In this episode, LISC's Interim CEO & President, Lisa L. Glover, interviews LISC board member, Michelle de la Uz who is also the Executive Director of the Fifth Avenue Committee in Brooklyn, NY. The conversation highlights the work of the Fifth Avenue Committee around COVID, environmental initiatives and climate change, community advocacy, and affordable housing. It’s a great conversation that celebrates the importance of community partnerships in an ever-changing urban landscape.

By Bill Taft, SVP of Economic Development

As LISC celebrates the extraordinary contributions of small businesses this week, we are taking stock of how our grantmaking and other support touched 16,000 small businesses across the country, and what they have told us they need to survive and flourish going forward. Affordable capital and technical assistance top the list. We’ve heard them, loud and clear, and are responding with increased investment, like a new partnership with the Verizon Small Business Digital Ready initiative.

By Bill Taft

Since the onset of the pandemic, LISC has equipped 16,000 small business owners with relief and resilience grants. But to foster opportunity and long-term resiliency for all entrepreneurs who confront entrenched inequities, including people of color, women, immigrants and refugees, and people with lower incomes and wealth, we need a robust universe of small business “ecosystems”: the network of capital, services, and supports that every enterprise needs to get on its feet and grow.

By Mark Kudlowitz

The United States is at a homeownership inflection point, and a line-up of federal proposals offers the potential to break down systemic barriers for BIPOC families, while at the same time helping mitigate the housing impact of COVID-19. LISC Senior Policy Director Mark Kudlowitz takes a closer look at promising policies to expand homeownership opportunities for underserved families and communities.

By Lisa L. Glover, Interim LISC President and CEO

In a blog describing the new $11 million Vaccine Access Fund, a partnership of LISC, Uber, Paypal and Walgreens, LISC's Interim President & CEO Lisa L. Glover details how the fund tackles more than the transportation gap that is keeping tens of thousands of Americans from accessing COVID-19 vaccines. "The fund offers a practical solution to an immediate problem," writes Glover. "But this is absolutely part of our larger efforts to address equity as well."

By Teresa Garcia

In the era of Covid-19, connected ecosystems are paying off for small businesses struggling to keep their doors open. Which proves just how critical LISC’s ongoing work to build relationships that support economic development really is, in times of crisis and beyond.