30th Anniversary & Annual Community Awards

10.05.2022 — LISC Storiese-Blasts

30^th Anniversary & Annual Community Awards

Help us celebrate excellence in the community development sector!

It's our big 3-0!

Each year we take some time with all of you to celebrate the community development sector. To honor excellence. To inspire action. We're excited to share with you the five 2022 Community Awards Honorees named below and to introduce you to their work later this month.

This year, we've taken an extra step back to reflect and see how far we've all come since LISC Phoenix established roots in the Sonoran Desert 30 years ago. The writer who knows us best, Jennifer Dokes of JDD Specialties, has compiled interviews and insights into our 30th Anniversary history project. Join us for a tour through three decades of adapting to growth, nourishing the ecosystem and empowering underserved communities and see the results of these investments. The excerpt below will take you to the full publication.

Thank you to our sponsors who made this year's awards and history project possible, and to the partners and community members who we've had the fortune to work alongside all of these years.

Congratulations to our honorees

This year's Community Awards honorees show what a difference a little support can make to a lot of people, whether through holistic care, the right expertise at the right time, political will or critical funding - or more likely, a little of each. We will be sharing their inspiring stories with you over the coming weeks.

Exemplary Project
La Frontera Center of Hope
[Spotlight Story] [LocalBuzz Video Part 1, Part 2]

Exemplary Program Development
RAIL CDC
[Spotlight Story] [LocalBuzz Video]

Exemplary Local Leadership
City of Tempe
[Spotlight Story] [LocalBuzz Video]

Exemplary Advocate
Senator Mark Kelly
[Spotlight Story]

Exemplary Partner
Vanguard Strong Start for Kids Program
[Spotlight Story]

Story and video links will be added to our website as they're released. Be the first to know by following us on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn.

30 Years of LISC Phoenix

Rooted

Sonoran desert scrub, the ancient ecosystem that teaches us important lessons about resourcefulness, interdependence and resilience, probably doesn’t sound like much to the uninitiated. Lost to many is the strategic work occurring, especially beneath the surface, that offers living things opportunities to thrive in good times and survive the bad times.

The Sonoran Desert version of Local Initiatives Support Corporation, an anti-poverty, anti-displacement and anti-racism organization, has many of the same qualities of Arizona’s signature habitat. For the uninitiated, history and testimonials tell the story of adaptation and evolution of an intermediary and community development financial institution (CDFI) whose array of projects, products and practices invigorates what we see above ground in today’s comprehensive community development ecosystem.