Features
Conferences and Events
Funding Opportunities
Information Resources FeaturesArgenta Community Development Corporation Case Study During the late 1980s and early 90s, downtown North Little Rock was plagued by gangs and drug dealers. Historic homes deteriorated; property values plummeted; residents and shopkeepers lived in fear. In 1992, the Argenta Community Development Corporation was formed to take back their neighborhood. The Argenta CDC focused on ways to decrease criminal elements, such as: centralizing resident involvement; renewing a partnership with the North Little Rock Police Department; and supporting a landlords association to develop housing maintenance standards. Crime-related incidents between 2000 and 2001 decreased over 17.3 percent. While crime went down, the median property value increased within the Argenta Historic Disctrict to $53,000 - a 37 percent improvement. The neighborhood also witnessed "incident" related calls to police drop over 55 percent. For more on the Argenta Community Development Corporation program, and other 2003 Metlife Community Safety Award winners, download the case study from the LISC Online Resource Library. Conferences and EventsSharing Our Gifts: Celebrating Our Diversity, the 2004 National Rural Development Conference and the Western Regional Self-Help Housing Conference, will be Mar. 22-24 in Portland, OR. The conference--spearheaded by the Rural Community Assistance Corporation (RCAC), Rural Community Assistance Program, Inc. (RCAP) and USDA-Rural Development in Portland--will offer more than 90 training sessions on environmental systems management, water system operation, financial and administrative management, rural housing, and more. For more information, visit the RCAC website. The 2004 Community Reinvestment Conference, sponsored by the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, OTS, OCC, FDIC, American Bankers Association, National Association of Affordable Housing Lenders, and the National Community Capital Association, will be Mar. 29-31 in Los Angeles. The conference will look at tough questions and critical issues in understanding the current state of community reinvestment. For more information or to register, visit the Federal Reserve Bank website or email mary.malone@sf.frb.org. Who Owns America? IV: Land Acquisition and Retention, organized by the University of Wisconsin at Madison, the Community Resource Group, and the Ford Foundation, will be May 23-25 in Madison, WI. This conference will address land acquisition and retention issues such as heir property, land titling, inheritance, and management. Conference sponsors include the Ford Foundation, LISC, and Smart Growth America. The "early-bird" registration deadline is April 12. For details, contact Marsha Cannon at mcannon@wisc.edu or go to the Who Owns America? IV website. LISC's National Community Safety Initiative National Conference will be May 24-27 in Toledo. This conference brings together LISC's partners, community development corporations, and police departments from across the country. Learn from award-winning practitioners and experts in the field about enhancing community-police partnerships and their potential role in the issues regarding returning prisoners. For more information, visit CSI's website and/or contact Mark Conyers at mconyers@lisc.org or 212-455-9854. The Third Annual Financial Management Professionals' Conference will be July 28-30 in Chicago. This LISC conference, sponsored by Citibank, will provide CDC finance and accounting staff, executive directors, board members, accountants, and technical advisors, with cash flow management training and guidance. For more information, email Lisa Deller at ldeller@lisc.org. LISC is hosting, presenting at, and/or helping to sponsor all of the events listed above. Funding OpportunitiesState Farm Insurance Companies and the National Service-Learning Partnership are seeking proposals for a three-year initiative to grow the practice of service-learning in K-12 school districts nationally. The Good Neighbor Service-Learning Initiative will provide six school districts $15,000 each over three years to integrate and sustain service-learning in their schools, school districts, and surrounding communities. Grantees initially will work with local and regional State Farm associates to pilot service-learning projects that respond to specific community and homeowner issues. The application deadline is April 16. For more information, go to the National Service Learning Partnership website. The U.S. Department of Commerce's Technology Opportunities Program (TOP) has announced the availability of $12.9 million in grants for its FY2004 Grant Round. TOP is a highly competitive, merit-based matching grant program that promotes the use of advanced telecommunications and information technologies in the non-profit and public sectors. Applicants will be ranked on project purpose, innovation, community involvement, evaluation, project feasibility, and project budget. The application deadline is April 27. For more information, go to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration website. Federal Home Loan Bank of Boston is accepting applications for its Affordable Housing Program. The Bank has set aside $8.6 million in subsidy funds for 2004, with approximately $4.3 million of these funds allocated for the first round. Program funds may be used only for the direct costs of producing or financing affordable housing located in New England. All applications for the first round must be submitted electronically by May 3. For more information, go to the Federal Home Loan Bank of Boston website. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation is accepting applications for its 2005 Local Initiative Funding Partners (LIFP) program, which supports innovative, community-based projects designed to improve the health and healthcare of underserved and vulnerable populations. LIFP provides grants of $100,000 to $500,000 per project, which must be matched dollar-for-dollar by local grantmakers. The total award is paid out over a three- to four-year period. In 2005, up to $7.5 million will be awarded through LIFP. The application deadline is July 14. For more information, go to Robert Wood Johnson Foundation website. For more Funding Opportunities please see the eNewsletter Archive Information ResourcesThe Finance Gap: Charter Schools and their Facilities, a new study from the Institute for Education and Social Policy (IESP) of New York University's Steinhardt School of Education and LISC, with support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, reports on facilities-related challenges charter schools face and the methods they have used to overcome them. The report documents the shared experiences of charter schools with innovative financing mechanisms, private sector involvement in facilities financing, and the use of instructional revenue for the repayment of debt. For more on educational facilities and to download the full report, go to the LISC Online Resource Library. Regulatory Barriers Clearinghouse, a new online resource developed by HUD's Office of Policy Development & Research (PD&R), supports state & local governments and others seeking information about laws, regulations, and policies affecting affordable housing. Some of the services available include: an electronic newsletter highlighting strategies and policies; a searchable database of publications, local laws, regulations, policies, and plans that identifies problem areas and offers solutions; and a toll-free number staffed by housing professionals familiar with regulatory barrier issues and the clearinghouse collection. For more information, visit the Regulatory Barriers Clearinghouse website or call toll-free 1-800-245-2691, option 4. Building Families' Assets Through the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), the next live chat on KnowledgePlex, will take place on Wed., April 14 at 3 p.m. EDT. Studies show that as many as 25 percent of households that qualify for the EITC don't take it. The chat will focus on how CDCs can help eligible families take advantage of this benefit with free tax-preparation services. Guests will be Willie Logan, president and CEO of the Opa-locka Community Development Corp. in Florida, and Anita Carwile, senior program analyst with the IRS' Volunteers and Community Partnerships group. For more info on the upcoming chat, visit the KnowledgePlex website. Hands on Banking - El Futuro en Tus Manos, is a free online and offline resource developed by Wells Fargo, offering financial literary lessons in English and Spanish. All of the materials are available via Internet, CD-ROM, and print. The curriculum includes topics such as: budgeting, bank accounts and services, borrowing money and maintaining credit, buying a home, investing, and starting and managing a small business. Additional resources include a dictionary of financial terms and printable worksheet templates. For more information, please visit the Hands on Banking - El Futuro en Tus Manos website or call toll-free 1-866-650-6228. For more Information Resources please see the eNewsletter Archive |
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