Workforce Development & Financial Mobility

LISC NY’s investment strategy has been guided by three pillars: Radical Healing: The unapologetic acknowledgement of systemic barriers experienced by socioeconomically disadvantaged individuals, populations, and communities. Transformative Investment: Equitable access to opportunities for investment in historically disinvested communities by way of housing, commercial and community spaces, and small businesses. Sustainable Wealth Generation: Building increased wealth attainment through homeownership, entrepreneurship, career ladders in jobs of the future, and financial mobility and wellness.

One area of this work is LISC’s Financial Opportunity Center® (FOC) model. Based on a program developed by the Anne E. Casey Foundation, FOCs are embedded in community-based organizations and offer bundled services focused on employment, income supports, and financial management skills. The integration of these services is a key element of the program because participants who receive bundled services achieve stronger financial and employment outcomes. Today, LISC’s national Family Income and Wealth Building team oversees a network of over 100 FOCs across the country, include one in Brooklyn, New York which is supported with funding and technical assistance from LISC NY.

Since 2014, LISC NY has supported an FOC operated by our community-based partner Fifth Avenue Committee (FAC) in Brooklyn, New York City. FAC is committed to helping community residents secure stable, living wage employment, and career development opportunities. The organization provides public housing residents with a comprehensive workforce development program that leads to jobs with opportunities for advancement within the New York City Public Housing Authority (NYCHA). Through the FOC program, all participants in FAC’s NYCHA resident training program also have access to a financial coach who provides one-on-one counseling that is tailored to meet participants where they are in their financial journey—whether they are unemployed and in need of basic budgeting skills, or further along in their career and saving for their first home.