Integrate crime prevention with community investment programs to accelerate recovery in low-income areas: LISC
Police, community advocates focus on eliminating blight and crime, building economic opportunity during July 18-20 national LISC gathering
BOSTON, July 18, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Law enforcement and philanthropic leaders are issuing a call to action to incorporate crime reduction strategies into the billions of dollars of community investment projects that are helping rebuild the face of distressed neighborhoods across the country.
Local and national experts will be advocating for comprehensive, cutting-edge partnerships at a three-day national gathering this week sponsored by the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC), the country's largest nonprofit focused on helping low-income communities recover from economic decline. A July 19 community safety panel will include such leading voices as William Gross, deputy superintendent of the Boston Police Department, Dean Esserman, chief of police for the city of New Haven, Paul Grogan, president of the Boston Foundation, and Julia Ryan, director of LISC's Community Safety Initiative.
The panel will be speaking from 8:15-9:00 a.m. on Thursday morning, July 19, 2012, at the Westin Copley Place's Essex Ballroom. The Westin is at 10 Huntington Ave in Boston. Members of the media are invited to attend.
"The bricks-and-mortar resources and people-organizing resources that are at the heart of community development are tremendously powerful when it comes to preventing crime," noted Julia Ryan, director of the Community Safety Initiative for the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC). "Restoring the built environment is absolutely critical to reduce opportunities for crime. But sustainable change happens when that work is aligned with the voices of residents and the actions of police who stand together to show that their community is one in which neighbors look out for each other, and crime isn't tolerated."
Since 1980, LISC has made $12 billion in community investments focused on reducing crime, improving schools, revitalizing commercial corridors, creating jobs and rehabilitating housing stock. LISC is convening hundreds of its staffers working throughout 30 cities and 70 rural communities in Boston this week to discuss opportunities to advancing the economic prospects of disinvested areas.
"Our goal is to help even the most troubled communities become good places to live, work, do business and raise families," said Michael Rubinger, LISC president and CEO.
LISC staff will be sharing best practices and detailing programs that address the need for affordable housing, improved education, community health care, environmental sustainability, economic development, and financial/employment counseling programs for low-income families.
LISC senior national staff will be available for interviews during the conference, as will our executive director for Boston LISC. Please contact 312-342-8244 to be connected with the appropriate source.
ABOUT LISC
LISC combines corporate, government and philanthropic resources to help nonprofit community development corporations revitalize distressed neighborhoods. Since 1980, LISC has raised $12 billion to build or rehab 289,000 affordable homes and develop 46 million square feet of retail, community and educational space nationwide. The Boston LISC office, one of the organization's first, was founded in 1981. Boston LISC has invested $18 million over the last four years in 850 affordable and transit-oriented housing units and 154,000 sq. ft. of commercial space; as well as grants that provided flexible capacity building dollars for local community development corporations. Nationally, LISC support has leveraged nearly $40 billion in total development activity. For more information, visit www.lisc.org.
Contact:
Colleen Mulcahy, LISC Communications
312-342-8244 or [email protected]
SOURCE Local Initiatives Support Corporation
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