How We Work
LISC connects community developers to resources, partners, and residents
LISC forges broad nonprofit, government, private sector, and resident partnerships.
We’re a resource magnet.
In the past 20 years, we’ve brought more than $350 million in new money to the Twin Cities. These resources flow through us to local Community Development Corporations (CDCs) and other nonprofit developers. Our affiliate, the National Equity Fund, helps nonprofit and for-profit affordable housing developers access equity investments to create hundreds of homes in the Twin Cities and across Minnesota each year.
We strengthen Community Developers
We offer CDCs and other nonprofits training and assistance to help them tackle larger, more comprehensive projects. Our national affiliation allows us to share best practices and new trends from across the country. And our local staff makes us the most effective community development broker in the region—increasing the scope and impact of local efforts.
We support partnerships
Comprehensive redevelopment requires the participation of other players—CDCs, school districts and government agencies, healthcare organizations, financial institutions, youth development and childcare groups, neighborhood organizations, arts groups, environmental designers, social service providers, and local foundations. We’re intensifying our role as partnership builder to ensure comprehensive, coordinated results.
We make sure redevelopment involves and benefits residents
Community development’s success is the degree to which residents have new opportunities to move toward prosperity. Neighborhood revitalization has shown great promise in helping lessen the race and class disparities that characterize some areas of the Twin Cities. To explore ways of involving a broader spectrum of urban neighborhood residents in their work, LISC created the Community Engagement Pilot and is launching the Building Sustainable Communities demonstration. To help residents participate in affordable housing decisions, in 2007 Twin Cities LISC adopted the Corridor Development Initiative.
