Community Impact – Page 55 – Knight Foundation

Program Area: Community Impact

MIAMI – Nov. 15, 2017 – To help propel women in tech and foster a more inclusive innovation ecosystem in Miami, The Commonwealth Institute South Florida, a nonprofit committed to advancing women in business, today announced the launch of its newest initiative, the Women in Technology Executive Forum. Through the support of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, The Commonwealth Institute South Florida will be able to provide full funding for up to two years to ten women in technology who have the drive to take their organizations to the next level and the desire to support their peers in the field.

“As South Florida grows into a hub for technology and innovation, we knew it was time to create a community for leading women within the industry to exchange ideas and receive the encouragement they need. The more successful the leader- the more successful the organization,” said Laurie Davis, executive director of The Commonwealth Institute South Florida. “With the support of Knight Foundation, our Women in Technology Executive Forum will do just that, offering an intimate setting that allows women to grow as leaders.”

The Women in Technology Executive Form will provide the tools, resources and support needed for women to grow and develop their businesses or practices. It will help industry leaders gain valuable insight and perspectives outside of their own experiences and cultivate meaningful, lasting relationships among women in technology.

“Providing intentional resources for women transforming South Florida’s tech landscape is vital to creating a successful, equitable innovation ecosystem in Miami,” said Chris Caines, Knight Foundation interim program director for Miami. “Through the forum, The Commonwealth Institute South Florida is helping to open more avenues for underrepresented leaders to scale and grow their ideas.”

Women CEO’s, senior executives, and business owners who work in technology are encouraged to apply. The Women in Technology Executive Forum will include women leaders who meet regularly in a confidential setting to collectively tackle challenges and problems that may arise in their tech driven businesses.

For information on how to apply, please email Laurie Davis at [email protected] or visit TCI’s website at www.commonwealthinstitute.org.

Support for The Commonwealth Institute South Florida is part of Knight Foundation’s broader effort to invest in Miami’s innovators and leaders as a tool to build community while fostering talent and expanding economic opportunity. Over the past five years Knight has made more than 200 investments in entrepreneurship in South Florida.

About The Commonwealth Institute South Florida 

The Commonwealth Institute South Florida is a network of successful business and professional women in our community. We provide leadership development, high level networking and mentoring through our content rich events and programming. We are ambitious, success-oriented women committed to growing our respective organizations and to supporting each other as we accomplish our individual goals.

Our membership includes CEOs, senior corporate executives, entrepreneurs, directors of nonprofits and professionals who are committed to building successful businesses, organizations and careers. We come from a range of industries and from a variety of backgrounds.  We run large companies, we lead small companies, we manage nonprofits, and we work as sole proprietors.  Our vision is to unleash the potential of women leaders to drive successful businesses and inspire those around them.

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. The foundation believes that democracy thrives when people and communities are informed and engaged. For more information, visit knightfoundation.org.

CONTACTS:

Laurie Kaye Davis, Executive Director of The Commonwealth Institute South Florida, 305-799-6547, [email protected]

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

To serve as a response, supporting and guiding entrepreneurs as they continue to grow, scale their businesses in St. Paul.

To improve public life in Akron’s North Hill and Summit Lake neighborhoods by developing two new parks.

To support Project LIFT in creating a civic and technology engagement hub for parents and residents of the Historic West End neighborhoods near West Charlotte High School.

To support the transformation of the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library’s Main Library into a tech-forward, civic destination equipped to meet evolving community needs.

To promote and encourage naturalization of qualified legal permanent residents and to simultaneously plan, coordinate and implement a multi-media public awareness and education campaign to increase participation of Haitian community residents in the upcoming decennial census.

To support an improved Public Transit Network by conducting a comprehensive, modern route analysis/transit study. MAP 4.3.

To strengthen civic leadership by continuing Knight support of the K880 Emerging City Champions, a program that supports, networks and funds 20 young people as they execute projects to strengthen public life in Knight communities.

Saturday, Knight Foundation announced $3.28 million in new support to Fairmount Conservancy to support a citywide civic engagement strategy that will allow residents to shape activities in Philadelphia’s public spaces.

It’s an essential time for communities to invest in places and spaces that bring us together. A neighborhood public library, park or recreation center are often the places where strangers come together, where we learn about each other, and where neighbors and local decision-makers meet to create a better community. Recent research by the Center for Active Design validates that public spaces can help to facilitate community connection, trust and involvement.

We have seen this first hand in Philadelphia as the pilot city for Reimagining the Civic Commons. Launched in 2015 with support from Knight Foundation and William Penn Foundation, the initiative focuses on connecting five neighborhood spaces as a way to foster connections between residents and create greater civic engagement.

Two years later, Reimagining the Civic Commons has supported local leaders around the five model projects to take risks, scale new ideas and share learning through a growing network of nonprofit, public and community partners. This effort helped serve as inspiration for the City of Philadelphia’s Rebuild initiative, which plans to invest $500 million in capital improvement of parks, recreation centers and libraries. In addition, in 2016 a group of foundations – including The JPB Foundation, Knight Foundation, The Kresge Foundation and The Rockefeller Foundation – expanded Reimagining the Civic Commons to four other cities, including two Knight cities, Detroit and Akron, along with Chicago and Memphis.

Building on this momentum, Knight recently announced that we will double down on our public space investment in Philadelphia with the goal of fostering more engaged and connected communities. A $3.28 million investment will support the Fairmount Park Conservancy and partners in developing a citywide civic engagement strategy to connect people to place and each other, inviting all Philadelphians to participate in shaping their neighborhoods.

With this new support, the Fairmount Park Conservancy and its partners will advance training and activities to jumpstart citywide participation and energy around public spaces. Lessons learned from Reimagining the Civic Commons will help the conservancy and partners develop fun, fast pop-up projects to experiment, gather insights and get residents of all kinds involved. Capacity workshops will help identify new community leaders and enlist them as allies in building engagement. Insights and best practices will be shared across the Reimagining the Civic Commons national network. In this way, we hope to amplify and strengthen the work happening locally.

In addition to strengthening civic engagement, our Philadelphia strategy will explore new ways to repurpose public spaces as community resources for learning skills and collaboration. It will also support ideas and new experiments that examine how public spaces can help bring people together and create pathways to opportunity, particularly through approaches that leverage technology and the arts.

The momentum and energy we are seeing around transforming Philadelphia’s public spaces has the potential to create a stronger future for the city. To get there, we need to ensure that investments are made in the people and communities who use these spaces, so they have a stake in shaping how their community spaces are built and activated. Through this process, we hope people feel an authentic connection to place, to each other, and to their city.

Patrick Morgan is Philadelphia program director at Knight Foundation. You can reach him at [email protected]; his Twitter is @PMorganPHL.

PHILADELPHIA – Nov. 4, 2017 – At today’s celebration of LOVE Your Park Fall Service Day in Norris Square, Knight Foundation announced $3.28 million in new funding to Fairmount Park Conservancy to support a citywide civic engagement strategy that will allow residents to shape activities in Philadelphia’s public spaces. The new investment is inspired by Philadelphia’s Rebuild initiative, which plans to invest $500 million in capital improvement of parks, recreation centers and libraries. Knight funding will help the Conservancy advance a network of public and nonprofit partners – including Philadelphia Parks & Recreation, Philadelphia Parks Alliance and Free Library of Philadelphia – to build community participation around public spaces, mobilizing residents as co-creators in shaping their neighborhoods.

“I appreciate Knight Foundation’s continued investment in revitalizing and activating Philadelphia’s public spaces,” said Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney. “It takes visionary and committed partners like Knight Foundation to advance this very important work. Every neighborhood deserves a clean park for its residents to enjoy and a safe playground for its children to play in.”

Mayor Kenney added, “Thanks to the many volunteers here at Norris Park and parks around the city, Philly Parks & Recreation is getting a big hand helping to maintain these essential public spaces.”

Knight’s support comes on the heels of the foundation’s investment in Fairmount Park Conservancy for the Reimagining the Civic Commons initiative, which began as a demonstration project co-funded by the William Penn Foundation in Philadelphia. The initiative has since expanded to four other cities. Knight selected the Conservancy for that initial project largely owing to the nonprofit’s track record of working collaboratively with public and private partners, particularly its longstanding partnership with Philadelphia Parks & Recreation and a network of over 100 volunteer groups through the City’s Park Stewardship Program.

Sam Gill, Knight Foundation’s vice president, communities and impact, said “We believe this is a fantastic opportunity for the people who live in Philadelphia to determine its future.”

Knight Foundation’s program director for Philadelphia, Patrick Morgan, elaborated. “The neighborhood library, park or recreation center are spaces where strangers come together, where we learn about each other across backgrounds and income levels, and where neighbors and local decision-makers converge to create positive community change. Giving people the opportunity to shape these spaces is essential to creating a stronger, more vibrant Philadelphia. This new effort aims to do just that with the help of Fairmount Conservancy and a network of partners that are invested in the city’s growth.”

Mr. Morgan noted that the new, citywide civic engagement initiative is also an opportunity to scale lessons and insights from the national Reimagining the Civic Commons initiative.

With new Knight support, Fairmount Park Conservancy and its partners will advance training and activities to jumpstart citywide participation and energy around public assets; programs will be developed with the needs and preferences of residents in mind. In addition, the Conservancy will work to develop fun, fast pop-up projects to experiment, gather insights and get residents of all kinds involved. Capacity workshops will help identify new community leaders and enlist them as allies in building engagement.

The funder and partners are looking to leverage the Rebuild initiative so that Philadelphia will have an even stronger system of neighborhood leaders to care for the newly renovated sites and ensure that their programming is responsive and inclusive.

“We are grateful for this investment from the Knight Foundation in the work of the Conservancy and its partners,” said Jamie Gauthier, executive director of Fairmount Park Conservancy. “It validates our belief that the power of organized and engaged resident leaders is crucial to the upkeep, sustenance and vitality of public spaces within our neighborhoods, as well as to the health of our very city. We look forward to working, as a collective, to strengthen the ability for residents to shape neighborhood investment, in anticipation of the historic investment brought by Rebuild.”

Parks & Recreation Commissioner Kathryn Ott Lovell also expressed her appreciation. “I am thrilled that Knight Foundation has decided to make this significant investment into civic engagement programming for our public spaces,” said Ott Lovell. “It is imperative that we work with community members in an intentional and strategic way to help shape the future of the city’s parks and recreation facilities. I look forward to working with Fairmount Park Conservancy and Knight Foundation to build on Parks & Recreation’s existing community engagement programs.”

About 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 Fairmount Park Conservancy:

The Conservancy exists to champion Philadelphia’s parks. We lead capital projects and historic preservation efforts, foster neighborhood park stewardship, attract and leverage investments, and develop innovative programs throughout the 10,200 acres that include Fairmount Park and more than 100 neighborhood parks around the city. For more information, please visit myphillypark.org, join us at facebook.com/fairmountparkconservancy and follow us on Instagram and Twitter @myphillypark.

Contacts:

Sharene Azimi, Principal, Mission Communications, 646-784-5547, [email protected]

Cari Feiler Bender, Founder, Relief Communications, 610-416-1216, [email protected]

Anusha Alikhan, Director of Communications, Knight Foundation, 305-908-2646, [email protected]

To promote community and stakeholder engagement in community and business activities in a rapidly revitalizing Detroit neighborhood