LISC is working with The DICK’S Sporting Goods Foundation to jumpstart youth sports infrastructure projects in communities where support and opportunity are scarce. In a Q+A with The DICK’S Foundation’s Kristen Garmey, we learn why improving athletic spaces for youth in under-resourced communities is so important to The DICK’S Foundation, and to Garmey.

As part of its LEED Initiative, a $200 million pledge to support the Black community, Foot Locker, Inc. teamed up with LISC to provide grants to nonprofit community organizations that offer a range of services for young people. In a Q+A with Tai Neal, vice president for LEED Strategy at Foot Locker, Inc., we learn why supporting youth in under-resourced communities is so important to Foot Locker, and to Neal.

LISC announced a $2 million, one-year grant from State Farm to support financial stability, commercial revitalization, and affordable housing in underinvested neighborhoods across the U.S. The new funding continues a partnership that began more than 20 years ago.

When Covid-19 came to Chicago, Hoops in the Hood, LISC's long-running basketball-community-building-and-safety program, morphed into the perfect antidote for quarantine stress and boredom. Now, hundreds of kids and their parents across the city are staying active, and logging their exercise minutes, in a true Chicago-style competition between neighborhoods.

In this episode, Maurice interviews Paul Taylor, director of the RVA League for Safer Streets in Richmond, Virginia. The League was founded in 2017 by Paul, and the late Jawad Abdu, both returning citizens, to address issues of gang violence in their communities. Before stepping foot on a court, participants attend workshops on problem solving, critical thinking and conflict resolution.

The city of Greenville, MS sits on the banks of the Mississippi River, at the heart of the agricultural Delta. It is also a birthplace of the Civil Rights movement, where community leaders and residents are carrying on the fight for social and economic justice in the long-underinvested region. As part of our celebration of Black History Month, we are highlighting the work of Greenville’s chief of police, Delando Wilson, who partners with LISC in his wide-ranging efforts to build a safer, more prosperous and racially equitable Greenville.