Ford, Mott Team Up to Lower Tensions
May 6, 1999 | Read Time: 1 minute
Two major foundations have teamed up with six community-based foundations in a three-year program intended to help improve relations in six American cities between longtime residents and recent arrivals from diverse ethnic backgrounds.
The Ford and Charles Stewart Mott Foundations have committed $3-million total to the effort; the six local foundations will contribute $2.1-million among them. The six are the Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta; the Community Foundation of Greater New Jersey, in Morristown; the Dade Community Foundation, in Miami; the Agnes E. Meyer Foundation, in the District of Columbia; the Minneapolis Foundation; and the San Diego Foundation.
Both Ford and Mott view recent immigrants and refugees from diverse cultures as a potential source of richness and strength. But demographic changes have also led to tensions and divisions along racial and ethnic lines.
The program’s first year is devoted to planning, as the local foundations learn more about the diverse neighborhoods in their own cities. In the second and third years, the local grant makers will support projects that promote the program goals.
