A healthy community isn’t just about access to high-quality, reliable health care. Individuals and families also need access to good jobs, opportunities to build wealth, and thriving, locally-owned businesses. Kaiser Permanente understands how economic factors can shape well-being, especially in communities of color that often don’t benefit from regional or national prosperity. Learn how LISC is collaborating with Kaiser Permanente to support locally-driven strategies that spark economic growth in under-invested places.
A healthy community isn’t just defined by access to high-quality, reliable health care. That’s certainly a big part of it, but for a community to be truly healthy, the economic factors that shape individual and family well-being must also be in place: these include access to good jobs, opportunities to build wealth, and thriving, locally-owned businesses. Thanks to our collaboration with Kaiser Permanente, through funding provided by the East Bay Community Foundation, LISC and its partners are helping support those very factors in communities across the country.
Since 2020, LISC and its affiliate Broadstreet have deployed $23.5 million in grants and support from Kaiser Permanente and leveraged an additional $48.9 million in funding to advance inclusive economic development activities in more than a dozen U.S. cities. This support is laser focused on communities of color that often don’t benefit from regional or national prosperity and, by extension, its positive impact on health.
The flexibility of the Kaiser Permanente support has enabled us to bolster locally-driven strategies that spark economic growth in under-invested places. This includes seeding community ownership of real estate and initiatives to promote financial stability and nurture small businesses. What’s more, the collaboration with Kaiser Permanente means LISC can provide multi-year funding to community partners, so they can spend more time and energy on the work at hand, and less on fundraising.
Check out how LISC and Kaiser Permanente are creating impact in the stories below:
Increasing Residents' Financial Stability in Atlanta
In the Sweet Auburn neighborhood of Atlanta, LISC is part of a coordinated effort to combat issues of poverty, equity, and overall community wellness. Increasing the financial stability of Sweet Auburn residents is a majority priority. To advance this goal, LISC deployed Kaiser Permanente support to help the Sweet Auburn-based Atlanta Center for Self Sufficiency (ACSS) become a Financial Opportunity Center® (FOC). It is one of five FOCs in Atlanta and part of LISC’s national network of some 120 FOCs.
Through the FOC, Sweet Auburn residents can get employment and career services, financial coaching and education, and low-cost, safe financial products that build credit, savings and assets. Since joining the FOC network two years ago, ACSS has engaged 250 individuals and families in financial coaching, assisted 150 to increase their income, net worth and credit scores, and distributed $31,000 towards savings match incentives.
Take Aerglo Richardson: when the Sweet Auburn resident began her journey with ACSS, she was unemployed and living in her boyfriend’s car. She worked closely with her financial coach to craft a plan for attaining her immediate goals: finding an apartment, getting a job, and saving money.
With her coach’s guidance, Richardson made swift progress and is optimistic about the future. “I now have my car without a car note and my dream job as a kid’s counselor and administrative assistant,” she said. “I can save monthly while paying bills for my new apartment and sustaining myself.”
Advancing Community Ownership of Real Estate in Oakland, CA
Owning commercial property marks a significant milestone for any nonprofit—it brings a sense of pride, stability and endless possibilities. HiiiWAV, a creative incubator in North Oakland, CA reached that milestone last year with help from LISC and Kaiser Permanente.
Operating out of its newly acquired property at 2781 Telegraph Avenue, HiiiWAV serves as a crucial guiding light for Black artist-entrepreneurs of all genders. The creative business incubator offers a unique blend of space, community, capital, and education to nurture the talents of artist-led companies into profitable and culturally significant enterprises.
Since acquiring the building last year, HiiiWAV has raised $2 million to support over 200 Black artist-entrepreneurs, significantly impacting their ability to create thriving businesses. The artist-entrepreneurs who participate in HiiiWAV's programs, mentorship, and support are not just building businesses but are shaping generational wealth while crafting timeless music.
"LISC hasn't just funded a building,” said Bosko Kante, executive director of HiiiWAV. “It's invested in the dreams and ambitions of every ‘artistpreneur’ who walks through our doors, helping them to leave a lasting impact in the world of music and technology."
Grand Nationxl Art House, an independent artist collective and creative agency, is among the enterprises now thriving with support from Kante’s organization. Danielle Allen, its art director, says HiiiWAV’s commitment to collaborative innovation is particularly valuable.
“To us, HiiiWAV is more than a space – it's a community to grow in where people aren’t afraid to tell you what's working, what’s not working, and how to take bigger leaps,” Allen said. “This environment of openness and fluidity has been pivotal in shaping both our art and our business.”
Preventing Small Business Displacement in Our Nation's Capital
When the old 11th Street Bridge in Washington, DC was replaced and demolished, the foundations were left behind. The remaining pillars have inspired a new effort to unify and connect Anacostia and Ward 8 with parts of the nation’s capital that have historically received more attention and investment.
With LISC’s early support, longtime partner Building Bridges Across the River developed plans not just for an elevated 11th Street Bridge Park, but for a way to ensure existing residents and businesses benefit from the new waves of investment coming to the area and are not displaced by them. Building Bridges created a 10-year Equitable Development Plan with specific goals developed by residents, and an investment target to match. To date, LISC has invested $77 million to help implement the plan, leveraging $600 million from other sources.
LISC’s efforts with Kaiser Permanente have supported Building Bridges to advance goals tied to small business preservation. For example, we provided a grant to help Building Bridges launch The Bridge Spot, an incubator program to assist eight Black-owned businesses in Ward 8 get exposure to customers across DC while receiving pro bono professional services tailored to their unique needs. Over the past year, each business had the opportunity to utilize a mobile kiosk to showcase products and services at venues with high customer traffic such as the National Pride Festival, historic Eastern Market and the Downtown Holiday Market.
"The Bridge Spot provides an opportunity for each of these businesses to step up to the next level and build generational wealth for east of the river Black entrepreneurs,” said Scott Kratz, senior vice president at Building Bridges. “We've witnessed remarkable success stories such as The Kitchen Physician, which established its first brick-and-mortar location, driven by increased sales and visibility from the strategic kiosk. This kiosk is a testament to the incredible talents and capabilities of these entrepreneurial trailblazers east of the river."
Mobilizing the Community to Benefit from Light Rail Development in Everett, Washington
The Casino Road neighborhood of Everett, Washington is a largely Latinx community, with a high concentration of the city’s communities of color and households with low incomes. There are two planned light rail stations in the area, but little permanently affordable housing. The community is at high risk of displacement from the expected transit and accompanying infrastructure investments. To help ensure existing residents and business owners can participate in and benefit from the economic growth of their neighborhood, LISC used resources from Kaiser Permanente to help create and advance an inclusive economic agenda that reflects the needs and desires of the community.
LISC partner Connect Casino Road (CCR) facilitated the community engagement process that anchors the economic agenda and is now a key implementation partner as it leads a coalition of community-based and faith-based organizations engaged in meeting basic needs and providing social services for the community.
To date, Casino Road partners have forged 17 new partnerships to support programs to increase residents’ access to employment opportunities and asset building. On the advocacy side, CCR has led efforts to amplify the voices of Latinx business owners occupying Casino Square, a commercial center whose future is uncertain with the impending light rail construction and related development. CCR secured an early win – the transit agency removed from consideration a station location that would have leveled Casino Square – but the threat of displacement remains, requiring continued advocacy. Looking ahead, LISC and Casino Road partners will build on this work and engage new public and private partners and find ways to create and preserve inclusive economic development and affordable housing in the community.