The Knight Commission on the Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy is a group of 17 media, policy and community leaders. Its purpose is to assess the information needs of communities, and recommend measures to help Americans better meet those needs.

The Knight Commission sees new thinking about news and information as a necessary step to sustaining democracy in the digital age. It thus follows in the footsteps of the 1940s Hutchins Commission and the Kerner and Carnegie Commissions of the 1960s.

But in the digital age the stakes are even higher. Technological, economic and behavioral changes are dramatically altering how Americans communicate. Communications systems no longer run along the lines of local communities, and the gap in access to digital tools and skills is wide and troubling.

The Commission seeks to start a national discussion – leading to real action. Its aims are to maximize the availability and flow of credible local information; to enhance access and capacity to use the new tools of knowledge and exchange; and to encourage people to engage with information and each other within their geographic communities.

Informing Communites: Sustaining Democracy in the Digital Age

Four years ago, as the media industry teetered, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation began to explore new ways to advance quality journalism in the digital age.  We asked: what innovations will inform 21st century communities the way the Knight brothers’ newspapers did in the 20th?

To help find them, we created the Knight News Challenge – a five-year, $25 million contest seeking fresh ideas for using digital technology to inform geographic communities. We believed that living through a time of such enormous change, the most effective thing we can do as a foundation is to experiment and learn.

This study forwards that mission. After three rounds of the Knight News Challenge, we took a step back to examine how we could improve the contest. We consulted past challenge judges, entrepreneurs and technologists. We also explored lessons from the broader field. In general, contests are increasingly being used as a tool to solve society’s most entrenched problems. In the area of news and information alone, the number of contests has doubled since we first launched the challenge in 2006.

We hope that you will find the information contained in this report as beneficial as we have. We hope it will be a useful resource for organizations that are designing and implementing contests to spur innovation, as well as for nonprofits and individuals looking for funding opportunities in the area of media, information and communication.

-Gary Kebbel,
Journalism Program Director,
John S. and James L. Knight Foundation

-Mayur Patel,
Director of Strategic Assessment & Impact
John S. and James L. Knight Foundation

This learning module is filled with original reporting that will help you learn about the innovative community news initiatives that are cropping up around the United States - and securing grants from foundations that have not traditionally supported journalism.

In the case studies and accompanying videos, you’ll meet citizen journalists who have launched news sites in Boston; Deerfield, N.H.; New Haven, Conn.; and Chappaqua, N.Y. And you’ll learn how professional journalists have launched news initiatives that either partner with or supplement their metro news outlets.

A key part of this toolkit is a searchable database, where you can see the kinds of news ventures that foundations have supported since 2005. You can also add your own grant information.

Read the press release about the toolkit.

Inside the toolkit:

• Watch the videos  
• OVERVIEW  
• CHAPTER 1: Finding the Funding Fit
      • Deciding What to Fund
      • Tips for Funding Community News Projects
    CASE STUDIES
      • Community Foundation for Greater New Haven
      • NewHavenIndependent.org  
• CHAPTER 2: News with Civic Impact
    CASE STUDIES
      • VoiceofSanDiego.org
      • NewCastleNOW.org  
• CHAPTER 3: Measuring Success
    CASE STUDY
      • PlanPhilly.com  
• Acknowledgments

You can also download the toolkit text as a PDF (1.2 MB).

We invite you to comment throughout the module. Look for the comment box in the right column.

Continue to the  OVERVIEW AT J-LAB.ORG

Knight Foundation has established two dozen endowed chairs in journalism at top universities nationwide. The chairs are leading journalists who take positions as tenured professors within academia. They practice journalism, teach innovative classes, and create experimental projects and new programs that help lead journalism excellence in the digital age.

Knight Chair in Computer- Assisted Journalism (Arizona State University)

Steve Doig teaches and develops computer assisted-reporting, using digital applications to increase the fact-finding power of journalism.

Knight Chair in Business Journalism (Columbia University)

Sylvia Nasar brings her best-selling business journalism to students; currently, by working with them to produce a book on the nation’s financial crisis.

Knight Chair in Computational Journalism (Duke University)

Sarah Cohen is developing the growing field of computational journalism.

Knight Chair for Journalism Student Enhancement (Florida A&M University)

Joe Ritchie specializes in the launching and development of new journalism careers.

Knight Chair in Scholastic Journalism (Kent State University)

Mark Goodman and his Center for Scholastic Journalism serve as a national clearinghouse for effective ways to teach journalism.

Knight Chair in Environmental Journalism (Michigan State University)

Jim Detjen and the Center for Environmental Journalism are producing award-winning journalism and helping remake the teaching of environmental reporting.

Knight Chair in Digital Media Strategy (Northwestern University)

Owen Youngman is looking at the future of news from a technological perspective.

Knight Chair in Sports Journalism and Society (Pennsylvania State University)

Malcom Moran and the John Curley Center for Sports Journalism focus on the social role of sports journalism, present and future.

Knight Chair in Political Reporting (Syracuse University)

Charlotte Grimes focuses on political reporting by and for a new generation of American citizens.

Knight Chair in Science and Technology Reporting (University of California Berkeley)

Michael Pollan’s popular books and lectures have made him a national leader in journalism on the science and policy of food.

Knight Chair in Journalism Technologies and the Democratic Process (University of Florida)

Through her well-trafficked website, Melinda McAdams reaches out to teach journalists, students and educators interested in a multimedia future.

Knight Chair in Health and Medical Journalism (University of Georgia)

Patricia Thomas is creating a new master’s degree in health and medical journalism and looking at ways to bring critical health news to impoverished regions in America’s south.

Knight Chair in Investigative and Enterprise Reporting (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)

Brant Houston leads efforts nationally and internationally to find new forms and models for investigative and enterprise reporting.

Knight Chair on the Press, Leadership and Community (University of Kansas)

Pam Fine is exploring the 21st century versions of the daily newspaper’s role in informing and engaging communities.

Knight Chair in Public Affairs Journalism (University of Maryland)

Haynes Johnson’s groundbreaking investigation of the historic 2008 presidential election hopes to redefine both national journalism and how we teach it.

Knight Chair in Visual Journalism (University of Miami)

Rich Beckman is building an international group of universities dedicated to teaching multimedia journalism using actual content projects.

Knight Chair in Cross-Cultural Communication (University of Miami)

Joseph Treaster is experimenting with new ways for news and information to cross borders, to helping the world to solve its most crucial problems.

Lee Hills Chair in Free-Press Studies (University of Missouri at Columbia)

Stuart Loory’s Global Journalist Magazine looks at freedom expression issues worldwide.

Knight Chair in Editing (University of Missouri at Columbia)

Jacqui Banaszynski is a leader in teaching “front-line” editing, including though News University’s e-learning systems.

Knight Chair in Journalism and Digital Media Economics (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)

Penelope Muse Abernathy is exploring the changing media economic landscape in the digital age behind the “creative destruction” of traditional media forms.

Knight Chair in Media and Religion (University of Southern California)

Diane Winston and the Center for Religion in the Media are prolific commentators on the impact of coverage (or lack of coverage) of religion.

Knight Chair in International Journalism (University of Texas at Austin)

Rosental Alves and his Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas are helping establish self-sustaining, professional journalism groups and pioneering e-learning throughout the Americas.

Knight Chair in Journalism Ethics (Washington & Lee University)

Ed Wasserman’s teachings and writings explore the ever-increasing impact of ethics in and on journalism.

Knight Professorship in Constitutional Law and First Amendment (Yale University)

Jack Balkin’s blogs and widely read opinion pieces explore the frontiers of First Amendment law.

This publication reports on a two-year, $1 million survey of high school students and their knowledge of the First Amendment. See the project web site: www.firstamendmentfuture.org

Ten years after Congress enacted the Electronic Freedom of Information Act Amendments (E-FOIA), only one in five federal agencies actually complies with the law, according to a new survey released today during Sunshine Week by the National Security Archive.

Journalism's Crisis of Confidence is based on a recent day-long dialogue involving the five founding deans of the initiative, along with several new journalism schools that have been invited to join in the curriculum enrichment aspect of the project.

This is the second report in the Carnegie-Knight series.

Based on a national survey of 1800 randomly sampled teens, young adults, and older adults, this report examines the amount of daily news consumed by young people. The evidence shows that young Americans are estranged from the daily newspaper and rely more heavily on television than on the Internet for their news. A few decades ago, there were not large differences in the news habits and daily information levels of younger and older Americans.

Today, unlike most older Americans, many young people find a bit of news here and there and do not make it a routine part of their day.

In 1997, high school journalism in the Washington, D.C., was dead. Not single public high school in the city published a newspaper that year. When The Washington Post discovered this crisis, they embarked on a program to reintroduce journalism and newspapers to the city's high schools. What came to be called the Young Journalists Development Program was born.

By 2003, the program operated 21 high school journalism programs and reached beyond the city into its diverse suburbs.

Dorothy Butler Gilliam, the leader of the project, wanted to extend this sucess to other cities, so she pursued and put together "Reaching Generation Next: A News Media Guide to Creating Successful High School Partnerships" with the help of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.

Written by Lisa Frazier Page, the book is a how-to for editors, newspaper advisers and principals to come together to create good scholastic journalists.

To browse this publication at its online home visit http://www.highschooljournalism.org/Editors/Editors.cfm?id=74

Diversity: Best Practices is divided into four main sections, covering best practices in curriculum development, faculty recruitment and retention, student recruitment and retention, and campus environment. It also covers the history of ACEJMC's standard on diversity. A "Sources and Resources" section contains syllabus excerpts and lists of texts, videotapes and websites that contributors recommended.

This survey by the Carnegie-Knight Task Force at Harvard University shows a strong movement in America’s classrooms toward the use of Internet-based news and away from the use of newspapers and television news, a trend that is virtually certain to continue.

This report examines trends in Internet-based news traffic for the purpose of peering into the future of news in America. In light of the continuing migration of Americans to online news, the evolving nature of Web technology, and the limits of our survey of websites, our assessments are necessarily speculative.

In 2005, RTNDF’s High School Project put together a teacher’s toolbox called “Broadcast in a Box.” It consisted of three books, three discs and the RTNDA Code of Ethics. 

Response to the printed Broadcast in a Box was overwhelming, and we ran out of copies. Now we have most of Broadcast in a Box on the web. The best practices, updated Plugged-In, First Amendment lessons, Generation Next and student videos are here. Not here are the ethics video case studies, which were not available for online distribution.

Thanks to our partners including the Illinois Press Association Foundation and Copley First Amendment Center,  The Washington Post’s Young Journalists Development Program, Al Tomkins of the Poynter Institute and the many teachers, classes and journalists who provided material.

Introduction by Dale Russel, WAGA-TV

Great Ideas for Your Classroom Booklet

Plugged-In

Intro
Chapter 1: Basics of Online Journalism
Chapter 2: Navigating the Internet
Chapter 3: Critical Thinking
Chapter 4: Legal Rights
Chapter 5: Protecting Your Privacy and Security Online
Chapter 6: Putting Your Content Online
Chapter 7: A Few Final Thoughts
Appendix A: Additional Resources
Appendix B: Journalism Organizations
Appendix C: RTNDA's Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct
Appendix D: References

First Amendment Curriculum

Intro
Educational curriculum 
Teacher’s guide 
Pre & post test 
License agreement 
Newspaper license

Serious efforts at media development have been underway since the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, and in some cases even earlier. USAID, for example, opened its first radio station in Liberia in 1985. Despite these long-running efforts, today there is still a great need for media development assistance. Efforts at democratization will fail unless bolstered by strong, independent media. Although conditions are difficult, there are many opportunities for moving forward.

The Impunity Project was created to end impunity for attacks against journalists in the Americas.

The intensive time required to “teach to the test” -- to prepare students for mandatory testing in the nation’s public schools -- is stealing time away from students to discuss and study the news, and ultimately become educated about and engaged in their country and their world, according to a report by the Carnegie-Knight Task Force based at Harvard University.

American journalists have a major responsibility: working on democracy’s free press to inform citizens and officials about local, national and world events as well as to provide a measure of public accountability for all institutions and their members. 

This report describes the implementation and results of six university programs, funded by the Knight Foundation, to recruit and retain students from underrepresented minority groups in the field of journalism. It reviews the objectives, background, implementation, and results of continuing programs at Florida A&M University, the University of Florida, the University of Missouri, the University o...

This is the first in a series of issues briefs designed to continue the discussion we began a decade ago with partners in the symphony orchestra field in Knight Foundation's Magic of Music initiative.

We encourage you to send reader's comments about these topics.

Future issues will explore lessons learned and applied by the orchestras as they worked in partnership with each other, and will delve into new learning gleaned from surveys into classical music and audiences' connection to it conducted by Audience Insight LLP in behalf of Knight Foundation and our 15 participating orchestra partners.

This is the second in a series of issues briefs designed to continue the discussion we began a decade ago with partners in the symphony orchestra field in the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation’s Magic of Music initiative.

Understanding why people attend orchestra concerts is an important first step in regenerating the audience base. The social context surrounding concert attendance – independent of the program itself – is a key to unlocking more demand. While some classical music lovers act on their interest and organize concert outings, three times as many do not. This essay considers how orchestras and other arts groups might capitalize on “Initiators” – people who enjoy creating cultural experiences for their friends and family.

This is the fifth in a series of issues briefs designed to continue the discussion we began a decade ago with partners in the symphony orchestra field in the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation’s Magic of Music* initiative.

From 1994 to 2004 – a seminal decade for the arts in America – the John S. and
James L. Knight Foundation invested $13 million in its Magic of Music Symphony
Orchestra Initiative.

This memo reports on the initial findings of the experience of KCCI participants from the selection of catalysts during the late winter of 2007 through October 2007.

Can the arts and culture play a central role in revitalizing American cities? Over the past decade, a number of cities have answered this question affirmatively.

We are pleased to share Audience Insight's final report on the Classical Music Consumer Segmentation Study, an analysis of how Americans relate to classical music and their local orchestras. We commissioned the work in partnership with 15 American orchestras as part of the second phase of Magic of Music, a decade-long, $10 million initiative to spark innovative ways of strengthening the relationship between orchestras and their audiences. A summary at the beginning synthesizes a great deal of information. The body of the report describes each of the various data collection efforts. In total, the study included interviews with more than 25,000 adults.

Many of the ideas developed in the study are relevant to arts organizations generally, not just orchestras and other classical music ensembles.

In light of recent events in intercollegiate athletics, it seems particularly timely to offer this Internet version of the combined reports of the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics. Together with an Introduction, the combined reports detail the work and recommendations of a blue-ribbon panel convened in 1989 to recommend reforms in the governance of intercollegiate athletics.

Three reports, published in 1991, 1992 and 1993, were bound in a print volume summarizing the recommendations as of September 1993. The reports were titled Keeping Faith with the Student-Athlete, A Solid Start and A New Beginning for a New Century.

Knight Foundation dissolved the Commission in 1996, but not before the National Collegiate Athletic Association drastically overhauled its governance based on a structure “lifted chapter and verse,” according to a New York Times editorial, from the Commission's recommendations. [The Knight Commission was later re-launched and has convened since 2001.

In 1989, as a decade of highly visible scandals in college sports drew to a close, the trustees of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation were concerned that athletics abuses threatened the very integrity of higher education. In October of that year, they created a Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics and directed it to propose a reform agenda for college sports.

In announcing this action, James L. Knight, then chairman of the Foundation, emphasized that it did not reflect any hostility toward college athletics. "We have a lot of sports fans on our board, and we recognize that intercollegiate athletics have a legitimate and proper role to play in college and university life," he said. "Our interest is not to abolish that role but to preserve it by putting it back in perspective. We hope this Commission can strengthen the hands of those who want to curb the abuses which are shaking public confidence in the integrity of not just big-time collegiate athletics but the whole institution of higher education."

Frank examines the assumption, offered by some college officials, that winning teams will attract more applicants and, in turn, better students for two reasons: (1) many students are sports fans, and (2) “a big-time athletic program serves much like a national advertising campaign,” because the names of institutions with successful big-time athletic programs appear frequently in the news media. College officials often cite the 12-percent increase in applications that Boston College experienced after Doug Flutie’s miracle pass to win the 1984 Orange Bowl as proof of this phenomenon.

Read more of the Frank Report online.

This is the final report of an evaluation conducted by Patrizi Associates of the Center for Urban Redevelopment Excellence at the University of Pennsylvania (CUREx) program.

In almost every area, students who attended PAC programs frequently over a two-year period had higher reading and math achievement scores.

The overall objective of this evaluation of One Economy’s Digital Communities program is to examine the impact that having a computer with Internet access at home has on peoples’ lives.

One Economy in Miami and San Jose.pdf

SRI Digital Communities Miami and SanJose.doc (MS Word)

Prosperity campaigns have played a critical role in improving the economic well-being of low-income, working families, boosting income levels and lifting many families out of poverty.

Advocates have long argued that the economic benefits of the arts and culture provide a firm rationale for public support. Recent scholarship on the “creative class” and “creative economy” is simply the latest effort to link cultural expression to community prosperity.

The first year evaluation report on the Immigrant Participation & Immigration Reform (IPIR) initiative tells a story of human and social development newcomers joining and strengthening the democracy-among immigrants whose institutions engage them in organizational self-governance, leadership opportunities, and democratic civic activity.

Although Haitians have been coming to Miami-Dade in large numbers for only a little over two decades, they have quickly become an integral part of the region. But there are important differences between the Haitian experience and other immigrant experiences in South Florida. As researcher Philip Kretsedemas explains, “Unlike many Hispanic immigrants, who benefited from the enclave economy and political networks established by earlier cohorts of middle-class refugees—Haitian immigrants entered South Florida as unwanted immigrants, black minorities, and members of an ethnolinguistic group that was isolated from
both the English-speaking and Spanish-speaking community.”1 Haitians are also from one of the poorest nations in the world. And in a region with some of the highest poverty rates in the country, Haitians are among the poorest groups in Miami-Dade: Haitians are more likely to work low-wage jobs, earn less money, and pay larger shares of their incomes on basic necessities.

This report is a supplement to a June 2004 publication entitled, Growing the Middle Class: Connecting All Miami-Dade Residents to Economic Opportunity. The intent of this report is to provide specific information about the Haitian community in Miami-Dade County in order to better describe the challenges they face. After describing Haitian income trends, the report explores some of the reasons behind the low incomes and higher poverty rates of Miami’s Haitian population.

The Haitian community in Miami-Dade has gained a lot of ground since the late 1970s—there are now Haitian and Haitian American politicians, organizations, businesses, and middle-class neighborhoods. But the numbers also show that there is still much work to be done to ensure that all groups in the region, including Haitians, have access to economic opportunity.

A NOTE ON THE DATA

It is often difficult to get a truly accurate count of groups such as the Haitian American community. A range of issues—from distrust of federal agencies to inadequate funding for outreach to immigrant communities— contribute to a likely undercount of Haitians in the U.S. For example, the U.S. Census Bureau says there are 96,000 Haitians in Miami-Dade, but community leaders feel this number underestimates the true count.2 While recognizing that the Census Bureau number may not capture all the Haitians in the county, this report relies on the census numbers because of the unparalleled level of detail and information they provide.

Undercount or no, the statistics still reveal important trends facing the Haitian community in Miami-Dade.

And no other data source provides such detailed characteristics of population, housing, and employment at very small levels of geography. Such data come as close to comprehensiveness as any that exist.

The information about the Haitian community is captured in the “ancestry” section of the Census found in Summary Files 3 and 4. Individuals in households who received the long form of the census were asked, “What is this person’s ancestry or ethnic origin?” This report includes any individual who listed “Haitian” as their sole ancestry, or as one of a number of ancestries. In other words, the numbers in this report represent those that listed themselves as either Haitian or part Haitian. Most of the numbers in the report are from Census 2000, Summary File 4.

The tables provided by the census in Summary File 4 are the only source of detailed information
on groups below the major race categories (black, white, Hispanic, Asian, etc.). However, in a few years the U.S. Census Bureau will complete its implementation of the American Community Survey (ACS), a new research product that will eventually replace the long form of the decennial census.

Once implemented, the ACS will provide yearly data which will enable users to track the information provided here on a more regular basis. Until then, Census 2000 is the best source of detailed information about the Haitian community.

Greater Miami—with its famed beaches, weather, and culture—attracts over 10 million overnight visitors annually. The setting for numerous movies and TV shows, the region is a magnet for the rich and famous, and conventioneers and vacationers follow.

AND IT’S NOT JUST TOURISM THAT PUTS MIAMI ON THE MAP. Miami is the financial gateway to Latin America and the Caribbean and home to numerous headquarters for operations there.

But Miami has another identity. Beyond the spotlights, the fun in the sun, and the world of international business lie some sobering statistics about what the plurality of people in Miami-Dade County and Miami City experience. When the Miami New Times ran the headline, “We’re Number One,” they were caustically referring to the city of Miami’s ranking as the poorest among the country’s 100 largest cities.

Miami’s split personality—its wide gap between rich and poor—points to an underlying problem. The region, and in particular the city, has a small middle class. Miami-Dade is failing to retain residents, including immigrants, who have successfully moved up the income ladder, and build its middle class from within. Addressing this failure may be the single most critical intervention the region can take to improve its future.

This report defines this challenge by examining the underlying trends, explains some of the reasons behind them, and suggests policies that help grow the middle class.

Miami-Dade’s income statistics are troubling

Miami-Dade’s incomes are low and poverty is high Income and poverty levels reflect the ability of residents to provide for themselves and their families, their capacity to support neighborhood businesses, and their prospects for building assets for the future. In this regard, Miami-Dade faces a number of challenges. Miami-Dade County’s median household income is $35,966, far below the national median income of $41,994. The city of Miami’s median household income is even lower
at $23,483. The same pattern holds true for poverty rates: The nation’s poverty rate is 12 percent; Miami-Dade County’s is 18 percent, and the city of Miami’s is 29 percent.

Miami’s middle class is small

The city of Miami has few middleincome households. While 20 percent of the nation’s households make between $34,000 and $51,000, only 15 percent of Miami’s households are in that income bracket. What’s more, its middle class is shrinking, with a smaller share of the city’s households making a middle-class income today than 20 years ago.

Blacks and Hispanics are less likely to be middle class than whites

There are wide disparities between race and ethnic groups. In Miami-Dade County, the white median household income is at least $20,000 more than the black, Puerto Rican, Nicaraguan, and Haitian median household income.

Several factors contribute to Miami’s small middle class Miami faces several challenges that contribute
to the region’s troubling income trends and inhibit its ability to retain and build the middle class.

The level of educational attainment in the region is low

In Miami and elsewhere, education shortfalls directly affect the pocketbooks of individual households. The estimated lifetime earnings of an individual with a  high school degree are almost $1 million less than an individual with a college degree. Miami-Dade County has a very low educational attainment rate. Only 22 percent of the county’s adult population has at least a bachelor’s degree. And only 16 percent of the city of Miami’s adult population has at least a bachelor’s.

The regional economy is a low-wage economy

Most jobs in Miami-Dade are in industry sectors, such as service and retail, paying lower wages. Average annual pay in the retail sector is $21,295, while in the manufacturing sector it’s $31,083. Additionally, wages, regardless of industry sector or occupation type, are lower in Miami-Dade than elsewhere.

Miami-Dade is exporting middle-class residents

Miami-Dade experienced an overall outmigration of residents in the 1990s.

Almost 160,000 more people left Miami-Dade than moved in from other parts of the country. About 90,000 of the people who left Miami-Dade between 1995 and 2000 moved to neighboring Broward County. While the group of Dade-to-Broward movers was racially diverse, they were primarily middle class. Sixty-two percent of the movers made more than the Miami-Ft. Lauderdale area median family
income. Twenty-eight percent of the movers had at least a bachelor’s degree.
Miami-Dade’s loss was Broward’s gain.

Low-income residents face additional challenges that hinder their ability to join the middle class

Miami’s decentralized growth patterns isolate low-income residents from opportunity

Miami is one of the most sprawling regions in the country. The dispersed pattern of urban growth is reflected in everything: population growth, housing construction, office space location, commuting patterns, and developed land.

The Miami region’s heavy decentralization of population and jobs is widening the distance that separates economic opportunity from low-income minority residents.

Basic necessities consume a large portion of poor residents’ income

While almost all households have to pay for expenses such as food, lodging, child care, and transportation, poor households spend a larger share of their income on these basics, leaving little left over for building assets. For example, while the overall population spends 3.9  percent of their income on commuting, the poorest commuters spend 9.5 percent.

Limited use of mainstream financial institutions and government support programs impedes the wealth-building capacity of low-income households

There are a number of government income-support programs in place to help alleviate the situation for low-income residents. But participation rates in these programs can be low, and the costs of accessing these benefits can be high, limiting the programs’ effectiveness.

Likewise, the limited access to financial institutions hinders the ability of low-income residents to build assets and enter the middle class.

Miami can build a different future by investing in growing the middle class

A key problem for Miami is its failure to adequately retain and build its middle class. Given these trends, what policy direction makes sense for Miami-Dade? Any policy interventions that Miami-Dade undertakes should be part of a broad effort, including public school reform, economic development initiatives geared toward building a high-wage economy, and strategies that help attract more middle-class people into the region.

Within that context, the region should focus on five policy interventions that help grow the middle class:

• Develop an educated, skilled workforce
• Improve access to quality jobs
• Make work pay
• Help families build assets
• Build quality neighborhoods

Miami-Dade is a vibrant place—a large urban market, an international gateway, a tourist destination, and an engine for entrepreneurial activity. In part because of the large number of immigrants
who move through the area, Miami-Dade is an important incubator of new cohorts of middle class residents.

But these newly minted members of the middle class do not stay.

By formulating strategies to grow and retain the middle class Miami-Dade will not only be better able to connect all its residents to economic prosperity, but it will realize a new level of regional  competitiveness.

This report documents Biloxi’s potential to become a major American destination for people seeking a mix of tourist and entertainment activities. 

Prosperity campaigns have played a critical role in improving the economic well-being of low-income, working families, boosting income levels and lifting many families out of poverty.

Lisa Klein of Hestia Advising and Deanna Gomby of Gomby consulting conducted a cluster evaluation of the early childhood grants to estimate community impact, promote cross-community learning and highlight successes and challenges to implementing early childhood programs in 12 Knight Foundation communities. Since 2001, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation has awarded 125 early childhood grants totaling more than $50 million.

Foundations for Success (FFS) is a five-year initiative designed to put in place a county-wide system of care for early childhood mental health.

Abstract

Since 2001, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation has awarded 125 early childhood grants totaling more than $50 million. In 2007, there were 47 active grants. Gomby and Klein reviewed the grants for Knight and produced this report.

Communities

Knight has made grants in early childhood education in the Knight communities of Aberdeen, S.D.; Boulder, Colo.; Charlotte, N.C.; Fort Wayne, Ind.; Lexington, Ky.; Long Beach, Calif.; Philadelphia, Pa; St. Paul, Mn.; San Jose, Calif.; State College, Pa.; Tallahassee, Fla.; and Wichita, Kan.