This past year was tumultuous, and there are reasons to be concerned about what lies ahead at the federal level in 2025.
Nonetheless, we accomplished a lot in 2024, when LISC celebrated our 40th Anniversary in Connecticut with 270 of you in September. LISC Connecticut is finishing up awarding almost $13M in grants to improve facilities and expand childcare slots, especially for infants and toddlers, to an incredibly diverse array of center- and home-based providers. We grew our team, with the additions of Senior Program Officer Elizabeth Vinick and Program Officers Maxiel Sanchez and Pheobe Ploof. We attracted new funding, notably a $1.3M grant from The Connecticut Project that will allow us to expand our housing development work in suburban and rural communities. The Hartford Foundation for Public Giving awarded LISC $1.5M renewal grant for pass-through to CDC partners in Hartford and for operating support. Because of strong state support for affordable housing development, our lending pipeline is robust across the state. And we are inspired by our community partners at the quarterly Hartford Neighborhood Development Support Collaborative meetings and race equity and community engagement convenings in Hartford and New Haven, as well as the first JPMorganChase BIPOC-Led CDC Cohort that is ending, and the new Emerging CDC Cohort that is getting started.
Despite the challenges that lie ahead, we are confident that LISC will do great things with residents, nonprofits, banks, philanthropy, and government to revitalize neighborhoods, build economic security, and narrow racial wealth gaps in 2025. I am grateful to be in this fight with my talented and dedicated LISC Connecticut colleagues and all of you, our collaborators in the community.
Please take a look at the rest the rest of our E-Newsletter and our End of the Year Reflections.