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A federal program that fuels grassroots solutions to community challenges is helping close the skills gap that traps millions of people in poverty, even in a growing economy. The Social Innovation Fund (SIF)—part of the Federal Corporation for National and Community Service—has awarded funding to the new Bridges to Career Opportunities program at three Centers for Working Families (CWFs) in Indianapolis. The Bridges program is overseen by LISC Indianapolis in order to help low-income workers build the skills necessary to earn a living wage. Coaches at three community centers will teach core skills like math, reading, and English as a … Continued

LISC Indianapolis has received a grant totaling $100,000 from the Nina Mason Pulliam Charitable Trust. The grant will be used to expand the Centers for Working Families’ Bridges to Success program to provide bridge employment skills training. Built on a model developed by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, Centers for Working Families (CWF) provides people with the tools they need to increase their income, reduce expenses, and build wealth for their families. The CWF network in Indianapolis is composed of eight neighborhood-based centers that transition families from living paycheck to paycheck to investing in their future. The Bridges for Success … Continued

  It’s exciting to see President Obama celebrating the work of a great partner to LISC like Ivy Tech. The President’s highlighting of the impact that a community college can have on a community has been reflected in how Ivy Tech has been part of local comprehensive community development efforts. The Ivy Tech campus is located in the Mid-North Quality of Life neighborhood, and the college has joined with residents and organizations like the Indianapolis Children’s Museum of Indianapolis, Mapleton-Fall Creek CDC, and Near North Development in implementing many community improvement goals. Three years ago, LISC invested $11.2 Million in Federal New Market … Continued

LISC and United Way collaborate to pave path forward for working families in Indianapolis Ann Murtlow, President and CEO of United Way of Central Indiana (UWCI), announced a partnership with LISC to benefit working families in Indianapolis. Since 2007, LISC has invested $4.5 million to implement the CWF model in Indianapolis. Indianapolis Foundation, an affiliate of Central Indiana Community Foundation (CICF), has funded CWF since 2007 through the Family Success Initiative, providing annual operating grants to the CWF network. LISC currently operates six CWF neighborhood centers and a center at Ivy Tech Community College, providing bundled services to empower working … Continued

“The working poor should be better off than the non-working poor.” So says my good friend and tireless champion for the dispossessed, Gregg Keesling, who runs a very successful social enterprise employing ex-offenders here in Indianapolis. It’s a theme that resonates across the network of LISC-sponsored Financial Opportunity Centers (known as Centers for Working Families in Indianapolis). There’s much rhetoric about why the poor stay poor, but the FOCs are seeing people every day who work for living but seem to get nowhere. It’s a complicated dynamic – partly behavioral but mostly about lack of assets – social capital, educational attainment, … Continued

The Centers for Working Families is LISC’s platform in lifting up low-income families out of poverty and into the economic mainstream by helping families increase earnings and develop assets. The CWF program was featured as part of a guest blog on the Institute for Working Families website to show the need for both private and public sectors to come together and restore economic mobility to Hoosier families. From the Institute for Working Families Blog: GUEST BLOG: New Scorecard Confirms Nearly Half of Hoosiers in a Persistent State of Financial Insecurity By Anne Guthrie: Anne is the Center for Working Families (CWF) … Continued