State Farm(R) awards grant to LISC Initiative

NEW YORK, Nov. 20 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Neighborhood stores, shops, parks and after-school programs will benefit from a grant State Farm has awarded to the Local Initiatives Support Corporation's (LISC) Building Sustainable Communities initiative. This initiative is a long-term effort to help struggling communities become good places to live, work, do business and raise families.

"State Farm is proud to help build safer, stronger, better educated communities in partnership with LISC," says Barbara Cowden, executive vice president at State Farm. "Since 2000, we have worked together with LISC on the Building Sustainable Communities initiative, which has positively impacted the lives of families who might not otherwise have had the support they need to help them find jobs and have better lives."

Since its national partnership with LISC began, State Farm has awarded LISC more than $61 million in grants and loans that have been invested in neighborhood revitalization efforts nationwide.

"State Farm's continuing support for LISC and Building Sustainable Communities speaks volumes about their dedication to helping disadvantaged communities become places of hope and opportunity," notes Michael Rubinger, LISC president and CEO. "Particularly in this economic environment, with job loss and foreclosures clouding the outlook for so many low-income families, State Farm's leadership is critically important. This new grant will fund programs and projects that give hard-hit communities the chance to recover and, over time, to prosper."

LISC's Building Sustainable Communities recognizes that it takes more than physical redevelopment for neighborhoods to flourish. "Certainly, the built environment is critical. Eliminating blight and developing high-quality affordable housing anchors longer term efforts," Rubinger explained. "But is that enough to make a community 'sustainable?' Not when the neighborhood schools are failing and there is no path to opportunity for children. Not when the neighborhood streets are dominated by graffiti, gangs and drugs instead of parks and recreation programs. Not when there aren't jobs or access to health care or even a neighborhood grocery store. Building Sustainable Communities is about addressing all of those things as part of a community's overall quality of life," Rubinger says.

About State Farm(R):

State Farm, founded in 1922, insures more cars and homes than any other insurer in the U.S., is the leading insurer of watercraft and is also a leading insurer in Canada. State Farm's 17,700 agents and 68,600 employees serve 81 million policies and accounts - more than 78.7 million auto, fire, life and health policies in the United States and Canada, and more than 1.9 million bank accounts. State Farm also offers customers banking, annuities and mutual fund products. State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company is the parent of the State Farm family of companies. State Farm is ranked No. 31 on the Fortune 500 list of largest companies. For more information, please visit statefarm.com(R) or in Canada statefarm.ca(R).

About LISC

LISC combines corporate, government and philanthropic resources to help community-based organizations revitalize underserved neighborhoods. Since 1980, LISC has raised nearly $9 billion to build or rehabilitate more than 230,000 affordable homes and develop 32 million square feet of retail, community and educational space nationwide. For more information, visit www.lisc.org.

Contacts:

Colleen Mulcahy, LISC

312-697-2482 or cmulcahy@nefinc.org

Cherie Page, State Farm

309-766-4649 or cherie.page.c9a3@statefarm.com

SOURCE Local Initiatives Support Corporation

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RELATED LINKS
http://www.lisc.org