AmeriCorps Program
South Florida LISC is entering its sixth year as a participant in the National LISC AmeriCorps Program. The South Florida LISC AmeriCorps Program is our local strategy to develop human capital within the local community development industry and to build organizational/internal capacity within the CDCs. The field office works closely with the CDCs and the community through strategic planning sessions, neighborhood meetings, surveys and focus groups to identify pressing needs in the community, proposed activities and anticipated results to redevelop the CDCs target areas. The AmeriCorps Program is one of the tools used to arrive at creating a livable community.
South Florida LISC uses the CDC model and the integration of community residents and other stakeholders to foster revitalization in the inner-city areas. The revitalization model concentrates on community building activities with the intent of developing human capital and addressing the social issues in the community as well as physical development, which eliminates slum and blight and spurs asset development and wealth building in the low-income communities.
South Florida LISC has had nine years of experience in administering this program and has had some success. We have provided a summary of accomplishments and outcomes for the last five years as well as program goals that will address the continuous needs in the community and the proposed and planned activities to address the needs and to produce the desired outcomes for 2005-2006.
South Florida LISC has been a participant in the LISC-AmeriCorps Initiative since 1997. The Program has enrolled forty-eight full-time and two part-time members for a total of fifty members; all but two completed their first year. Eighty-percent or thirty-eight (38) of these members elected to enroll for a second year. The South Florida LISC AmeriCorps is one of the local capacity-building efforts to develop human capital within the industry as well as assisting the LISC-assisted non-profit organizations (CDCs) in building internal capacity. During the past five years, we have seen moderate growth in some CDCs and others have achieved very ambitious goals. The AmeriCorps members have been instrumental in increasing the CDC production and delivery of affordable housing units; thereby eliminating slum and blight, increasing the homeownership rate and the tax base in the target area. A summary of accomplishments and outcomes are outlined below:
- Graduated forty-six (46) AmeriCorps Members.
- Thirteen (13) or 34.2% of graduates obtained jobs within the community development industry as housing counselors, mortgage processors, etc.
- Six CDCs completed 300 single-family infill units.
- Two CDCs co-developed the first major private real estate development (an estimated $18 million) in the two CDC’s target area.
- Eight CDCs provided homebuyer’s education, financial literacy and credit repair assistance to over 800 families.
- Property values increased at a minimum, between 25% and 50% in the CDC target areas.
- Three CDCs developed 50,000 square feet of commercial space in the CDC target areas.
- Each member has received over 100 hours of training in the areas of affordable housing development, housing counseling and credit repair, marketing techniques and computer skills.
- Worked with 80 children participating in a cultural “
- Mentored 60 teenagers in a program called “Listen to the Children”, which allows young girls from 12 to 16 to work with a volunteer for a 6-week period to try to work through conflicts with other adults and classmates.