Washington, DC, October 12, 2022 – The Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC DC) is celebrating 40 years in the District of Columbia, four decades of helping neighbors build, change, and uplift their communities.
By deploying capital, expertise, technical assistance, and targeted grant funds, LISC DC has helped create more 14,000 affordable homes, enabled nonprofits to build facilities of dignity that lift up their clients, catalyzed economic development and small business, and funded community convenings and capacity across a gamut of needs. In total, LISC DC invested more than $500 million, leveraging $2.5 billion dollars towards inclusive development.
In 2022, LISC DC is investing $50M in DC neighborhoods, and for the first time, in Prince George’s County and other communities in the region.
LISC supports initiative, and partners are at the heart of our accomplishments. The 40th Celebration will honor key LISC partners whose work represents the scope of 40 years of change. Honorees are trailblazers who create new ways to transform neighborhoods and pioneers whose decades of service set a path for others to create change.
Stan Jackson, President and CEO of the Anacostia Economic Development Corporation, a Ward 8 nonprofit, will be honored with the Dr. Arthur Flemming Award, named for the founding LISC board member who served five U.S. Presidents, among many other educational and civic leadership positions. A former government executive, a Ward 8 resident, and now a nonprofit leader, Jackson’s recent work includes bringing the first new housing to St. Elizabeth’s campus, over 250 beautiful and historic affordable apartments
Marty Mellet of Jubilee Housing is being honored as a trail maker. In the same neighborhoods where he was an attorney in the 1980s, he helped refugees gain a foothold, and today Mellet is working on seven buildings in the Adams Morgan and Mount Pleasant neighborhoods, under Jubilee’s model of building justice housing—affordable housing with services in high cost neighborhoods.
LISC will recognize three leaders who are at the forefront of new visions. Diana Movius founded Dance Loft in the attic of a decrepit theater in Ward 4 and then convened a troupe of developers for a new state of the art dance facility with energy-efficient housing along an underinvested commercial strip. The Capital Market is kindling engagement and building community power, bringing residents together around food justice and to reimagine what flourishing means along the transit rich Blue Line corridor of Prince George’s County. And, Rahsaan Bernard, President of Building Bridges Across the River will be recognized for the effort to build a landmark infrastructure amenity—the 11th Street Bridge Park over the long-neglected Anacostia River—in an equitable manner.
LISC’s mission in Washington, DC and from a platform of 38 local and rural offices across the nation is to help forge resilient and inclusive communities of opportunity. We fulfill this mission by holistic collaboration of people and organizations each representing a diverse range from the public and private sectors, all joining to improve quality of life.
“We’re fortunate that today we are able to pursue large scale change that can be transformational. In this moment, when there is broad support for our work and growing financial commitment by the public and private sector, we must acknowledge that the legacy of change that was bestowed upon us by past and present leaders. They gifted us the hard first push of momentum. The change agents then faced skepticism, disinvestment, abandoned buildings, and shrinking cities. The systemic barriers were more formidable, and the racism even more explicit. But they had dreams and initiative. They spent 11 years to build a set of homes on one corner in one neighborhood – and the Queen of England stopped by. They resurrected the Whitelaw Hotel, the Howard, The Atlas, and Gala Theaters, they reclaimed spaces in Oxon Run and built engines of change. For us today, we honor their legacy of momentum building, and carry it forward towards the vision of a just and inclusive future.
About LISC DC
LISC is one of the country’s largest community development organizations helping to forge vibrant, resilient communities across America. For 40 years, LISC has worked with residents and communities across Washington DC to bring local, neighborhood ideas to life. Our strategy is rooted in the belief that neighborhood leaders and organizations best understand the assets and needs of their communities. Together, we cultivate a range of projects and initiatives to address poverty, disinvestment, and the structural and historic impacts of racism to build a more resilient community of opportunity. Since 1982, we have invested over $500 million, leveraging over $2.6 billion. With LISC DC support, our partners have built or preserved over 14,000 affordable homes and 3.7 million square feet of retail, community, and educational space across the Washington DC region.