Kenna Poppler of Allianz Life understands the power of LISC’s Financial Opportunity Center® model and how it helps strengthen the financial futures of individuals and families across the Twin Cities. Since 2022, Allianz Life’s support has helped pave a path to sustainable financial and career success for nearly 3,000 people. Learn why working with LISC Twin Cities to reduce barriers to economic inclusion is so important to Allianz Life, and to Poppler.

By Laura Jaramillo, Executive Director, LISC Houston

Laura Jaramillo, executive director of LISC Houston, has plenty of personal experience with her hometown’s extreme weather, and the struggles Houstonians, especially those living on low incomes, face as the climate crisis cranks up those weather events. In a personal blog, Jaramillo reflects on how, in all their work, her team and their partners have incorporated a focus on helping people build resiliency—in their financial lives, in their homes, and with their communities—and why it’s imperative we act collaboratively now.

Wells Fargo has committed a new $1 million, one-year grant to support LISC’s Financial Opportunity Center® network in under-resourced communities nationwide. In the last year alone, our partnership has helped pave a path to resilience and sustainable financial and career success for nearly 12,000 people. To celebrate this renewed support, we’re sharing our favorite stories about people touched by the Wells Fargo partnership.

Meet Jasmine Thai, a graduate of LISC Massachusetts’s Bridges to Green Jobs program supported by TD Bank, an experience that helped her secure an entry-level weatherization job with high-income potential in a growing industry. “If I didn't go through this program, I would have never gotten that job,” said Thai.

“One of the Most Powerful Tools We Have”: Improving Health Through Cross-Sector Collaboration

LISC president Denise Scott joined The Root of Issue podcast to discuss strategies for upending negative social determinants of health in marginalized communities. Just as LISC's comprehensive community development work tackles many fronts simultaneously (housing, financial stability, jobs, safety, etc) to help close wealth and opportunity gaps, that cross-sector approach and intentionality are what can make the difference in closing health gaps, too

In the fourth installment of the LISC-NPQ series, “Community Strategies for Systemic Change,” LISC partner and Rubinger Fellow Joseph Ceasar explains the high cost of financial PTSD on rural communities of color, as in Lufkin, Texas, where he runs the Legacy Institute for Financial Education. Among a range of intensive strategies Ceasar stands behind is “a trauma informed approach rooted in listening to people’s stories and helping them address challenges arising from personal and family history.” Along with budgeting, lending and technical assistance, this approach can help people can break deeply embedded patterns and step onto the path to building financial stability and generational wealth.