Project summary: $500,000 in Naugatuck Valley, Conn.
Over the last decade, the five ethnically diverse towns of the Lower Naugatuck Valley have lost their newspaper and their local radio station. Residents are starved for local news and a community forum. Meanwhile, nearby, the community foundation has joined with the nonprofit Online Journalism Project to create the New Haven Independent, a vigorous digital news source. This grant will help extend the New Haven model to the valley by creating the online Valley Independent Sentinel, a hyperlocal site staffed by professional journalists and citizen contributors.
Recipient: The Community Foundation for Greater New HavenAbout the organization: The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven was established in 1928 and is the largest philanthropic institution in its region of 20 towns and over 600,000 people in South Central Connecticut. With approximately 700 separate charitable funds, the foundation makes approximately $14 million in grants annually to support a wide array of charitable activity. In the Lower Naugatuck Valley region of Connecticut, where the support of the John s. and James L. Knight Foundation will be used to launch a new online community news site, the organization operates through its affiliate, the Valley Community Foundation.
