Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC)

Kenna Poppler of Allianz Life understands the power of LISC’s Financial Opportunity Center® (FOC) model and how it helps strengthen the financial futures of individuals and families across the Twin Cities. Since 2022, Allianz Life’s support has helped pave a path to sustainable financial and career success for nearly 3,000 people.    Learn why working with LISC Twin Cities to reduce barriers to economic inclusion is so important to Allianz Life, and to Poppler: https://lnkd.in/dMjRPiMD 

🎉 Congrats on the groundbreaking! #LISCLending provided $2.69 million of financing to support the demolition and reconstruction of The Unity Building. The project will be a four-story, mixed-use commercial building and seeks to create a multi-generational destination center that celebrates the historic confluence of Latine and African cultures on Lake Street. Learn more: https://lnkd.in/e2g94fzT

No tricks, only treats in our National Updates newsletter! 🎃 🍁 🍂 Check it out 👇🏾

November is Native American Heritage Month—a time to honor the rich cultures, traditions, and contributions of Native American communities. This month, and every day, let’s learn from, appreciate, and celebrate Indigenous peoples. More #NAHM content to come throughout the month. Stay tuned!

Check it out! A new LISC case study, supported by The Kresge Foundation, highlights how our work with local partners to invest in arts events, public art displays, and art & culture entrepreneurs can improve community health, fight displacement, and much more. See examples from #DC, #Detroit, and #LA here: https://lnkd.in/gi8s87J3

We are proud to celebrate #CareersInConstructionMonth with Lowe's Companies, Inc., and share the story of Lawrence Spikes, a carpentry instructor at Legacy Institute for Financial Empowerment in Lufkin, Texas.     Drawing on 25+ years of work experience in the field, Spikes teaches a free carpentry training program supported by LISC and Lowe’s Foundation that pairs skills training with job placement and financial coaching services. It’s a model that gives his students a leg up with potential employers, plus the financial know-how to make the most of their new incomes.    Thank you, Lawrence Spikes, for all you do to connect East Texas communities to #CareersinConstruction! Rural LISC

Alondra González worked in customer service in the restaurant industry until last February, when she became a LISC AmeriCorps member in the Economic Mobility Corps (EMC) supported by Citi Foundation. As a community education officer at GUBECOOP, a savings and credit cooperative in Santurce, Puerto Rico, González is getting a taste of what it’s like to work in the field of community development. The experience is proving to be a valuable resume builder for González. At GUBECOOP, she is organizing community engagement activities to help recruit new members. She also teaches financial education sessions, and helped lead a used car financing event (public transportation is scarce on the island, particularly in rural areas, and even people living on very low incomes are dependent on cars). 📽 Hear what González has to say about her AmeriCorps experience and the crucial role GUBECOOP plays in helping community members build financial stability. --- Alondra González trabajó en atención al cliente en la industria de restaurantes hasta febrero pasado, cuando se convirtió en miembro de LISC AmeriCorps en el Cuerpo de Movilidad Económica (EMC) apoyado por la Fundación Citi. Como Oficial de Educación Comunitaria en GUBECOOP, una cooperativa de ahorro y crédito en Santurce, Puerto Rico, González está experimentando lo que es trabajar en el campo del desarrollo comunitario. La experiencia está demostrando ser un valioso aporte para el currículum de González. En GUBECOOP, está organizando actividades de participación comunitaria para ayudar a reclutar nuevos miembros. También imparte sesiones de educación financiera y ayudó a dirigir un evento de financiación de automóviles usados (el transporte público es escaso en la isla, particularmente en las áreas rurales, e incluso las personas que viven con ingresos muy bajos dependen de los automóviles). Escuche lo que González tiene que decir sobre su experiencia en AmeriCorps y el papel crucial que desempeña GUBECOOP para ayudar a los miembros de la comunidad a generar estabilidad financiera.

#ElectionDay2024 is coming up soon! Make sure to use your voice and #Vote: here’s a State-by-State guide to help you get ready for the polls 🗳️ 👉🏾 https://lnkd.in/dcBH3pF

Today President Biden was in Arizona to apologize for what he called “one of the most horrific chapters in American history…that the vast majority of Americans don’t even know about.” We are proud to have supported the work of Native American Connections and Phoenix Indian Center to bring the stories of Phoenix Indian School to our community. Engagement with survivors and community helped design the adaptive reuse of the original band building at what is now Steele Indian School Park to become a community event space, classroom and gallery. A commercial kitchen was built for Indigenous chefs and entrepreneurs to preserve Native foodways, which got significant use during the pandemic to prepare meals for elders. And importantly, a curriculum was developed to bring the history of the Phoenix Indian School to students around the state to break the silence around this dark time in American history. Phoenix Indian School Visitor Center: https://lnkd.in/gEZgKGMr Project story: https://lnkd.in/gMaqwg6x Project video: https://lnkd.in/g-uhuRnp Arizona Republic coverage of Biden visit: https://lnkd.in/gcE9ntN6

During the four days of this year’s #OFN40 conference, the energy around the greening of the CDFI sector was palpable among the 2,500 attendees: there were plenary speeches, networking events and countless conversations devoted to the topic. Plus, more than a dozen panels on topics ranging from how to design a climate lending program to multifamily decarbonization finance strategies to mobilizing private capital for GGRF work. National underwriter Noam Gross-Prinz gave an overview of LISC’s role in Power Forward Communities to deploy the coalition’s $2B in GGRF awards, decarbonizing affordable housing and training people for green jobs. And John Moon, the new president of LISC Green LLC, led a wide-ranging discussion on the landscape of GGRF in communities of color and Indian Country, stressing the urgency of ensuring that members of low-income and communities of color are integrated into the green economy (both talks were packed).   CDFI practitioners at the conference, including Opportunity Finance Network president and CEO Howard Pettigrew, emphasized that CDFIs are the prime conduit for these unprecedented federal funds for green development in low-income places because they are set up precisely to deploy dollars to the very communities most stressed by the climate crisis (OFN itself was awarded $2.29 billion through the Clean Communities Investment Accelerator (CCIA), part of GGRF, to support green energy transition financing); Oswaldo Acosta, CEO of City First Enterprises, pointed out the challenges ahead for CDFIs as they work to make decarbonization both affordable and desirable to people living on the economic margins, and that private capital will be key for realizing this enormous task across millions of households, small businesses and community spaces.   And on the topic of private capital’s hand in green community development, Dan Letendre, who spoke on behalf of #OFN40’s lead sponsor, Bank of America, announced that the bank is establishing a $50 million climate resiliency fund which he expects will grow and serve as a flexible and fast funding source for CDFIs—financial first responders—in the wake of climate disasters like this fall’s hurricanes Helene and Milton.   “People were curious and creative about how to tackle the challenges and take advantage of the opportunities,” says LISC’s Madeline Fraser Cook, of the green discussions at #OFN40. “My hope is that this translates to new strategies for community development that meet the urgency of the climate problem while being intentional about the equitable deployment of capital. This should be the new way of doing business.”