of an existing community project. Others may have an entirely new and untested idea that will transform their city’s parks or transportation network. We encourage bold ideas and new solutions to common urban challenges from diverse voices.

“Emerging City Champions is about elevating new and diverse voices with fresh perspectives on how to build more accessible, inclusive and connected cities,” said Amanda O’Rourke, executive director, 8 80 Cities. “Each year, we are awed and inspired by the impacts and change that the fellowship participants bring to their communities. We are excited to see what new ideas this year’s competition will bring.”

The 2018-19 Emerging City Champions will be the fourth program cohort. Past participants have made dramatic improvements and long-term changes to their cities. These participants have established community organizations, created interactive public art, and transformed underused civic assets into vibrant public spaces. While most projects are temporary, each fellowship participant has pushed boundaries, changed mindsets, and in some cases inspired long-term investment in the public realm.

The program begins with the Emerging City Champions Studio in Toronto, Canada. The Studio is an immersive learning experience where fellowship participants hone their skills as civic leaders. Over three and a half days, participants will visit public spaces and learn about community-led programs that enhance civic engagement. The Studio features presentations by established city leaders and program alumni, and hands-on workshops on project planning, community engagement and marketing.

Emerging City Champions is led by 8 80 Cities, a nonprofit organization committed to improving the quality of life for people in cities by bringing citizens together to enhance mobility and public space. 

Support for 8 80 Cities forms one part of Knight Foundation’s efforts to help cities attract and keep talented people, expand economic opportunity and create a culture of engagement. The foundation believes that successful communities are equitable, inclusive and participatory.

The 26 Knight cities include eight communities that have a resident program director: Akron, Ohio; Charlotte, North Carolina; Detroit; Macon, Georgia; Miami; Philadelphia; St. Paul, Minnesota; and San Jose, California. In 18 cities community foundations guide Knight’s investments: Aberdeen, South Dakota; Biloxi, Mississippi; Boulder, Colorado; Bradenton, Florida; Columbia, South Carolina; Columbus, Georgia; Duluth, Minnesota; Fort Wayne, Indiana; Gary, Indiana; Grand Forks, North Dakota; Lexington, Kentucky; Long Beach, California; Milledgeville, Georgia; Myrtle Beach, South Carolina; Palm Beach County, Florida; State College, Pennsylvania; Tallahassee, Florida; and Wichita, Kansas.

For more information on 8 80 Cities visit: 880cities.org. To apply to the Emerging City Champions Fellowship, submit your application at emergingcitychampions.org by April 2, 2018.

About 8 80 Cities
8 80 Cities is a nonprofit organization based in Toronto, Canada. We are dedicated to contributing to the transformation of cities into places where people can walk, bike, access public transit and visit vibrant parks and public places. Our approach is to engage people and communities across multiple sectors to inspire the creation of cities that are easily accessible, safe and enjoyable for all. We achieve our mission through grant projects, advocacy work and our innovative services.

About the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation
Knight Foundation supports transformational ideas that promote quality journalism, advance media innovation, engage communities and foster the arts. We believe that democracy thrives when people and communities are informed and engaged. knightfoundation.org

CONTACTS:

Anusha Alikhan, Director of Communications, John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, 305-908-2646, [email protected]

Ryan O’Connor, Director of Programs, 8 80 Cities, 416-591-7404, [email protected]

“I am a prisoner of hope and I am a techno-optimist. But I have to admit, so far it’s been a tough new century for trust and authenticity.” – Knight Foundation President Alberto Ibargüen

Indeed. As far as trust in the media is concerned, the 21st century is off to a bumpy start.

As bots proliferate, attacks on a free press continue and the average person finds it difficult to separate fact from fiction, trust in American news sources is sinking to new lows. Just how the media can regain trust was at the heart of the conversation at the Knight Media Forum, a gathering of leaders in philanthropy, media and technology working to strengthen local news and communities. No one offered a quick fix. If they agreed on one thing, it’s that the rebuilding will take time. Meanwhile, a new Knight Commission on Trust, Media and Democracy is traveling the country to look at causes and offer solutions.

At the forum, Commission co-chair Tony Marx offered four early framing questions for the group’s work:

  1. How are we going to help people determine what is factual and what is not?
  2. What is the business model for local news?
  3. How can we figure out what to do about the dark money that fuels misinformation online?
  4. How can we encourage people to get out of their information silos?

You can read more about the commission’s latest thinking, and efforts on Medium.

Nuala O’Connor, president and CEO of the Center for Democracy and Technology makes a point during a panel discussion with the Knight Commission on Trust, Media and Democracy at the Knight Media Forum 2018. Photo: Angel Valentin

Here are some key takeaways from the two-day event, which was held Feb. 19-21, 2018 in Miami:

Fake news isn’t a market failure. It’s an intrinsic part of the system.

Algorithms increasingly hold sway over our lives, and what we see in our social feeds. But those algorithms are optimizing for profit, said Tim O’Reilly, CEO of O’Reilly Media. They favor the kinds of sensational news that gets clicks and is often shared. And fake news makes money.

Still he offered hope, and a call to action to funders in the room: to advocate for creating, or recreating algorithms to optimize factors beyond revenue.

“I am an optimist that these vast algorithmic systems we are learning to build can be a basis of very different markets, that are more equitable, and create a more inclusive society that looks after all of us in a way that the dog-eat-dog economy does not. We need to master the systems before they master us.”

O’Reilly also offered advice for local news organizations that want to build sustainable operations people trust. Local news sites need to stop chasing the clicks that fuel the online advertising industry and incentivize sensationalism. Instead, he suggested they focus on offering quality news, and find revenue through subscriptions or other models.

Fake news is about to get more sophisticated.

Take a moment to look at this video:

The piece was created by University of Washington researchers, who used artificial intelligence to recreate President Barack Obama’s face and voice. It was an experiment. But imagine the potential as this technology gets into more people’s hands, said Amy Webb, founder of the Future Today Institute.

What if someone stuck words into a world leader’s mouth, and duped a journalist or the public?

What if someone placed the face of a journalist into a political rally, in a dangerous part of the world?

What if someone used your face to propagate fake news?

Fake news is not going away, Webb said. It’s going to become more sophisticated and harder to detect.

Amy Webb, founder and CEO, Future Today Institute, delves deeply into the creation of fake news during her presentation; “What’s New, What’s Next” at the Knight Media Forum. Photo: Angel Valentin

We’re living in tumultuous – but not unprecedented times. 

The invention of the printing press fundamentally changed life in Europe – but it was followed by some 30 years of war, said Bob Schieffer, former CBS news anchor and host of “Face the Nation.” His point? As we enter this new chapter in human history, driven by technology, expect turbulence.

Case in point: Even though we all have access to multitudes of information at any given time, our newsrooms are shrinking. In fact, Schieffer said; 

  • The United States has lost 126 newspapers in 12 years.
  • The number of journalists has shrunk to the point that one in five reporters lives in Washington, D.C., New York or Los Angeles.
  • 21 of 50 states do not have a single Washington correspondent, and many news organizations can’t afford to cover the state house.
Knight Foundation President Alberto Ibargüen listens attentively as veteran newsman Bob Schieffer discusses other times in history when technological advancement was followed by a period of disruption. Photo: Angel Valentin

Yet Schieffer believes we will emerge stronger from this time of change. Technology always comes before we have a chance to understand it, he said. In the meantime, “it’s going to be a bumpy ride.”

Online civility is a problem, but may be overrated.

It was no surprise that on a panel titled “Civility, Technology and Community,” the discussion would center on why online discussions often devolve into arguments and insults, and how the Internet might be fixed.

Yet, scholar Frank Fukuyama,of Stanford University’s Center for Democracy offered a different perspective. Yes, social capital, trust and civility have been in decline since the 1950s. But those were the days when “white men formed the elite in every city,” he said. Since then, our communities have become more diverse, and offer more economic opportunity to a wider swath of people. It would be surprising if people were as tightly bound or had the same norms and values, he said. 

“[Civility] is necessary for deliberative discourse in a democratic political system, but it can be overrated in a society when what it masks is the hegemony of one particular group whose rules have to be accepted by all the other players,” Fukuyama said.

Audience members at the Community Focused Journalism panel get the message at the 2018 Knight Media Forum. Photo by Angel Valentin

Funders and online news start-ups are seeing some successes.

A decade ago, as news outlets began to shrink, local funders and journalists started to come together to seek solutions for informing communities. Many of them received matching funding from Knight Foundation, through its Knight Community Information Challenge, which spurred funders to think of news and information as an integral part of community life.

One such example is VTDigger, an investigative news site in Vermont, launched originally with a $6,000 grant from the local community foundation. Over time, and with the help of foundation staff, 24 funds at the community foundation have supplied $1.3 million to the news site, helping it grow to a staff of 20 with a $1.5 million budget. Over time, VTDigger switched from relying on grants to cultivating underwriting and memberships.

“It has been about ultimately the journalism, and the fact that we are reporting on things the people care about,” said founding editor Anne Galloway.

Local funders have experimented with a variety of models. The Wyncote Foundation, for example, supported a news site on public planning in Philadelphia, run by the local public radio station, and the LOR Foundation partnered with local news organizations in the Intermountain West on solutions-focused journalism projects. You can read more about those and other models in a new publication from the Wyncote Foundation.

And still the experiments continue. Wikipedia Founder Jimmy Wales recently launched WikiTribune, a pilot project combining professional journalists with community contributors for local news stories.

“The truth is the resources aren’t there [for local journalism.] We have to find new ways to lower the cost of journalism by engaging communities,” Wales said. “If we can find a way to fully engage and benefit from thoughtful and kind people in a local community … then I think we are on to something.”

Jimmy Wales, co-founder, Wikipedia and founder WikiTribune, speaks about innovative ways to work with communities to help provide them with the journalism resources they need. Photo: Angel Valentin

Daily receptions provided KMF attendees with the chance to network and share information and resources with colleagues between formal conference sessions. Photos: Angel Valentin

View all the Knight Media Forum’s keynote addresses on Vimeo