A new $4 million federal grant will help LISC AmeriCorps level up its commitment to strengthening local organizations in the communities we work with—especially through the new Economic Mobility Corps program, which places AmeriCorps members in local CDFIs to promote innovative strategies for narrowing racial and economic wealth and equity gaps.
Top image: 2021 LISC AmeriCorps member Vivian Moon (left) assisted with the development of Casa Paloma, an affordable housing community with American Family Housing in Midway City, CA.
For nearly 30 years, LISC has partnered with AmeriCorps, the federal agency that promotes volunteerism and civic engagement through hands-on service, to place members with local community development corporations in dozens of the places we work with.
Now, LISC is proud to be awarded its largest AmeriCorps grant yet—$4 million that will support the placement of 245 members in both of our longstanding “classic” program as well as in the Economic Mobility Corps (EMC) program, which AmeriCorps inaugurated in 2021. The EMC places service members with work that drives financial mobility and equity for people who have been historically shunted away from the mainstream economy and America’s prosperity. This year’s total AmeriCorps funding means that thousands of people in hundreds of communities will have the opportunity to make a difference through service.
For LISC, the funding means we can deepen our commitment and human investment in urban neighborhoods and rural places across the country. Working through our “classic” program, we will continue placing members who can help ramp up the capacity of small not-for-profits dedicated to developing healthy, affordable housing. We will keep layering member service into LISC’s robust Financial Opportunity Center® network, helping residents get good-paying jobs.
And we will double down on placing members to work alongside residents to create safer and healthier communities. Take the Rainier Beach Action Coalition in Washington State for example, a small, BIPOC-led organization where a LISC AmeriCorps member serves as a community engagement and food justice promoter. Part of her service will involve setting up a summer farm stand where more than 100 families will have access to some 6,000 pounds of fresh produce.
Through LISC’s Economic Mobility Corps program, meanwhile, we will be supporting local Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs) to provide free financial coaching and raise awareness about free and low-cost banking products and solutions for people who are underbanked.
In Puerto Rico, for example, we partner with Inclusiv, a national network of community development credit unions with the mission of financial inclusion, to provide AmeriCorps members to nearly 20 cooperatives or credit unions across the island. EMC members serving with the International Rescue Committee’s Center for Economic Opportunity serve in places like Boise, San Diego, and Richmond, Virginia to offer financial coaching around consumer credit, so clients can access financial services at a lower cost than they would find in most banks.
And in southeastern Alaska, a LISC EMC member will serve with Spruce Root, an organization that connects local residents with economic development resources so they can “forge futures grounded in this uniquely Indigenous place.”
With these grant funds, our AmeriCorps programs will continue to invest in overlapping areas that reach into every aspect of community life, and our members are dedicated to converting these investments into meaningful change. Since 1994, LISC AmeriCorps has led to significant community outcomes: members have helped to develop 13,484 affordable housing units, provided housing counseling to 52,176 people, secured jobs for 9,453 people, and recruited and managed 195,613 community volunteers.
But, we still have more to do. It is no secret that discrimination—both historic and ongoing—create, and exacerbate, housing and wealth disparities across the country. Too often, workable solutions are stymied by a lack of financial support to the organizations poised to carry out those solutions. It is hard to make change when the power imbalance also means there aren’t enough people to do the work. It is at this very juncture of people, power, and change that LISC AmeriCorps, and each of our members, play out many roles: grantee, partner, coach and leader.
As I reflect on the work that lies ahead, I know that this $4 million grant from AmeriCorps is one more step toward a world that I want to live in. A world where I get to be a small part of these amazing communities of people – people who believe in the power of service, and people who power that service.
About the Author
Stacey Grant, Senior Program Director
Stacey manages all aspects of LISC’s AmeriCorps program, from ensuring high quality member service assignments and partner selection to managing LISC’s relationship with the Federal AmeriCorps agency and other major funders. Stacey joined LISC in 1996 as an administrative assistant with the LISC Greater Newark office, where she discovered she had a passion for helping residents launch careers in community development through service with AmeriCorps. From Newark, Stacey moved to LISC headquarters to serve as the program officer and, ultimately, senior director for the AmeriCorps program. She holds a B.A. from the College of St. Rose; M.B.A. from Rutgers NJ; and is currently pursuing a Certificate in Transformative Leadership at Pace University.