Community Impact – Page 59 – Knight Foundation

Program Area: Community Impact

San Jose, Calif.—Sept. 11, 2017—The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation today announced more than $1.1 million in new funding for 10 projects aimed at making San Jose a more vibrant place to live and work, while fostering civic engagement and connection.

Led by local government and a range of community development organizations, many of the projects focus on transforming the San Jose downtown area, while creating more options for residents to share ideas and shape the city’s culture. From a vibrant space for job training and entrepreneurship to a free outdoor dance program in downtown to a new position in city government designed to engage citizens in community service and volunteerism, the projects work to advance a better future for San Jose. They also encourage the sharing of best practices between cities including global learning opportunities.

“San Jose is home to diverse talent and innovators of all kinds; ideas born here affect people on a global scale. But we need to work harder to turn these assets inward, using them to address local challenges and make our city better. Together, these projects work to advance that goal, helping to improve quality of life in San Jose, while connecting residents to their city and each other,” said Danny Harris, Knight Foundation program director for San Jose.

The organizations receiving support include:

TechShop ($484,000) – Offering a vibrant space for job training and entrepreneurship in San Jose by supporting the Tech Shop collaborative makerspace at its new location in downtown.  Funding will also support a partnership with San Jose State University to launch the Knight Placemaking Lab, where people can experiment with new ideas and promote community engagement through events, collaboration and learning.

City of San Jose, Department of Planning, Building and Code Enforcement ($198,894) – Creating a more vibrant San Jose by updating the Citywide Urban Design and Historic Preservation Guidelines that outline goals toward improving neighborhood life.

SPUR ($111,135) – Transforming the area around San Jose’s central rail depot, Diridon Station into an active community hub by supporting a study tour for 18 regional policymakers and agency heads to the Netherlands and France, known for hosting vibrant transportation centers.

City of San Jose, Office of the Mayor ($100,000) – Fostering civic engagement by supporting a chief service officer position in city government, who will work to engage citizens in community service and volunteerism.

City of San Jose, Office of Cultural Affairs ($75,000) – Improving downtown vibrancy by supporting CityDance, an eight-week free outdoor dance program in downtown San Jose.

National Association of City Transportation Officials (NACTO) ($50,000) – Encouraging people to connect with their city in public spaces by designing better and safer bike infrastructure and streets.

8-80 Cities ($46,990) – Expanding the impact of Viva CalleSJ, a program that opens city streets to pedestrians and encourages community exploration; funding will support a study tour that will take 15 San Jose leaders to Guadalajara, Mexico, which hosts one of the world’s most successful Open Streets programs.

Sustainable Agriculture Education (SAGE) ($40,000) – Creating a more vibrant and resilient San Jose by implementing the Food Works Plan, which aims to help increase investments in a connected local food system including, production, processing, distribution and consumption.

Silicon Valley Bike Coalition ($35,000) – Bringing more beauty, creativity and celebration to biking in San Jose through the city’s first “bike artist in-residence” program, which will invite local artists to propose and produce art along bike routes in San Jose.

Silicon Valley Creates ($15,000) – Showcasing local creativity on a global platform through the expansion of Pow! Wow!, an international art festival hosted in San Jose.

Funding for these projects forms one part of Knight Foundation’s efforts to support the urbanization of a traditionally sprawling city with a specific focus on central San Jose and how the city’s core can attract and retain talent, expand opportunity and build a culture of civic engagement. Since 2008, Knight Foundation has invested more than $22 million in San Jose.

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.

MIAMI – Sept. 7, 2017 – The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation today announced more than $590,000 in new funding for three projects aimed at fostering community among entrepreneurs and tech innovators while advancing the city as a diverse and inclusive innovation hub.

From an innovation district designed to support emerging entrepreneurs and add vibrancy to Miami’s Opa-locka neighborhood to a technology entrepreneurship course for young people to a newly-launched nonprofit that will provide promising local entrepreneurs access to the startup world’s top resources and leaders, the projects focus on supporting and propelling entrepreneurs across the community. They also work to expand opportunity for groups that are underrepresented in the technology sector.

“Ensuring Miamians have access to the opportunities they need to scale their ideas and solve the problems they care about is essential to creating an inclusive innovation ecosystem. These projects will help to diversify Miami’s pipeline of technologists and entrepreneurs and enable Miami startups to access the best resources in new and low cost ways,” said Chris Caines, Knight Foundation interim program director for Miami.  

The projects receiving support include:

NFTE – Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship ($250,000) – Helping young, aspiring entrepreneurs develop their entrepreneurial mindset by expanding Startup Tech, a technology entrepreneurship course for middle and high school students from underserved neighborhoods. The program provides students the opportunity to develop a working mobile app-based business, as well as entrepreneurship training. As part of the program,students create an original app that addresses a community need, craft a business plan and, pitch the plan to a panel of expert judges for the chance to win funding. With Knight support, NFTE will expand the program to five program sites in greater Miami public schools.

Opa-locka Community Development Corporation ($135,000) – Expanding opportunity and entrepreneurship in Opa-locka by supporting the THRIVE campus’ innovation lab and makerspace, and urban farm and market. At the innovation lab Opa-locka residents will be trained to use new media and technology, and earn marketable industry certifications, while sharing resources and knowledge in a co-working space. The urban farm will allow people to help build and manage the farm, and offer them agriculture, marketing, and training opportunities. The urban market will transform a vacant lot into a community and retail space, including redesigned shipping containers where local entrepreneurs can sell the farm’s produce and food from the campus’ commercial kitchen.

Platform.Miami ($208,000) – Supporting early stage entrepreneurs through the newly-launched Platform.Miami, a nonprofit which will provide promising local entrepreneurs access to the startup world’s top resources and leaders. The organization will offer online and offline education opportunities and services to help entrepreneurs better structure, setup and scale their startups. To this end, Platform will create “The Playbook,” a resource for best practices on product-market fit, business models, digital marketing, legal structure, and attracting venture capital. It will also showcase a selected list of top service providers to help entrepreneurs find the best professional services to support their growth.

Support for these projects is part of Knight Foundation’s broader effort to invest in Miami’s emerging innovators and entrepreneurs 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 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.

 CONTACT: 

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

Today, Knight is announcing $590,000 in support to three projects that will foster community among entrepreneurs and tech innovators while advancing Miami as a diverse and inclusive innovation hub.

Over the past five years, Knight Foundation has invested more than $28 million to support Miami’s entrepreneurs, startups and doers of all kinds. This funding has been used by organizations to make Miami a city where ideas can be built and scaled. Among Knight’s investments are events and spaces for entrepreneurs and innovators to connect, such as The LAB Miami and Black Tech Week; talent development including The Idea Center at Miami Dade College and Launchcode; and opportunities to expand access to high-level mentors and capital, such as Endeavor Miami and Accelerated Growth Partners.

Knight’s support of Miami’s emerging innovators and entrepreneurs has always had a wider goal:  To build community, while fostering talent and expanding economic opportunity. That is, we support entrepreneurship as a means to make communities and the people who live in them more successful. In Miami, the aspiration is that this prosperity will, in turn, take the shape of economic as well as social, political, and cultural capital for people and ideas across the city.

Lately, we’ve been thinking a lot about two questions: (1) How can our investments help ensure innovation is extended equitably across Miami? (2) How can we break down the silos that separate people in the ecosystem from each other?

Similar to many other parts of our society, there are barriers in the innovation ecosystem that can prevent people in our community from participating. Knight has funded intentional efforts to break down these barriers. With initial support form Knight, The Idea Center at Miami Dade College, the largest and most diverse campus-based college in the nation, has grown into a thriving innovation and entrepreneurial hub. Programs such as Girls Who Code, NewME Accelerator, Black Tech Week and Digital Grass have also worked promote diversity and close the opportunity gap in technology and engineering.

Within the entrepreneurial ecosystem, Knight has also sought to help break down silos that separate innovators, entrepreneurs, and organizations from each other. Innovation is not a zero-sum game and everyone in our community brings unique strengths and perspectives that make Miami and its entrepreneurial ecosystem stronger.

We have seen this play out with investments in activities that bind and connect people, such as The LAB Miami. The LAB opened its 10,000-square-foot campus in 2012, offering co-working space and community programming with initial funding from Knight Foundation. Since then, more than 50,000 people have attended The LAB’s events and over 150 startups—from social innovation startups to media companies— have launched there.

Similarly, Endeavor Miami, a global leader in building entrepreneurial ecosystems, opened its first U.S. affiliate in Miami in 2013 with Knight support. Already, 24 Miami entrepreneurs representing 15 companies have been selected as Endeavor Entrepreneurs, putting them on track for high-growth opportunities.

These are just a few examples of intentional efforts to bring people and ideas together. The sum of our ecosystem is greater than its parts, and further investment in collaborations aimed at increasing venture capital investment, easier access to talent and career opportunities, and a focus on building Miami’s brand as a global innovation hub is necessary.

Knight Foundation has resources, but we look to you for answers. As Miami’s entrepreneurial ecosystem continues to grow and Knight Foundation continues to invest, we welcome your thoughts, criticisms, suggestions and ideas on how our support can create lasting impact.

Chris Caines is interim Miami program director at Knight you can reach him at [email protected]; his Twitter and Instagram is @chrisocaines.

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To help attract and retain talent in downtown St. Paul by expanding the digital platform REWIRE, which will create and widely share multi-platform, story-driven content that elevates the local and national profile of the city’s young innovators, makers, creatives and entrepreneurs.

To support the professional development of female technologists through targeted coaching and mentoring.

We live in a time of disruption for local news and information. Local media continues to shrink, trust in journalistic institutions is at an all-time low, and people can’t even agree on what constitutes a fact.  It’s a difficult time to navigate, especially if you believe like we do that good, accurate and contextual information is essential to strong communities and a healthy democracy. Local news and information is particularly important to our lives. How else can you learn about your children’s school system or the pollutants in your neighborhood lake?  

Since the digital disruption, funders across the country have been investing in solutions to help bridge these information gaps at the local level. Over the past eight years, Knight has invested $22 million and partnered with nearly 88 community and place-based funders in this effort. However, this is just a drop in the bucket. The work is far from over. And while many of the projects have been successful at informing and engaging communities, they were less successful in getting local funders to embed information as a core part of their work.

With billions of dollars to spend, the time is now for local funders to step up to this challenge. 

That’s why we’ve invited four locally-focused funders on this journey of the Knight Community Information Lab, where they will be looking at the information gaps in their communities and finding ways to fill them.

I’m excited to share our four participants, chosen from nearly three dozen applications, and representing foundations large and small, rural and urban, with a range of funding priorities. The participants for the 2017-18 lab are Baltimore Community Foundation, Cleveland Foundation, Community Foundation of Boulder County and Lancaster County Community Foundation.

This fall, each is going to embark on a path, one without a chosen destination. It’s a bit of a leap of faith. The lab is an 18-month, human-centered design training to help them identify what sources of information are missing in their communities, and how they might help bridge those gaps. Unlike most grant programs, the participants aren’t coming in with a specific project in mind. We’re asking them to take a few steps back, and use design thinking to work with the community to identify the problems then test and ultimately build a solution.

You can learn more about them, and the issues they hope to address, below.

We hope they leave with an impactful project to fund, but we also have a more long-term goal. Our hope is that the foundations will leave the lab with the desire to, and the ideas for embedding news and information funding at the core of their work.

With this new process, we will learn as we go and share out what we are learning together. We also will be reinvigorating our annual seminar on local information needs. It has a new name, Knight Media Funder’s Form and we’re inviting leaders and board members of all types of foundations – be they community, place-based or national foundations – to participate. Registration will begin in the fall.

Congratulations to our four Community Information Lab participants! Here’s more about them:

  • Baltimore Community Foundation: The foundation promotes the success of Baltimore’s young people by supporting effective public schools and equipping neighborhoods with the resources they need. To effect positive change, the foundation seeks to address racial inequity, and ensure that all of the city’s diverse communities have access to the information they need to contribute to civic dialogue and shape their city.
  • Cleveland Foundation: The world’s first community foundation, the Cleveland Foundation will use human-centered design strategies to expand its impact in Greater Cleveland, by bridging information gaps in economic development, neighborhood revitalization, education reform, and/or health and human services.
  • Community Foundation Boulder County: The foundation works to advance equity and access to opportunity for all people, and is committed to standing with Boulder County’s most marginalized and vulnerable residents. In the lab, the foundation is going to partner with people left out of the county’s economic success, particularly Hispanics and other people who make up 25 percent of the population, so they can gain the skills and knowledge they need to promote social change.
  • Lancaster County Community Foundation: With a focus on thoughtful risk-taking and engaging the community in problem solving, the foundation has launched several initiatives – from a successful giving day to a business plan competition that raised funds for social enterprises. Next, the foundation wants to ensure there is a space for civic dialogue and broad and inclusive information exchange as part of the process of finding solutions to local challenges.

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MIAMI – Aug. 16, 2017 – Four community foundations will join a new design lab to help them find ways to ensure their communities are informed about issues important to them, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation announced today.

The Knight Community Information Lab will take the foundations through an 18-month human-centered design process that will help them get to the heart of the information gaps in their community, prototype ideas and develop long-term solutions with the input of local residents.

The foundations – large and small, rural and urban – include the Baltimore Community Foundation, the Cleveland Foundation, the Community Foundation Boulder County and Lancaster County Community Foundation.

“Since the very beginning of the digital disruption, communities have been inundated with news and information. But these days, it’s actually harder to find the accurate, contextual, local news and information that is essential to everyday democracy,” said Lilly Weinberg, director of Knight Foundation’s community foundations program. “Funders have a role to play in finding these gaps and working with residents to discover ways to fill them.”  

Starting this fall, the four foundations will attend workshops together that follow the four steps of human-centered design: inspiration, which involves in-depth community research and testing assumptions; interpreting that research; working with the audience to design solutions; and testing the idea with peers. Knight funding of $65,000 will cover travel and staff time to devote to the lab, in addition to prototyping ideas.

The lab initiative has its roots in the Knight Community Information Challenge, which launched in 2008 as the disruptions of the digital age began to dramatically affect communities and newsrooms. The challenge offered matching grants to encourage funders to take a leadership role in meeting local information needs, providing $22 million to 88 foundations across the country.

The lab builds on that approach, and creates a new way of funding for Knight Foundation. Instead of supporting a specific news and information project, Knight is helping foundations take a few steps back to discover and design an approach that is right for their community.

Each foundation has identified topic areas it expects to explore in the lab:

  • Baltimore Community Foundation: The foundation promotes the success of Baltimore’s young people by supporting effective public schools and equipping neighborhoods with the resources they need. To effect positive change, the foundation seeks to address racial inequity, and ensure that all of the city’s diverse communities have access to the information they need to contribute to civic dialogue and shape their city.
  • Cleveland Foundation: The world’s first community foundation, the Cleveland Foundation will use human-centered design strategies to expand its impact in Greater Cleveland, by bridging information gaps in economic development, neighborhood revitalization, education reform, and/or health and human services.
  • Community Foundation Boulder County: The foundation works to advance equity and access to opportunity for all people, and is committed to standing with Boulder County’s most marginalized and vulnerable residents. In the lab, the foundation is going to partner with people left out of the county’s economic success, particularly Hispanics and other people who make up 25 percent of the population, so they can gain the skills and knowledge they need to promote social change.
  • Lancaster County Community Foundation: With a focus on thoughtful risk-taking and engaging the community in problem solving, the foundation has launched several initiatives – from a successful giving day to a business plan competition that raised funds for social enterprises. Next, the foundation wants to ensure there is a space for civic dialogue and broad and inclusive information exchange as part of the process of finding solutions to local challenges.

Knight Foundation recently tested this concept with four other foundations, which went through a similar process, with great success. With insights from the lab, the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation has been able to help small non and for-profit media outlets in New Jersey find new revenue models, for example. Meanwhile, the Silicon Valley Community Foundation is helping to form a regional media collaborative to investigative the lack of affordable housing in the area. Each of these foundations are continuing their work in meeting local information needs.

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.

Contacts:

Marika Lynch, communications consultant, Knight Foundation, [email protected], 305-908-2677

Anika Goss-Foster is the executive director of Detroit Future City, a nonprofit dedicated to implementing a 50-year strategic vision for the city of Detroit. Below she writes about the organization’s 139 Square Miles report, released today. 

Detroit is a city of 139 square miles and more than 672,000 residents.  It is an ever-changing place with many neighborhoods and differing conditions across each of them.  As it continues to evolve and address major quality of life issues, it is important that everyone involved in the city’s transformation, from residents to real estate investors, has the data and information they need to get informed and help shape their city.  This is the goal of Detroit Future City’s 139 Square Miles report.

The report uses the most recent information available to provide the first, comprehensive, citywide, data-driven study on the state of Detroit without analysis or critique. It shows that for the first time in 60 years, Detroit is moving towards population growth, with the economy on the rise and neighborhoods beginning to stabilize.

With 139 Square Miles, Detroit Future City wanted to present Detroiters with pure facts in an understandable and accessible way.  And, though this report is for Detroiters, it is our hope that it is shared, used and referenced both nationally and globally.

139 Square Miles focuses on four key areas: Population, people, economy and place.

The report shows that the city’s economic development efforts are also yielding results. Detroit has reemerged as a significant contributor to the region’s economy, with payroll at firms in Detroit showing a 42 percent increase, which is 50 percent more than the national average. Employment numbers are up in the city, and jobs are becoming available in not only the tech field, but manufacturing jobs are returning to the city, as well.

Though growth is evident, 139 Square Miles identifies areas where gaps still exist and, in some cases, are growing wider. The report shows increased disparity for minorities, specifically in the areas of educational attainment, access to jobs and economic advancement. Only 20 percent of Detroiters have an associate’s degree or higher, which makes it more difficult for the city’s residents to find higher-paying jobs. Additionally, the unemployment rate is 150 percent higher for African Americans than white residents. The City has developed great programs to combat these challenges, such as the Detroit Promise and vocational training, and 139 Square Miles makes it clear that we need to expand those programs even further.

So, what are our next steps?  We want this report to become the baseline that all stakeholders involved in Detroit’s revitalization can use to create opportunity in the city.  With it, we hope that as Detroit continues to transform, Detroit Future City can continue to update 139 Square Miles, as a clear marker of the city’s growth. Detroit is a city that is post recession and post-bankruptcy. It is seeing incredible progress, but also still experiencing considerable barriers.  Data in the 139 Square Miles report captures this success and offers insights to help build on them, while also highlighting where gaps exist and where there are opportunities for growth and change.  Through it, Detroiters can make better, more informed decisions about their communities and our city’s future.  

Read the report

To advance early childhood literacy in Philadelphia with capacity-building initiatives for the Free Library of Philadelphia staff and a quarterly innovation fund designed to catalyze innovation within the Read by 4th partner network.

To support further development of digital strategy for The Children’s Movement by implementing a robust customer relationship management system.

In May 2017, Knight Foundation and Niantic, the creators of PokémonGO, developed a partnership to see how technology can foster community engagement in several cities where Knight invests. Read on to learn more about how Akron hopes to utilize this partnership to better connect university students to the city.

In 2016, Niantic pulled on the nostalgic heartstrings of older millennials when they released their latest game since Endgame: Proving Ground and Ingress, Pokémon Go. Using smartphone cameras the game’s interface allows players to layer a virtual world over the real world. In this way, Niantic encourages users to get out and capture digital Pokémon by interacting with the environment and a variety of public spaces. Since the game’s release, Niantic has captured the attention of over 650 million people and added more features that promote these interactions. They have essentially gamified the experience of getting out and exploring local neighborhoods and the wider world.

When Pokémon Go was released, I was one of the people who jumped on the bandwagon immediately. As a kid, I collected Pokémon cards and was an avid watcher of the television show.

Since the game came out, I’ve noticed groups of people, young and old, wandering the streets with their noses to their phones. During my lunch breaks, I walk around downtown and see people that I’ve never seen before chatting and exploring the area both physically and virtually. In July 2016, Downtown Akron Partnership and the Akron Summit Convention and Visitors Bureau capitalized on the interest in the game and brought several of us together to hold an event along Akron’s Main Street. The event was a great success. For those of us who participated, it was an easy and fun way to meet new neighbors and get to know our city.

This experiment in connectivity, to place and to people, is why Knight Foundation’s Akron office jumped on the chance to work with Niantic on a project that would use Pokémon Go to bring more vibrancy to our city. One of the challenges Akron struggles with is getting residents, and specifically University of Akron students, to hang out in downtown beyond a single student-focused event.

Downtown Akron Partnership and the University of Akron came on board to collaborate on an idea that would marry Pokémon Go to civic engagement. New Roo Weekend seemed like a natural fit. New Roo Weekend is University of Akron’s freshman orientation period, which occurs just before classes begin. If we can showcase how much the city has to offer at first introduction, hopefully students will be willing to continue exploring on a regular basis.

So, on August 26 and 27, we are going to attempt to bridge the gap between the virtual and real world, as well as between the university and its surrounding community. Music, food, and Pokémon swag will greet gamers as they traverse downtown. Pokéstops will light up the streets of downtown Akron as communities collide, merge and connect with each other. I hope to see you there.

Bronlynn Thurman is a Program Associate in Knight Foundation’s Akron office and avid cartoon enthusiast. To learn more about Knight’s work in Akron, email Bronlynn at [email protected].

Join PokémonGO in Downtown Akron

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