Attendees of the 2010 Media Learning Seminar were interviewed by FSG Social Impact Advisers for Knight Foundation and told what they learned or took away from the conference.

NEW YORK, Feb. 4—Beyond Bullets, a project of Downtown Community Television (DCTV), has launched a media campaign that will use youth reporters and roving film festivals to raise the collective consciousness about the impact of gun violence in New York City. A grant of $60,000 was made to The New York Community Trust by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation for the campaign. The Trust matched the grant and has made a $120,000 grant to DCTV for the project.

Television, movies, and music videos normalize carrying weapons and glamorize them as a source of personal
power, the American Academy of Pediatrics says. Meanwhile, news media focus on sensational stories about
gun-related homicides, but rarely work to illuminate the causes or portray effective community solutions.
“ Beyond Bullets will challenge the mainstream entertainment and news media’s narrative,” says Kerry
McCarthy, Trust program officer for the arts. “The effort will offer in-depth youth reporting on the causes and
costs of gun violence, and the unheralded—yet strong—efforts to combat it.”

Youth reporters from neighborhoods such as Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brownsville, East Harlem, Mott Haven, and
Jamaica, will create video reports on gun violence in the City, and original media for www.beyondbullets.org and for broadcast on WNYC-TV. The reports will also be screened at community forums and town hall
meetings, traveling around the City in a mobile production van—the Beyond Bullets CyberCar.

“Media has helped create this problem, and we are using media to help stop it,” says Jon Alpert, Emmy Award-winner and DCTV executive director. “We've recently completed a 15-city investigation of the problem and of local solutions to our gun violence epidemic. This summer we are going to employ everything we've learned as we work in 7 dangerous NYC neighborhoods on a media campaign to combat gun violence in New York City.”

DCTV’s anti-gun violence work began in 2004, when a New York Community Trust-supported media arts fellow, 19-year-old Terrence Fisher, was co-producing what would become an award-winning documentary, Bullets in the Hood: A Bed-Stuy Story. In January 2004, he and his childhood friend, Timothy Stansbury, were met by gunfire in the stairwell of Terrence’s building. A bullet struck Timothy, killing him. Two years later, DCTV toured the film, screening the documentary on the side of the CyberCar. Thousands of youth, elected officials, law enforcement officers, and parents saw the film at each stop.

The campaign will use new media and technology to not only inform residents about gun violence in their neighborhoods, but also to let them know what they can do about it. “Information is as important to a thriving democracy as clean air, jobs and schools. As leaders, local foundations are taking the initiative to meet those information needs,” says Trabian Shorters, Knight Foundation’s vice president for communities, who leads the challenge. “This project and others like it help ensure that everyone has the information necessary to make decisions about their governments and their lives.”

About The New York Community Trust Since 1924, The New York Community Trust has been the community foundation of New York City, helping charitable individuals, families, and businesses to improve the quality of life for all the area’s residents through an aggregate of 2,000 funds. The Trust is dedicated to meeting the changing needs of children, youth, and families; aid in community development; improve the environment; promote health; assist people with special needs; and support education, arts, and human justice. The Trust is governed by a 12-member Distribution Committee composed of community leaders appointed by a variety of civic institutions. Its staff is recognized for its experience in grantmaking, financial administration, and donor service. Divisions are located on Long Island and in Westchester. In 2009, The Trust made grants of $127 million from assets of $1.8 billion.

About the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation Contact: Marc Fest, VP for communications, 305-908-2677, fest@knightfoundation.org The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation advances journalism in the digital age and invests in the vitality of communities where the Knight brothers owned newspapers. Knight Foundation focuses on projects that promote community engagement and lead to transformational change. For more, visit www.knightfoundation.org . The Knight Community Information Challenge is a five-year, $24 million initiative to help community and place-based foundations find creative ways to use new media and technology to keep residents informed and engaged.

About Downtown Community Television Center (DCTV) www.DCTVNY.org Contact: Stephanie Skaff, (212) 966-4510, Stephanie@dctv.org Started in 1972 and located in Chinatown, DCTV is a media arts center that produces award-winning documentaries as means of strengthening democracy and enhancing civil society. The Center also provides hundreds of media production courses and workshops to students, residents, and producers and rents broadcast-quality production equipment at affordable prices.

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CONTACT:

Ani Hurwitz, vice president, communications The New York Community Trust 909 Third Ave., New York, NY 10022 T (212) 686 -0010 x 224 / F (212) 532-8528 afh@nyct-cfi.org / www.nycommunitytrust.org

New site furthers organizations’ mission to provide communities with wider access to credible news and information

BOSTON (February 1, 2010) -- MassINC today launched a new online version of CommonWealth magazine, the most visible manifestation yet of an $800,000 investment by the Boston and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundations in expanding news coverage in Massachusetts. CommonWealthmagazine.org and MassINC.org will now offer a wealth of journalism and research to engage citizens and policymakers in the issues of the day.

The Boston Foundation gave MassINC $400,000 over two years to fund the new web platform as well as the build-out of CommonWealth’s investigative reporting unit. Knight Foundation matched that grant as part of its Knight Community Information Challenge, a five-year, $24 million initiative to help community foundations find creative ways to use new media and technology to keep residents informed and engaged.

“Information is as important to a thriving democracy as clean air, jobs and schools. As leaders, local foundations like The Boston Foundation are taking the initiative to meet those information needs,” said Trabian Shorters, Knight Foundation’s vice president for communities, who leads the challenge. “This project helps ensure that everyone has the information necessary to make decisions about their governments and their lives.”

“Access to information and the ability to keep government accountable remain critical to a healthy and thriving civic life,” said Paul S. Grogan, President and CEO of the Boston Foundation. “The expansion of CommonWealth magazine into a significant, 21st century source of news and information, is a great example of the kind of the creative thinking needed to address this need and represents a significant investment by the Boston Foundation and the Knight Foundation in a critical resource for this community.”  

CommonWealth Magazine has traditionally been a quarterly print magazine published by MassINC, the nonpartisan public affairs think tank founded in 1996 to provide unbiased information about significant challenges facing the state of Massachusetts. The goal of the grant project was to expand CommonWealth from a print-based magazine to a print and online magazine with an emphasis on investigative and public affairs reporting. Features of the web magazine include:

• Full Disclosure:  A web page within the site that links users to hard-to-access and often expensive public records  
• The What Works desk: specific reporting on programs and policies proven successful elsewhere in the country that could be replicated here.
• The Civic Journalism Site: Dubbed “the page for Bay-state news junkies,” this micro-site invites journalists and media experts to comment on the impact of changes in the news industry and look ahead to what the future holds.  

"This prestigious partnership  – on both the local and national level – is particularly gratifying for MassINC in that it advances our agenda to provide a non-ideological platform for public affairs reporting and analysis," said Greg Torres, President of MassINC and publisher of CommonWealth magazine.  "The impact of these grants is very real in terms of keeping our lawmakers accountable and our citizens informed."

About the Boston Foundation

The Boston Foundation, Greater Boston’s community foundation, is one of the oldest and largest community foundations in the nation, with assets of $695 million.  In Fiscal Year 2009, the Foundation and its donors made $86 million in grants to nonprofit organizations and received gifts of over $72 million. The Foundation is made up of some 900 separate charitable funds established by donors either for the general benefit of the community or for special purposes.  The Boston Foundation also serves as a major civic leader, provider of information, convener, and sponsor of special initiatives designed to address the community’s and region’s most pressing challenges.  For more information about the Boston Foundation, visit www.tbf.org or call 617-338-1700.

About the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation

The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation advances journalism in the digital age and invests in the vitality of communities where the Knight brothers owned newspapers. Knight Foundation focuses on projects that promote community engagement and lead to transformational change. For more, visit www.knightfoundation.org.

About MassINC

The Massachusetts Institute for a New Commonwealth (MassINC) is a nonpartisan, evidence based organization. Its mission is to develop a public agenda for Massachusetts that promotes the growth and vitality of the middle class. Its governing philosophy is rooted in the ideals embodied in the American Dream: equality of opportunity, personal responsibility, and a strong commonwealth. MassINC publishes the quarterly journal, CommonWealth.

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Contact:  Marjorie Malpiede, 617-224-1625;  mmalpiede@massinc.org

MIAMI (Feb. 1, 2010) — The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation is accepting applications from community and place-based foundations seeking to fund news and information projects. The deadline for the Knight Community Information Challenge, a matching grant program, is March 8. Applications can be submitted at www.informationneeds.org.

Knight Foundation created the five-year contest to help local foundations find creative ways to fund media projects that inform and engage residents about pressing issues. So far, the Challenge has awarded $7.3 million for 45 ideas in communities large and small. The projects include funding public interest online news sites, creating online hubs to engage communities around specific issues and filling gaps in the types of news and information available locally.
“Local foundations are increasingly taking the initiative to meet their community’s information needs, a goal as important as ensuring an area has good schools, jobs and clean air,” said Trabian Shorters, Knight Foundation’s vice president for communities, who leads the Challenge.

J-lab, the Institute for Interactive Journalism, has found that since 2005, foundations have awarded nearly $136 million in grants to 128 news and information projects nationwide.

Representatives from community or place-based foundations with questions about the Challenge can participate in one of two live chats to have queries answered online by Knight Foundation program officers. The live chats will take place at noon EDT Feb. 16 and 22 at www.informationneeds.org. Visit the site to learn more and sign up for a reminder.

Knight Foundation provides free consultants to help local foundations identify opportunities and the technology that could benefit their communities. In addition, Knight will host the third Media Learning Seminar March 1-2 in Miami. The seminar aims to educate leaders of community and place-based foundations about media trends and the information needs of communities in a democracy. Registration for the seminar is open through Feb. 15. To apply, learn more about the challenge or register for the Media Learning Seminar, visit www.informationneeds.org.

The Challenge is part of Knight's Media Innovation Initiative, whose seven projects include an effort to explore national media reform, increase broadband access and transform journalism education, among others.

The Challenge complements the sweeping recommendations of the Knight Commission on the Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy, a project of the Aspen Institute.  In a report issued last fall, the commission asserts that democracy in America is threatened by the lack of equal access to quality information. The report is available at www.knightcomm.org.

About the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation
The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation advances journalism in the digital age and invests in the vitality of communities where the Knight brothers owned newspapers. Knight Foundation focuses on projects that promote informed, engaged communities and lead to transformational change. For more, visit www.knightfoundation.org

The grant was awarded by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation as a part of the Knight Community Information Challenge. The challenge is a five-year, $24 million initiative to help community and place-based foundations find creative ways to use new media and technology to keep residents informed and engaged.  The Community Foundation of North Florida is one of 24 community and place-based foundations recently selected to receive a grant in this highly competitive national grant contest.

“Access to information is essential for the quality of life in our community and for providing resources to help increase access for all citizens,” said Joy Watkins, President of the Community Foundation of North Florida.  “Through this grant contest, Knight is challenging communities across the country to respond to the changing media landscape and ensure that residents have access to information. We are pleased to be able to support Knight’s work in our area, strengthen The Village Square’s endeavors, and increase access to information for citizens in our community.”

“Information is as important to a thriving democracy as clean air, jobs and schools. As leaders, local foundations are taking the initiative to meet those information needs,” said Trabian Shorters, Knight Foundation’s vice president for communities, who leads the challenge. “This project and others like it help ensure that everyone has the information necessary to make decisions about their governments and their lives.”

“The Village Square appreciates this opportunity to partner with the Community Foundation and Knight Foundation,” said Liz Joyner, Executive Director of The Village Square.  “The Village Square’s mission is to encourage civil dialogue about local concerns and to ensure the people of our community receive factual information about those issues. Our work is right in line with what Knight Foundation is trying to accomplish.  This grant will enhance our work by allowing us to get more information to a broader audience.”

Allan Katz co-founded The Village Square in 2006 with Tallahassee Community College President Dr. Bill Law. “Rapid changes in the way we communicate with each other and the hyper-partisan environment nationally have left communities less able to deal with local and state issues constructively,” said Katz, a former Tallahassee city commissioner who has been nominated by President Obama to become U.S. Ambassador to Portugal.  “The best ideas in a democracy come from engaged and informed citizenship,” said Law.  “This project will bring more light and less heat to problems ahead of us.”

“The social glue of communities has changed substantially over the last 40 years,” said Joyner. “Civic clubs and service organizations used to knit us together to form a geographical community whose bond was greater than political difference.  But ideology-based groups are on the rise and, as a result, our unique made-in-America social fabric is fraying.”

“We the People” will expand The Village Square programming on local and state issues through varying formats like “Dinner at the Square,” “Take-out Tuesday,” “Politics, Partisans & A Pint” and “Sunday Night Supper Club,” intentionally reviving community between people with diverse perspectives.

To compliment these face-to-face forums, the project will have an online component: A Wiki-based online problem-solving tool, where neighbors can collaborate to assemble relevant facts and resources for addressing local, state and national issues.  “We hope to create an online community that defies the trend toward angry likeminded groups; where people will treat each other with the same respect as they do when they see neighbors at the grocery store or at their mailbox,” said Joyner.

“This grant presents a great opportunity for our organization and our community,” said Joyner.  We have a lot of work ahead of us to raise the $50,000 match required by Knight and to implement the details of the project. Our hope is that the community will rally with us to raise the matching funds and help us improve the vitality of our community by increasing access to civil and factual information in our community.”

To learn more about the project or to get involved with The Village Square, please go to www.tothevillagesquare.org or contact Liz Joyner at liz@tothevillagesquare.org or (850) 264-8785.

About the Community Foundation of North Florida
The Community Foundation of North Florida is a nonprofit public charity serving the 10-County Big Bend area by facilitating and promoting charitable giving and strengthening nonprofit organizations. The Foundation helps people give in perpetuity to their favorite charities and helps nonprofit organizations with grants, education and endowment building expertise.  For more information, contact Joy Watkins, President, at jwatkins@cfnf.org or 850-222-2899 ext. 104.

About the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation
The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation advances journalism in the digital age and invests in the vitality of communities where the Knight brothers owned newspapers. Knight Foundation focuses on projects that promote community engagement and lead to transformational change. For more, visit www.knightfoundation.org.

Contact:

Joy Watkins, President
Community Foundation of North Florida
(850) 222-2899 ext. 104
jwatkins@cfnf.org
www.cfnf.org

Marc Fest, Vice President for Communications
Knight Foundation
305-908-2677
fest@knightfoundation.org

Liz Joyner, Executive Director
The Village Square
(850) 264-8785
liz@tothevillagesquare.org

“Although times have been tough for the newspaper industry, we believe local newspapers are still vital to Arkansas’s communities,” said ARCF President and CEO Heather Larkin. “Through this grant, we hope to increase the capacity of local newspapers to provide the in-depth coverage of local issues that citizens need to make informed decisions and that towns need to maintain a sense of community.”

ARCF’s Write for Arkansas initiative is one of 24 projects funded through Knight Foundation’s Community Information Challenge, a five-year, $24 million initiative to help community and place-based foundations find creative ways to use new media and technology to keep residents informed and engaged.

“Information is as important to a thriving democracy as clean air, jobs and schools. As leaders, local foundations are taking the initiative to meet those information needs,” said Trabian Shorters, Knight Foundation’s vice president for communities, who leads the challenge. “This project and others like it help ensure that everyone has the information necessary to make decisions about their governments and their lives.”

In addition to providing funding for five reporting positions, the grant will also enable the creation of a Write for Arkansas website where the reporters’ stories will be collected in a searchable archive and where the reporters will blog about their communities and experiences.

The Arkansas Press Association will partner with ARCF to recruit participating newspapers. The newspapers themselves will then select reporters to fill the new positions created through the program.

“Delivering a high volume of quality local news has long been the challenge of community newspapers in Arkansas and across the nation,” said Tom Larimer, executive director, Arkansas Press Association. “The Knight Foundation grant will go a long way toward filling a gap in local news coverage created by difficult economic conditions that have befallen newspapers along with other businesses in communities across Arkansas and the nation. This grant to assist community newspapers in keeping readers informed about important events in their respective communities is certainly a creative approach and one I think will be well received by newspaper publishers and editors.”

About Arkansas Community Foundation
Arkansas Community Foundation has the capacity to engage communities in a thoughtful exploration of critical issues and can help assemble the resources to implement solutions.  Arkansas’s statewide community foundation has more than $120 million in assets and has provided more than $70 million in grants since it began operation in 1976.  Contributions to ARCF, its funds and any of its 27 local affiliate offices are fully tax deductible. For more, visit www.arcf.org.

About the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation
The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation advances journalism in the digital age and invests in the vitality of communities where the Knight brothers owned newspapers. Knight Foundation focuses on projects that promote community engagement and lead to transformational change. For more, visit www.knightfoundation.org.

For more information, contact:

Heather Larkin
ARCF President and CEO
501-372-1116

Marc Fest
Knight Foundation Vice President for Communications
305-908-2677

The “Community Information Action Agenda” will be funded by a grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation’s Community Information Challenge, a five-year, $24 million initiative to help community foundations find creative ways to use media and technology to keep residents informed and engaged.  Community Foundation of Greater South Wood County is one of 24 winners nationwide

Kelly Lucas, CEO of the Community Foundation, explained, “Knowledge and information are the new currency of social change. Our Knight Foundation project aligns with the Community Foundation’s work to create healthy information systems and positive community transformation.”

The Community Foundation will also match Knight Foundation’s $152,500 grant.

“Information is as important to a thriving democracy as clean air, jobs and schools.  As leaders, local community foundations are taking the initiative to meet those information needs,” said Trabian Shorters, Knight Foundation’s vice president for communities, who leads the Challenge.  “This project and others like it help ensure that everyone has the information necessary to make decisions about their governments and their lives.”

In addition to increasing public awareness of the vital role of community information and the changing landscape of how citizens acquire and use information, this project will specifically address information needs by creating a Community Information Action Agenda. Action teams will foster grassroots engagement to increase awareness, interaction and social capital – ultimately increasing the overall information health within the community by addressing priority gaps and opportunities. Outreach will consist of community forums, focus groups, research and targeted outreach to specific populations including youth, seniors and low-income families/individuals.

As part of this work, the Community Foundation will sponsor a public forum: “Information Revolution: Defining and Redefining How We Get Community Information,” on Wednesday, February 24, at Hotel Mead in Wisconsin Rapids. The public is invited and welcome to be part of this community discussion of how best to address information gaps and opportunities.

“Over the next two years of this project, input from community members will be critical,” emphasized Helen Jungwirth, Community Foundation board chair and retired publisher of the Wisconsin Rapids Tribune and Stevens Point Journal. “Ultimately, we want all residents to be empowered to help shape and create an effective information system for community information.”

Media Contacts:

Kelly Lucas, CEO, Community Foundation of Greater South Wood County
Phone: 715.423.3863

Mary Olson, VP – Communications, Community Foundation of Greater South Wood County
Phone: 715.423.3863

Helen Jungwirth, Board member, Community Foundation of Greater South Wood County
Phone: 715.421.1597

About Community Foundation of Greater South Wood County:
Community Foundation of Greater South Wood County, established in 1994, promotes strategic philanthropy, builds social capital and connects community resources for the common good. The foundation works to create a resilient, thriving community that embraces and supports all people. To learn more, call 715.423.3863, or visit www.cfswc.org.

About the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation
The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation advances journalism in the digital age and invests in the vitality of communities where the Knight brothers owned newspapers. Knight Foundation focuses on projects that promote community engagement and lead to transformational change. For more, visit www.knightfoundation.org.  For information about the Knight Community Information Challenge, visit www.informationneeds.org.

The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation is providing $300,000 through its Knight Community Information Challenge, a $24 million initiative to help community and place-based foundations find creative ways to use new media and technology to keep residents informed and engaged. The Hartford Foundation for Public Giving and The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven are providing matching funds.

The Web site, www.ctmirror.org, which is due to start publishing the week of Jan. 25, will provide professional reporting on Connecticut’s legislature, executive branch and courts, as well as insight and analysis, disclosing the whys and consequences of public policy decisions.

“Information is as important to a thriving democracy as clean air, jobs and schools. As leaders, local foundations are taking the initiative to meet those information needs,” said Trabian Shorters, Knight Foundation’s vice president for communities, who leads the challenge. “This project and others like it help ensure that everyone has the information necessary to make decisions about their governments and their lives.”

“Connecticut residents increasingly find themselves in an informational void on matters as personal as planning their children’s educations and as global as choosing leaders who will sustain the state’s quality of life,” said Linda J. Kelly, president, Hartford Foundation for Public

Giving. “The goal of this project to assure that state residents are better informed about their government so they can be more fully engaged in holding state policymakers accountable for addressing the state’s needs.”

The site will also provide access to public, but not easily accessible, state government documents from voting records to school test scores, and serve as a portal to information available elsewhere online. Through a feature called CT Commons, citizens will have opportunities to discuss and express opinions about legislative and government issues, through reader feedback, online public hearings with policymakers, issues forums and conversations.

“We believe strongly that civic life at the community level requires high-quality accessible community information; ctmirror.org will play a vital role enabling Connecticut citizens to use new media to engage in our civic life,” said William W. Ginsberg, president and CEO of The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven. Support for the project is being provided through one of The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven’s anonymous donor advised funds.

In addition, the Connecticut News Project will offer increased opportunities for aspiring journalists to receive training and mentoring on informing the public using these new media tools.

“We are delighted by the generous support of these three foundations. Their funding supports and validates our goal which is to reach the three and a half million Connecticut residents who live in the urban, suburban and rural communities across the state. We can’t do this by ourselves. We’ll seek the help of distribution partners, other media, community groups, foundations, businesses, cultural organizations and individuals,” said James A. Cutie, chief operating officer, Connecticut News Project.

Michael Regan will serve as editor for the Connecticut News Project. He is a former editor for The Hartford Courant, supervising coverage of topics including politics, education, health care, the courts and the City of Hartford for more than 20 years. James A. Cutie is the chief operating officer, with primary responsibility for assuring the long-term sustainability of the project. Jim has 35 years of management, marketing, communications and fundraising experience in traditional and online media, founding the original new media division of The New York Times.  Mark Pazniokas will serve as Capitol bureau chief. Mark is the former state politics writer for The Hartford Courant and a former contributing writer for The New York Times. Robert Frahm, who covered education for newspapers in Wisconsin and Connecticut for 36 years before retiring from The Hartford Courant as its chief education writer, will be the project’s education reporter. Jacqueline Rabe, who has been a reporter, online editor and web site developer for the Washington Post Co’s Southern Maryland Newspaper chain, is the Capitol reporter.

The Knight Foundation grant for the Connecticut News Project is one of 24 other grants announced today for a wide variety of news and information projects across the country.

About the Connecticut News Project
The Connecticut News Project, Inc. is an independent, non-partisan, nonprofit news organization created to reinvigorate coverage of Connecticut’s state government, public policy and politics. Its primary goal is to ensure that the people of the state are better informed about their government, so they can more effectively participate in the development of public policy and hold officials accountable for understanding and addressing the state’s needs. The Connecticut News Project will achieve this goal through original and reliable reporting presented on its website, www.ctmirror.org, and distributed through various other platforms and technologies.

About the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation
The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation advances journalism in the digital age and invests in the vitality of communities where the Knight brothers owned newspapers. Knight Foundation focuses on projects that promote community engagement and lead to transformational change. For more, visit www.knightfoundation.org.

About Hartford Foundation for Public Giving
The Hartford Foundation for Public Giving is the community foundation for the 29-town Greater Hartford region, dedicated to improving the quality of life for area residents for the past 85 years.  The Foundation receives gifts from thousands of generous individuals and families, and last year, awarded grants of nearly $26 million to a broad range of area nonprofit organizations. For more information about the Hartford Foundation, visit www.hfpg.org or call 860-548-1888.

About The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven
Since 1928, donors to The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven have built the community's endowment consisting of over 700 funds and distributing approximately $14 million in grants annually. The Foundation has been helping donors achieve their charitable goals and improving the quality of life for Greater New Haven residents for more than 80 years. For more information about The Community Foundation visit www.cfgnh.org.

Contacts:
Marc Fest, Knight Foundation; 305-908-2677; fest@knightfoundation.org
Donna Jolly, Hartford Foundation; 860-548-1888; djolly@hfpg.org
James A. Cutie, Connecticut News Project; 860-218-6380; jcutie@ctmirror.org

LOS ANGELES ― Latino youth in “hard-to-count” communities in Los Angeles County will learn about the importance of participating in the 2010 Census via cell phones and other technologies, thanks to a $72,000 grant to the California Community Foundation (CCF) from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.

Los Angeles County has more than 4.4 million residents living in areas that are considered hard to count – more than 2.5 times the number of any other county in the nation. The most undercounted populations are Los Angeles’ ethnically diverse, low-income and homeless residents. Government agencies use census counts to allocate federal and state funds for critical service areas such as health, education, job training, welfare and transportation. For each resident missed in the 2010 Census, California is expected to lose $11,400 in government funding over the next decade, according to a Brookings Institution report.

“Technology is an integral part of how young people communicate, and this grant will help us interactively show them how important it is to stand up and be counted in the census,” said CCF President and CEO Antonia Hernández. “This innovative outreach will lead to a higher count and, most importantly, more resources for the people in our community who need them most.”

“Information is as important to a thriving democracy as clean air, jobs and schools. As leaders, local foundations are taking the initiative to meet those information needs,” said Trabian Shorters, Knight Foundation’s vice president for communities, who leads the challenge. “This project and others like it help ensure that everyone has the information necessary to make decisions about their governments and their lives.”

The project is a winner of Knight Foundation’s Knight Community Information Challenge, a five-year, $24 million initiative to help community and place-based foundations find creative ways to use new media and technology to keep residents informed and engaged.

CCF will match every dollar of the grant and partner with the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund and Voto Latino to improve Latino youth’s awareness and access to accurate, bilingual information about participating in the census. Technologies used for outreach include a cell phone game, the “Census Challenge,” which will target Latino youth to take an online pledge to be counted and give them an opportunity to become virtual census recruiters by tapping others in their social networks to do the same. They can track their progress via an interactive virtual tool and participants can win prizes from Voto Latino’s census partners, including Apple and MTV.

“The current economic and political climate presents added challenges to reaching hard-to-count populations in this census compared to 2000,” said MALDEF President and General Counsel Thomas A. Saenz.  “But the single most significant improvement from 10 years ago is the broader availability and use, particularly among Latino youth, of 21st-century communications technologies. The foresight of Knight Foundation and the California Community Foundation in providing this support allows MALDEF to continue its partnership with Voto Latino to ensure full information for and increased participation of Latino families in the census.”

“The 2010 Census poses some of the greatest challenges we have ever faced in obtaining Latino participation, which affects federal funding and political representation at the local level,” said Voto Latino Executive Director Maria Teresa Kumar. “Voto Latino recognizes that Latino youth are the primary ‘influencers’ in their families and engages them with celebrity voices and the latest technology. Given the high use of cell phones among Latinos, the L.A. County mobile phone census app will provide Latinos with accurate, instant bilingual information about the importance of participating in the census. We are grateful to Knight Foundation and the California Community Foundation for their support of this important and groundbreaking mobile/new media initiative.”

About CCF
As L.A.’s foundation, the California Community Foundation has been around since 1915 and has about $1 billion in assets. We have more than 1,600 funds whose donors chose us because of our personal service and expertise. To learn more, visit myccf.org.

About MALDEF
Founded in 1968, MALDEF is the nation’s leading Latino civil rights organization. Often described as the “law firm of the Latino community,” MALDEF promotes social change through advocacy, communications, community education, and litigation in the areas of education, employment, immigrant rights and political access. To learn more, visit maldef.org.

About Voto Latino
Voto Latino is the leading nonpartisan Latino youth civic engagement organization and works to promote an enfranchised America by leveraging celebrity voices, the latest technology and youth themselves to promote positive change. The organization was founded in 2004 by the actress Rosario Dawson and Maria Teresa Kumar (who has become the “go-to” commentator on the Latino vote & civic engagement on networks like MSNBC & CNN). Each of Voto Latino's initiatives are meant to create a rapid-response, organized online American Latino community with a goal toward increased integration and civic engagement. Voto Latino recognizes that civic engagement goes beyond the voting booth and involves mobilization around several issues, including the census and immigration reform because of what is at stake for the Latino community. To learn more, visit votolatino.org.

About the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation
The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation advances journalism in the digital age and invests in the vitality of communities where the Knight brothers owned newspapers. Knight Foundation focuses on projects that promote community engagement and lead to transformational change. For more, visit knightfoundation.org.