Dr. Gene Gelgelu founded African Economic Development Solutions (AEDS) in St. Paul, MN to help fellow African immigrants build wealth through entrepreneurship and homeownership. LISC has been by his side, offering guidance and support, since the organization’s inception. Our latest contribution: nine LISC AmeriCorps - Economic Mobility Corps members who enhance the capacity of AEDS while getting a taste of what it’s like to work in community development.

Raghu Chejarla and Susie Ruddarraju are the husband-and-wife team behind HighCloud Solutions, an IT consulting and staffing firm in St. Paul, MN. Securing more supplier contracts is central to HighCloud’s growth, but most large institutions require suppliers to have expensive certifications to do business with them. With a $125,000 zero-interest investment from the Abbott-LISC Initiative to Support Diverse Businesses in Health, HighCloud secured the accounting and cybersecurity certifications it needs to compete.

In the aftermath of George Floyd’s murder, one South Minneapolis community convulsed in pain and suffered massive destruction. On Juneteenth this year, it celebrated the fruition of a project that speaks volumes about community agency and ownership, and how support from intermediaries, including LISC, can be profoundly transformative in building back stronger, and more equitably, than ever before.

Jamie Schumacher, LISC Twin Cities Program Officer

In a blog from the Twin Cities, LISC’s Jamie Schumacher delves into the ways Asian American and Pacific Islander communities and their partners are leveraging arts and culture to build—and rebuild—authentic human connection, community and commerce.

LISC Twin Cities Celebrates $1 Billion in Investments in the Twin Cities

As it celebrates its 35th Anniversary, LISC Twin Cities announced another major milestone: $1 billion dollars of investments. Over three and a half decades, LISC Twin Cities has channeled all of this capital into transformative organizations and projects, strengthened community development infrastructure and changed systems that create and perpetuate inequality of opportunity.

A Minneapolis Post columnist takes an in-depth look LISC Twin Cities’ Development of Color initiative, which has cultivated a cohort of visionary BIPOC developers committed to making a difference in their communities. The program helps equip them with the tools and resources needed to tackle barriers in their markets, including bridging gaps in accessing equity financing, “a key to broadening who works in real estate,” writes the author. “For these developers of color, there’s the equity gap, and then there’s the equity gap. This program is aimed at solving both of those problems.” The excerpt below was originally published on MinnPost: Twin Cities org gives tools, support to developers of color​​​​​​​ By Bill Lindeke