Executive Director’s Column: Giving & Gratitude

Outside of my birthday, Thanksgiving and Christmas are my favorite times of year. I favor these because they combine two things I have come to value: giving and being grateful. In many cases, 2023 for LISC Jacksonville has provided for me another year of doing both professionally.

First and foremost, as an organization, we along with our partners at JPMorgan Chase, United Way of Northeast Florida, Wells Fargo, and the City of Jacksonville, have created more than $15 million of wealth in some of our city’s most under-resourced communities. We did this through our collective work around heirs’ property, estate planning, and the payment of back property taxes.

The ability to help worthy families retain ownership of their property and keep wealth in the hands of those same families in some of our most under-resourced communities has been an elixir for my soul. There is nothing greater or more transformational in my personal estimation than seeing a family retain ownership of their property and then leverage that property to either start a business or send someone to college.

Another aspect of our work that reflects the spirit of giving centers around home repair. The joy I personally feel when someone gets to simply stay in their property through the addition of a new roof or some weatherization updates gives me a level of solace that I personally am doing work that is bigger than me. However, none of this is ever done alone. With our partners at LIFT JAX and Groundwork Jacksonville, together we have added over $2.2 million of estimated value back into the hands of the people living in the Historic Eastside and North Riverside neighborhoods.

All total, LISC Jacksonville has had an economic impact on the City of Jacksonville of over $20,000,000 for the second year in a row. Numbers and impact like that truly make me grateful for the countless organizations, foundations, and individuals that have supported us and made our work possible this year.

If you know me on any level, you will know that the work we do at LISC Jacksonville is extremely personal. That’s why in 2024, it is our desire to continue to go deeper in all of our strategic priority areas:

• Home Repair: Fixing what’s there.
• Heir’s Property, Tax Abatement, and Appraisal Bias: Keep what’s there in the hands of who’s there – and getting proper value for it.
• New Home Construction: Attract residents with capacity based upon who and what’s there.
• Economic Development: A priority for our upcoming 2024-2027 strategic plan.

Furthermore, It is my desire to partner with more agencies who share a similar vision of disrupting the systematic influences that create communities of poverty in some of our city’s most vulnerable places. And I am absolutely sure we can and will get there, which reminds me of the following African Proverb:

“If you want to go fast go alone, but if you want to go far go together.”

Here at LISC Jacksonville, we know we want to go far; therefore, we are going alongside partners who share in the work of resident-driven, resident-led community transformation.

So, as we move toward the end of the year with an eye towards 2024, in the spirit of giving and gratitude, I wish you and yours a Happy Holiday Season.