AmeriCorps

A key component of Detroit LISC’s support of our community partners is our investment in human capital through the LISC AmeriCorps program. LISC AmeriCorps allows CDCs and other neighborhood-focused organizations to expand their services or pilot new ones. It also provides an excellent opportunity for individuals to serve their community while they gain skills in the field of community development.

AmeriCorps in 2009

In 2009, Detroit LISC invested $67,500 in the AmeriCorps program. As part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), national LISC was named a recipient of stimulus funds earmarked for national service. Detroit LISC was subsequently awarded 10 slots for full-time AmeriCorps members to be placed at local partner organizations. We were also awarded 1 traditional AmeriCorps slot.

The stimulus funded slots must support work intended to provide solutions to the financial and foreclosure crisis. We, therefore, placed some members at our Greater Detroit Centers for Working Families (CWF) sites working on employment and wealth building strategies and with our partners working to alleviate some aspect of the foreclosure crisis, including foreclosure counseling, acquisition and rehabilitation of foreclosed homes, research in support of other solutions to the foreclosure crisis, etc.