The Conrad N. Hilton Foundation today announced the approval of more than $16 million in grants to organizations focused on some of the foundation’s strategic initiatives.

LOS ANGELES, CA, January 14, 2009 – The Conrad N. Hilton Foundation today announced the approval of more than $16 million in grants to organizations focused on some of the foundation’s strategic initiatives including: the provision of safe water access, sanitation and hygiene in West Africa, measuring human development in the United States and addressing chronic homelessness and hunger in Los Angeles and Las Vegas.

“The organizations receiving these grants are helping to improve the lives of the most suffering populations, which is the primary mission of the Hilton Foundation,” said Steven M. Hilton, president and chief executive officer of the Hilton Foundation.

World Vision, based in Federal Way, WA was awarded $6 million to support their Water, Sanitation and Hygiene program in West Africa. World Vision works in 98 countries providing emergency relief and long-term community development to the world’s most vulnerable populations, benefiting 100 million people each year. Foundation-funded activities will increase access to safe water and environmental sanitation and ensure sustainable community management of water quality and quantity, in order to improve the health and well-being of 280,000 people in Ghana, Mali and Niger. The U.S. Fund for UNICEF and WaterAid America, both based in New York City, will each receive $3 million for their collaborative Water, Sanitation & Hygiene Education Program in West Africa. The goal of the project is to improve the health and welfare of families in Ghana, Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso, by increasing equitable and sustainable access to, and use of, safe water and sanitation services, and promoting improved hygiene. Over the past 17 years the foundation has provided $65 million for international water, sanitation and hygiene projects.

The foundation awarded more than $1 million to the American Human Development Project to support the 2010 American Human Development Report (AHDR). The foundation helped fund the 2008-2009 AHDR, the first-ever study of human development in an affluent country. The AHDR introduced the U.S. to an international approach for measuring human well-being: the human development index. The index examines health, education and income to measure the quality of life in each U.S. Congressional District, state and region throughout the United States. The funds will also be used to build the long-term capacity of the American Human Development Project with the objective of institutionalizing the AHDR as an ongoing, reliable tool to promote human development and address social conditions across the United States.

The Ocean Park Community Center (OPCC) in Santa Monica, CA serves as a comprehensive social service agency providing housing and supportive services for the low-income and homeless population of Los Angeles. OPCC will receive $300,000 to expand a pilot program providing intensive outreach and services to move the most vulnerable and chronically homeless people on the westside of Los Angeles from the streets into permanent supportive housing. Three Square in Las Vegas, NV will receive $3 million to support its food distribution program. With Southern Nevada’s current need for food estimated at 49 million pounds, Three Square is working to ensure that nonprofit agencies addressing the hunger of those living in poverty have a reliable and consistent source of nutritious food.

Based in Los Angeles, the Hilton Foundation was created in 1944 by the late hotel entrepreneur and business leader, Conrad N. Hilton, who left his fortune to the foundation when he died in 1979 with instructions to help the most disadvantaged and vulnerable throughout the world without regard to religion, ethnicity or geography. Barron Hilton, who also led Hilton Hotels Corporation and is current chairman of the foundation, has joined his father in committing to leave the bulk of his wealth to the foundation. The foundation along with its related entities has assets exceeding $4.2 billion and, since its inception, has committed more than $780 million for charitable projects throughout the world.