Community Connectors

Impact Services 2023 Community Connectors | Photography by Daniel Jackson for Embassy: Interactive

Community Connectors Program

LISC and our partners know that community development is most impactful through engagement and collaboration alongside the people and organizations we serve. We recognize that communities possess critical experience, insights and knowledge for addressing systems failures – and that local residents and organizations have essential relationships and expertise required to transform their communities.

Community Connectors is a co-designed program of LISC Philadelphia and multiple community-based organizations serving neighborhoods throughout the city, which reached its 10-year milestone in 2023. Community Connectors are youth and adult residents who are passionate about engaging, organizing and mobilizing their neighbors for community benefit. Because they live in the neighborhoods in which they work, Connectors possess the necessary relationships and trust to reach residents and address the needs specific to their communities. They help families access critical poverty alleviation resources, support existing outreach efforts such as the City's Truancy Prevention Program and other programs, and create spaces for families to heal from trauma related to community violence. Connectors help to advocate for public investments in streets and parks, activate vacant lots, organize street cleanups, host resource fairs, and more. They also act as advocates on behalf of residents, the people who directly experience the impact (and consequences) of development projects in their communities.

Partners

Community-based organizations are core to the success of the Community Connectors program. With LISC’s hands-on support, each partner organization recruits, trains, and supervises up to 10 Connectors in the field to help advance the goals outlined in existing neighborhood plans. Current partners include:

Community Connectors Institute

LISC’s Community Connectors Institute (CCI) is a paid six-week program which trains current and aspiring Connectors to achieve the following:

Identify specific challenges and opportunities in their neighborhoods.
Learn evidence-based community development strategies and trauma-informed engagement practices.
Build leadership skills.
Strengthen social networks that enable the community to work together to achieve common goals.
Develop and present plans for local projects.

After completing CCI, LISC provides peer learning opportunities, project management support and monthly manager convenings.

Oneido Luis (former LISC Program Manager) & APM and SMCDC 2023 Connectors | Photos by Daniel Jackson

I became a Connector because...

Hear from Connectors on why they joined the Community Connectors Program and how they're shaping their communities: Listen here.