Local Initiatives Support Corporation
The Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC), celebrating its 25th anniversary in 2005, is the nation's largest community development support organization. Houston LISC is one of 33 program sites in the country and represents the organization's belief that community revitalization is best done at the local level - from the inside out. In the 1980s, the United Way of the Texas Gulf Coast and Private Sector Initiatives joined forces to begin addressing the issue of neighborhood redevelopment. Their partnership led them to discussions with LISC to bring its model and resources to support community development to Houston . The Houston LISC program, begun in 1989, has invested over $28 million to help CDCs become stable nonprofit's capable of transforming distressed neighborhoods into viable, thriving communities.
Recognizing that the inspiration and spirit to change distressed neighborhoods must come from within, the mission of LISC is “To help resident-led, community-based development organizations transform distressed communities and neighborhoods into healthy ones - good places to live, do business, work and raise families. By providing capital, technical expertise, training and information, LISC supports the development of local leadership and the creation of affordable housing, commercial, industrial and community facilities, businesses and jobs. We help neighbors build communities.”
Houston LISC serves CDCs in the Greater Houston Area, and to a limited extent Galveston , by providing grants, loans, technical assistance and training. The CDCs serve and are led by people who live and work within disadvantaged neighborhoods. Distressed neighborhoods have often faced a history of disinvestment resulting in limited work and housing prospects. CDCs develop affordable housing, attract commercial and retail facilities, create jobs, and provide other essential neighborhood services in their communities. LISC provides resources - financial and technical - that help CDCs create avenues for families to emerge from poverty and for neighborhoods to revitalize.