BY THE NUMBERS
In 2021, LISC Rhode Island invested $9 million to build and preserve affordable housing, improve and create child care facilities, expand community spaces, connect residents to quality jobs, and increase health equity and wealth, particularly for families of color. That investment included:
$9 million
invested
$31 million
leveraged
affordable homes & apartments preserved
square feet of commercial space
2021 HIGHLIGHTS
LISC Rhode Island works with residents and community partners to forge resilient and inclusive communities that are great places to live, work, visit, do business, and raise families. We focus on comprehensive community development strategies that incorporate small business and economic development, family income and wealth building, community engagement, child care, health equity and housing. To learn more about LISC’s model, click here.
NEW PARTNER SPOTLIGHT
Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode Island
This year, LISC entered into a partnership with Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode Island. Through their work with the RI Life Index, housing was clearly identified as a critical issue. They awarded LISC $4 million in seed money over 4 years and is working with us to encourage others in healthcare to support our goal of raising $8 million. This funding enables our office to tap additional LISC National and federal funds for projects here in Rhode Island.
Housing is clearly the foundational social determinant of health – on which the success of education, workforce development and public safety depends — and we are thrilled they are supporting the creation of more.
Each year, LISC Rhode Island provides capacity building training, shares best practices and provides grants through our Neighborhood Development Fund to help ensure Community Development Corporations are ready to meet this challenge in the most efficient way. In 2021, we invested more than 839 hours of technical assistance and $650,000 in our CDC partners.
And because of the Blue Cross award, we have been able to make significantly larger pre-development investments totaling nearly $1.5M for several transformative projects including one for Providence involving 85 new units and another that will provide 176-units of permanent supportive housing.
PROGRAM UPDATE
Family Income & Wealth Building
LISC supports programs that help Rhode Islanders get access to good paying jobs, increase income and credit worthiness, and build wealth to close wealth and opportunity gaps.
Even though the challenges and uncertainties of 2020 continued through this year, 2021 was a dynamic year of growth for our Financial Opportunity Centers (FOC). LISC made large investments in RI’s two FOCs last year and will do so again in 2022 to support the programs delivered by Amos House and Genesis Center. Over the past year alone, LISC invested $400,000 in our FOCs to help them deliver carpentry, hospitality, health care, dental assistant training and x-ray certifications, as well as to provide training in job retention and advancement.
In addition, LISC manages the SNAP E&T program for Rhode Island DHS, which in 2021 delivered more than $1M in funding to thirteen workforce development providers across the State. This program trained more than 1,200 participants to help them find their pathway to self-sufficiency. Working with these programs has provided very gratifying reminders of the importance and value of this work. Read more about Tommy Ngo, who found his future through a carpentry program at Amos House.
In 2021, Rhode Island FOCs served a total of 924 clients. Of those, 494 engaged longer term and received integrated services.
Of these clients receiving at least two out of three integrated services (financial coaching, employment coaching, and income supports):
- 71% achieved at least one key financial outcome
- 52% increased their credit score by an average of 58 points
- 40% increased net monthly income by an average of $745
- 38% increased net worth by an average of $6,511
PROGRAM UPDATE
Early Learning and Child Care Facilities
Early in the year, LISC worked together with both housing and child care advocates to encourage the approval of a $65M bond for housing and a $15M bond to support early childhood care and education facilities. Both bonds were approved in the special election and will provide funding for these two critical economic drivers.
Our Child Care and Early Learning Facilities Fund team has managed three rounds of grants made possible by the City of Providence and the State of Rhode Island. In Providence, ten providers across twelve locations completed more than $600,000 in capital projects to improve facilities and expand services. Phase 2 is already underway with nine providers awarded more than $300,000 to improve the health, safety, and quality of child care spaces next year. The team also distributed more than $261,000 in pre-development grants for child care facilities in partnership with the State.
We’re looking forward to 2022 when LISC will administer the Early Childhood Care and Education Capital Fund in partnership with the State of Rhode Island that will provide $13M in capital funding for the expansion and improvement of high quality early learning programs. For many of these expansions, the LISC team provides a considerable amount of technical assistance to help bridge the gap between the architect, provider and the licensing agency.
Technical Assistance is a valuable benefit for the child care provider and can mean the difference between creating space that can grow with the business needs, and one that doesn’t. Last year, the child care team delivered 1,048 hours of technical assistance to 130 child care and early learning providers. Check out this story about Dorcas International, and the technical assistance that helped them create a high quality child care space.
NEW PROGRAM SPOTLIGHT
Economic and Business Development
As a consultant to the Housing Authority of the City of Newport and with support from the van Beuren Charitable Foundation, LISC continued to support the mission to “re-vision” the Florence Gray Center. This project – now in its third phase - aims to evaluate the present state of the community center and develop a plan to create a dynamic resource center that is responsive to community needs. Work in 2021 included a continuation of facilitating stakeholder and community engagement, developing recommendations for building improvements through case study research, and reviewing and modifying a strategic plan for operation.
Small business development is a focus since the pandemic hit and LISC Rhode Island has distributed more than $725,000 from funders like Lowe’s, Verizon and Uber, and local funders like Citizens, to our local small businesses.
Locally, we’ve managed several CDBG programs to provide grants to micro businesses struggling through COVID. Accessing these federal funds can be a daunting task for small and micro-businesses, but we’ve helped these entrepreneurs by providing robust technical assistance.
This year, we began a partnership with several RI Business Development Organizations (BDOs) that focus primarily on minority business development. This local coalition will benefit from LISC’s new national network of minority focused BDOs for capacity building, will tap tools from our partners like Kiva – a crowd sourcing fundraising platform, and access training, support and grants through the Verizon Digital Ready Small Business training platform.
PROGRAM UPDATE
The Pawtucket – Central Falls Health Equity Zone
The LISC Rhode Island Health Equity Zone team has lead a collaborative of more than 40 front-line non-profits working in Pawtucket and Central Falls to help deliver emergency meals, family support, and vaccination and COVID outreach information in one of the hardest hit areas in our state.
The HEZ launched a new “Resident Academy,” to help promote resident participation and leadership, and is partnering with the Pawtucket Family YMCA to create a new Youth Health Equity Leadership Group for Pawtucket and Central Falls youth to use their voices to improve health in their communities.
The LISC team has been the “backbone agency” for the Pawtucket-Central Falls HEZ since the program started. This year, the team is convening a Mentorship Pilot Program for other backbone agencies to share best practices and coordinate planning for program delivery.
The Substance Use and Mental Health Task Force grew in membership over the course of the year. Community partners focused on substance use to connect with one another and collaborated on a 3-year action plan to reduce the number of overdose fatalities in the community by half. More than 500 doses of Narcan were distributed in the community, with an additional 100 delivered by local police departments.
As housing is the foundational social determinant of health, the HEZ is also working on housing security. The team is partnering with HousingWorks RI to host resident-led conversations and trainings on topics such as planning and zoning to educate residents on equitable housing access at the municipal level.
Through the work of our HEZ Outreach team: • 17,000 individuals were provided assistance navigating Covid • 450 meals were provided to residents • More than 40,000 masks were distributed • The team spent more than 400 hours canvassing the community
2021 SUPPORTERS
2021 Private Sector Support
Anonymous
Bank of America Charitable Foundation
BankRI
Robert & Susan Baxter
Berkshire Bank
Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode Island
Bristol County Savings Charitable Foundation
Care New England Health Systems
Citi
Citizens Charitable Foundation
Brenda Clement
KT Charity Fund
Lowe's Companies, Inc.
Charlotte Orlowski-Eicher Memorial Fund
The Rhode Island Foundation
Rhode Island Housing
Santander Bank, N.A.
Cheryl Senerchia
Julia Anne Slom
TD Charitable Foundation
Textron Charitable Trust
Tufts Health Plan Foundation
Uber Eats
United Way of Rhode Island
Verizon
Washington Trust Charitable Foundation
Webster Bank
2021 Public Sector Support
Care Transformation Collaborative of Rhode Island
City of Providence
Housing Authority of the City of Newport
Rhode Island Department of Education
Rhode Island Department of Health
Rhode Island Department of Human Services
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
OUR LOCAL ADVISORY BOARD
Joseph L. Silva Director of Commercial Banking, Fidelity Bank
Angela B. Ankoma Community Leader
Adrian Bonéy Grant Programs Officer for Housing and Special Programs, The Rhode Island Foundation
Keb H. Brackenbury Senior Vice President, Commercial Real Estate, BankRI
Colonel Hugh T. Clements, Jr. Chief of Police, Providence Police Department
Nancy Smith Greer Rhode Island Field Office Director, US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)
Bradford Latimer Director of Consumer Risk, Senior Vice President Commercial Real Estate, Santander Bank
Khadija Lewis Khan Executive Director, Beautiful Beginnings Child Care Center
Mary Leach Executive Vice President, Chief Retail Banking & Lending Officer, BankNewport
Kenneth F. McGunagle, Jr, Partner, McGunagle Hentz, PC
Steven Melaragno Director of Public Safety, Roger Williams University
Charles Newton Community Leader
Ana P. Novias Acting Secretary, Executive Office of Health and Human Services, State of Rhode Island
Robert Sabel, Esquire Managing Attorney, Rhode Island Legal Services, Inc.
Julia Anne Slom Senior Vice President, Commercial Real Estate Group, Washington Trust Company
Michael E. Smith Senior Vice President, Webster Bank
Mary Thompson Senior Vice President, Bank of America Merrill Lynch
Vanessa Toledo-Vickers Vice President, Citizens
Charles Van Vleet Assistant Treasurer & CIO, Textron, Inc.
Carol Ventura Executive Director, Rhode Island Housing
OUR TEAM
Jeanne Cola Executive Director
Erin Cox, AIA Senior Program Officer, Child Care and Early Learning Facilities Fund
Robyn Hall Assistant Program Officer, Health Equity Programs
Liz Klinkenberg Program Officer, Communications and Development
Susan Leonardi Assistant Program Officer, Income and Wealth Programs
Jim Logan Program Officer, Health Equity and Income and Wealth Building Programs
Becki Marcus Assistant Program Officer, Health Equity Programs
Jeremiah O'Grady Senior Program Officer, Lending and Neighborhood Development Fund
Megan Ressler Program Officer, Child Care and Early Learning Facilities Fund
Claudia Staniszewski Program Officer, Economic Development
Nati Taveras Program Assistant, Program and Office Operations and Management