Capacity-building grants awarded to CDCs in Central Illinois

LISC Peoria awarded capacity-building grants to two community development corporations in Central Illinois. As one of the largest CDFIs in the country, LISC is one of three organizations that receives direct funding from the Department of Housing and Urban Development to provide pass-through grants to sub-recipients that perform community development work. Since our office’s establishment in 2012, LISC Peoria has granted out over $1.28MM to more than 10 organizations in Central Illinois.

In Peoria, Phoenix Community Development Services (formerly known as South Side Office of Concern) received a $62,000 grant to focus on expanding and improving capacity around their own asset management as well as property management services to other agencies and projects. This grant allows Phoenix CDS to access training opportunities and also provides additional funding to support the critical staff positions needed to perform these functions and services to supportive housing services across the Greater Peoria region.

In Springfield, GROWTH International Inc., the CDC subsidiary of Abundant Faith Ministry, received a $30,000 grant to allow the organization to go through its first major strategic and operational planning process. This will enable GROWTH to focus their energies on specific activities while maximizing the opportunity to grow staff and the number of projects on which they engage.

As a CDFI, LISC Peoria is committed to providing support, technical assistance, and investment to partners who are actively engaged in community development work within our footprint. In our role as a financial intermediary, we cannot be successful without our partners already doing amazing work in our communities. For more information, visit: https://www.lisc.org/peoria/what-we-do/increase-partner-capacity/.