Detroit Local Initiatives Support Corporation will invest $1 million annually for three years into the city's community development organizations. Its motivation? The current economic situation and its impact on the community development industry.
LISC wil offer $25,000 in operating support grants to over a dozen organizations. Several of the organizations will then receive additional financial support, technical organizational assistance and business planning assistance.
LISC hopes to help CDCs become recession-proof by strengthening, adapting, changing or merging -- whatever it takes.
For one of the grantees, Greater Corktown Development Corporation the grant has been a welcome infusion, but it has also meant they've had to evolve. "LISC offered up technical assistance, (helped us look at things in an) entrepreneurial approach to sustainability," says executive director Tim McKay. "We got included in their $3 million initiative to help us reorganize our office, to sustain us through this kind of difficult time, to give us a business plan and to strategize to develop a revenue stream -- which was much needed and much welcome."
Other community development organizations awarded operational funds are Bagley Housing Association, Southwest Detroit Business Association and Urban Neighborhood Initiatives (formerly Neighborhood Centers, Inc.) in Mexicantown and Southwest Detroit; Grandmont Rosedale Development Corporation; Creekside CDC and Jefferson East Business Association on the lower Eastside; Messiah Housing Corporation in The Villages; Warren Conner Development Coalition and U SNAP BAC on the East Side; Vanguard CDC, Central Detroit Christian CDC and New Center Council in the New Center/Central Woodward area; Detroit Community Initiative in the Van Dyke/Eight Mile area and citywide agencies Focus: HOPE and Wayne County Child Care Coordinating Council.
Source: LISC and Tim McKay, GCDC
Writer: Kelli B. Kavanaugh
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