Social Innovation Fund Awards $4.2MM Second-Year Grant To Expand LISC Financial Opportunity Centers, Help Stabilize Economic Outlook for Low-Income Families & Communities

NEW YORK, Aug. 19, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) has been tapped to receive a second $4.2 million Social Innovation Fund (SIF) grant to expand its national network of Financial Opportunity Centers and help low-income residents stabilize their employment status and overall financial outlook.

The Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS), which manages SIF, announced second-year grants for those 2010 SIF awardees that had met benchmarks for efficient and effective deployment of their allocations.  LISC is among them.  The SIF grant is supporting new and expanded Centers in Chicago, Cincinnati, Detroit, Duluth, Houston, Indianapolis, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Providence/Woonsocket, San Diego and the San Francisco Bay area.

"The Social Innovation Fund is having a significant, measurable, lasting impact by helping us reach more struggling families at a time when economic dislocation is particularly painful and the impact on communities can be acute," noted Kevin Jordan, director of LISC's Family Income and Wealth Building program.

"Financial Opportunity Centers work because they take a comprehensive approach to helping families rebuild their economic foundation," he explained.  "They take on everything from job training and placement to family debt reduction and budgeting to tax and benefits support to long-term financial planning and coaching.  Those services are widely available for more affluent individuals.  But they are far too rare—especially on a bundled basis—for low-income people."

Jordan also noted that Financial Opportunity Centers illustrate the impact of strong public-private partnerships—with national funding for the network coming not just from SIF but also from major corporations and foundations that have helped shape and drive the Centers with their capital and their expertise.  They include Citi Foundation, Bank of America, Walmart, U.S. Bank, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Annie E. Casey Foundation and the Open Society Foundation.  Their dollars are further matched by local funders in communities all across the country.

Financial Opportunity Centers are now active in 50 communities serving some 15,000 families.

About LISC

LISC combines corporate, government and philanthropic resources to help nonprofit community development corporations revitalize distressed neighborhoods. Since 1980, LISC has raised $11.1 billion to build or rehab 277,000 affordable homes and develop 44 million square feet of retail, community and educational space nationwide. LISC support has leveraged nearly $33.9 billion in total development activity.  For more information, visit www.lisc.org.

For more information:
Kevin Jordan, Director/Family Income and Wealth Building
202-739-9282 or [email protected]
Colleen Mulcahy, LISC Communications
312-342-8244 or [email protected]

SOURCE Local Initiatives Support Corporation