NEW YORK, Dec. 20, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The Local
Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) is moving forward with an
innovative new program to strengthen the economic infrastructure of
high-poverty communities, while helping thousands of families
stabilize their financial outlook.
This week, LISC announced its local partners for the Economic
Mobility Corps (EMC), an effort developed jointly by AmeriCorps and
the Department of the Treasury's Community Development Financial
Institutions Fund (CDFI Fund). With the nearly $1 million grant from AmeriCorps, LISC will
support 61 EMC national service members to be placed at CDFIs in 24
states and Puerto Rico to provide
a range of financial counseling services to local residents. They
will address critical issues like financial and debt management,
including saving for homeownership, while also helping to connect
low-income families to affordable financial products.
"Our job, as a national CDFI, is to help build an infrastructure
of opportunity in underserved urban and rural communities, and that
is particularly important now, as we work to emerge from the
pandemic," said Lisa Glover, LISC's
CEO. "The EMC puts people on the ground, in communities, to build
the local capacity of CDFIs and to help put families on a path to
financial stability and homeownership opportunities. It is an
incredibly valuable addition to the AmeriCorps program."
This is the inaugural round of the EMC program, which was
initially funded by Congress in 2020, with additional funding
provided in 2021.
Senator Chris Coons (D-DE), who
introduced legislation to establish the EMC partnership between
AmeriCorps and the CDFI Fund and also helped secure funding for the
program, said "The Economic Mobility Corps supports critical needs
of community residents while simultaneously building the capacity
of CDFIs and developing a pipeline of talent for these important
community partners. I congratulate LISC on being selected to
administer this award, and am pleased that Stepping Stones Federal
Credit Union in Wilmington,
Delaware has been selected to host an EMC Member to support
their financial coaching and counseling activities. This exciting
program highlights the power of national service to expand
opportunity and address critical needs."
The new program recognizes the importance of leveraging public
and private resources to bridge racial and socioeconomic
disparities. Of the 46 community lending partners LISC selected for
the program, 67 percent are led by racially diverse CEOs, and 77
percent serve areas of persistent poverty. In addition, LISC is
encouraging its local EMC partners to recruit national service
members from the communities they serve, particularly Black and
Indigenous people of color, veterans and women, so new members not
only have the chance to build experience in community services, but
to also give back to the places where they live and work. It is the
same strategy LISC employs in its national AmeriCorps program,
which over the last 27 years has placed more than 3,296 national
service members with hundreds of community-based nonprofits working
on affordable housing, health, education, community safety, and
financial literacy.
LISC's EMC partners span the country from Alaska to Puerto
Rico. They include:
- Accion Opportunity Fund (Atlanta and San
Jose, Calif.)
- African Economic Development Solutions (St. Paul, Minn.)
- BOC Capital Corp (Brooklyn)
- Brooklyn Cooperative Federal Credit Union (Brooklyn)
- Community First Fund dba Community First Capital (Philadelphia)
- Community Investment Collaborative (Charlottesville, Va.)
- Excite Credit Union (San Jose,
Calif., and Wilmington,
N.C.)
- Four Bands Community Fund Inc (Eagle
Butte, S.D.)
- Greater Newark Enterprises Corporation (Newark, N.J.)
- Guadalupe Credit Union
(Santa Fe, N.M.)
- Cooperativa de Ahorro y Credito Aguas Buenas d/b/a BUENACOOP
(Aguas Buenas, Puerto Rico)
- Cooperativa de Ahorro y Credito Barranquitas (Barranquitas,
Puerto Rico)
- Cooperativa de Ahorro y Crédito Florida (Florida, Puerto
Rico)
- Cooperativa de Ahorro y Credito de Juana Diaz (Juana
Dias, Puerto Rico)
- Cooperativa de Ahorro y Credito de la Industria Biofarmaceutica
(Carolina, Puerto Rico)
- Cooperativa de Ahorro y Credito de Mayaguez (Mayaguez,
Puerto Rico)
- Cooperativa de Ahorro y Credito de Moca (Moca, Puerto Rico)
- Cooperativa de Ahorro y Credito de Oficiales de Custodia de
Puerto Rico (San Juan, Puerto Rico)
- Cooperativa de Ahorro y Credito de Salinas (San Juan,
Puerto Rico)
- Cooperativa de Ahorro y Credito San Jose (Aibonito,
Puerto Rico)
- Cooperativa de Ahorro y Credito TUCOOP (San Juan,Puerto
Rico)
- Cooperativa Universidad de Puerto
Rico (San Juan, Puerto
Rico)
- Cooperativa de Ahorro y Credito de Lajas (Lajas, Puerto Rico)
- Cooperativa de Ahorro de Lares d/b/a LarCoop (Lares,
Puerto Rico)
- Cooperativa de Ahorro y Crédito Dr. Manuel Zeno Gandía
(Arecibo, Puerto Rico)
- Cooperativa de Ahorro y Credito Vegabajeña (Vega Baja,
Puerto Rico)
- IRC'S Center for Economic Opportunity, Inc. (Boise, Idaho; Charlottesville, Va.; Dallas; Denver; Elizabeth,
N.J.; Los Angeles;
New York; Oakland, Calif.; Phoenix; Richmond,
Va.; San Diego;
San Jose, Calif.; and Turlock, Calif.)
- JUST Community, LLC (Austin,
Texas)
- Latino Economic Development Center of Minnesota (St. Paul,
Minn.)
- LHOME: Louisville Housing Opportunities & Micro Enterprise
Community Development Loan Fund (Louisville, Ky.)
- Mission Community Loan Fund LLC dba Fondo Adelante (San
Francisco)
- National Asian American Coalition (Daly City, Calif.)
- Neighborhood Finance Corporation (Des
Moines, Iowa)
- Neighborhood Housing Services of Baltimore (Baltimore, Md.)
- Neighborhood Self-Employment Initiative, Inc., dba Business
Ownership Initiative of Indiana
(BOI) (Indianapolis)
- New Orleans Firemen's Federal Credit Union (Metairie, La.)
- Rio Grande Valley MultiBank (Brownsville, Texas)
- River City Capital Investment Corp (Memphis, Tenn.)
- River City Federal Credit Union (San
Antonio, Texas)
- Southside Community Federal Credit Union (Chicago)
- Spruce Root, Inc. (Juneau,
Alaska)
- Stepping Stones Community Federal Credit Union (Wilmington, Del.)
- Toledo Urban Federal Credit Union (Toledo, Ohio)
- TRP Lending LLC (Chicago)
- WESST Corp: Women's Economic Self-Sufficiency Team Corp
(Albuquerque, N.M.)
- Women's Opportunities Resource Center (Philadelphia)
"Inclusiv is delighted that financial cooperatives in
Puerto Rico are participating in
the Economic Mobility Corps created by CDFI Fund with AmeriCorps
and administered through our partner LISC," said Cathie Mahon, CEO of Inclusiv, a CDFI
intermediary serving CDFI credit unions throughout the country.
"This joint initiative will expand the capacity of these crucial
financial institutions to build and deliver impact in the
communities they serve. In the last year and half, Inclusiv's
commitment to our Puerto Rico
network helped much of the island's cooperativas gain CDFI
certification, connecting them to funding and resources that will
be a catalyst for new community development initiatives and that
will provide new economic opportunities for people."
EMC is an opportunity for members representing diverse
communities to join in and gain experience in the CDFI sector,
uplifting their voices as a way to build local leadership. Members
will serve 12-month terms at the selected CDFIs, earn a
$20,000 living stipend, and have
access to health insurance and childcare benefits, just as in the
traditional AmeriCorps program. Once they successfully complete
their service, they can access a $6,345 education award through AmeriCorps to
return to school or pay off existing qualified student loan
debt.
For more information on the Economic Mobility
Corps, visit https://americorps.gov/newsroom/press-release/americorps-cdfi-fund-launch-economic-mobility-corps
About LISC
LISC is one the country's largest community
development organizations, helping forge vibrant, resilient
communities across America. We work with residents and partners to
close systemic gaps in health, wealth and opportunity and advance
racial equity so that people and places can thrive. Since our
founding in 1979, LISC has invested $24
billion to create more than 436,320 affordable homes and
apartments and develop 74.4 million square feet of retail,
community and educational space. For more, visit www.lisc.org.
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SOURCE Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC)