KNIGHT PROGRAM IN COMMUNITY BUILDING AWARDED $1.1 MILLION, THREE-YEAR GRANT FROM KNIGHT FOUNDATION

May 7, 2004 --The Knight Program in Community Building at the University of Miami School of Architecture has been awarded a $1.1 million, three-year challenge grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation’s National Venture Fund. The grant, approved in late March 2004, will help the Knight Program fulfill its mission of training mid-career professionals in community building. During this three-year period the Knight Program will form relationships with additional founders/donors to lay the groundwork for sustaining the program and expanding its mission to include tuition-based certificate programs in community building, real estate, and urban design.

The Knight Program in Community Building was launched in 2000 and funded by a three-year, $2.1 million grant from Knight Foundation. The Knight Program’s mission is to advance the knowledge and practice of effective, collaborative community building through a series of initiatives including fellowships, conferences, charrettes, courses, and publications. Through these activities, the Knight Program prepares participants to assume leadership roles in effecting urban change and engaging the public in the central issues of community building.

During the next three years, the Knight Program will continue to award 12 fellowships annually to a diverse group of mid-career professionals with an active interest in community building, as the program has done since its inception. Each class of fellows will conduct a charrette (a public design workshop) in one of the 26 Knight Foundation communities and will participate in courses and seminars on community building topics hosted by the Knight Program. Fields from which fellows are selected include economic and community development, housing, human services, transportation, architecture, planning, real estate, journalism, public health, and governance. A Call for Nominations for new fellows will be issued in May 2004.

The Knight Program will also develop a series of tuition-based executive education courses and seminars in community building, real estate, and community design. In addition, the program will continue to sponsor and produce publications on community building topics and to support the research initiatives of the fellows.

“The Knight Foundation grant is a big vote of confidence in the impact that the Community Building Program has had on the mid-career fellows, graduate students, and communities we have worked with over the first three years of the program,” says Charles C. Bohl, the Knight Program director. “It’s also a recognition that community building is an area of national importance that is not being taught as part of professional degree programs and that will continue to grow in the years ahead.”

In its first three years, the Knight program awarded 37 fellowships and 15 scholarships to graduate students in the Suburb and Town Design Program at the University of Miami School of Architecture. The program has supported 24 seminars and workshops in community building and has held charrettes in Macon, GA, San Jose, CA, and Coatesville, PA. Publications initiatives included publication and/or sponsorship support of books, periodicals, and articles on community building topics. For more information about the Knight Program in Community Building, see www.arc.miami.edu/knight.

The Knight Foundation

The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation promotes excellence in journalism worldwide and invests in the vitality of 26 U.S. communities. The foundation was established in 1950 as a private foundation independent of the Knight brothers' newspaper enterprises. It is dedicated to furthering their ideals of service to community, to the highest standards of journalistic excellence, and to the defense of a free press. See www.knightfdn.org for more information.

The University of Miami School of Architecture

A central tenet of the University of Miami School of Architecture is building livable communities. The school’s mission begins with community and a focus on the city as a work of art and architecture. Led by Dean Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, co-founder of the Congress for the New Urbanism, the School of Architecture has achieved international distinction. Areas of specialized study include suburb and town design, computing, and research. See www.arc.miami.edu for more information.

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