Word on the Street: A LISC Story Slam - Program

11.13.2019 / PROGRAM 1

VISION We envision a future characterized by equity, which we define as “just and fair inclusion into a society in which all can participate, prosper, and reach their full potential.�* This includes access to the systems and services that support financial stability, quality housing, good health, living-wage jobs, safe neighborhoods, education, and a healthy environment; opportunity to advance in all these areas; and access to structures of power and the ability to participate in the making of decisions that impact residents and their neighborhoods.

We consider equity along a variety of axes, including gender, race, ethnicity, age, language, country of origin, and zip code.

MISSION LISC Boston works to increase equity across Massachusetts, helping people gain the opportunities and skills they need to succeed, and improving the health, safety, and prosperity of the places they work, play, and live. Together with residents and community-based organizations, we work to ensure that everyone has the chance to live in vibrant communities of choice and possibility.

*Thanks to PolicyLink for this definition of equity.

WELCOME I am delighted you are with us tonight to hear and to celebrate these stories from our neighbors, partners and other members of the LISC community in Massachusetts. I am also humbled by and grateful for the support of tonight’s sponsors.

For nearly forty years, LISC Boston has worked with local leaders to equip Massachusetts communities with the capital, strategy, and capacity to be places where people thrive through investment in affordable housing, economic development, health, education, public safety and employment.

Right now, we are working with our many partners to take our response to the Bay State’s housing crisis to another level. With you, we are piloting, scaling, and focusing on better community health outcomes and seeding inclusive investment in communities throughout Massachusetts.

The stories you will hear tonight are personal but they resonate with and translate the work we all do together. The storytellers are entrepreneurs and employees; students and teachers; homebuilders and homemakers; mothers and children; artists, activists, leaders and community builders. They will bravely share what a stable home, a good job, a decent credit score, a growing business, or a thriving community means to them.

Tonight we leave data and statistics behind, and listen to their voices, as we consider what our work is and why it matters.

On behalf of LISC and of them, thank you for your support.

KAREN E. KELLEHER Executive Director 3

THANK YOU Dear Friends, I’d like to personally welcome each of you to Word on the Street: A LISC Story Slam.

Storytelling carries a profound power – the power to connect personally, and to take control of one’s own narrative. So often the prevailing narratives of the communities we work in are constructed by others. Tonight’s event is an apt way to celebrate the fact that our work together seeks to empower people and communities to tell their own story. I expect tonight you’ll hear about some of the other ways we support this – through placemaking, engagement, advocacy, planning, physical development, and building financial strength and social capital.

LISC is grateful for our deep roots and broad partnerships in Massachusetts, which is blessed with world-class educational, health care and financial institutions, a leading innovation economy and creative and talented nonprofit, government and philanthropic leaders.

Our challenges here are great, but so are our opportunities. We are excited to rise to those challenges with you - to collaborate and invest with you to create and preserve affordable housing, resist displacement, create paths to prosperity, and seed economic opportunity and community health.

My sincere thanks for your support and partnership,

MAURICE JONES President and Chief Executive Officer

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THE LISC BOSTON TEAM KAREN E. KELLEHER Executive Director MARGARET KEAVENY Senior Program Officer, Lending and Investment KARLEEN PORCENA Senior Program Officer, Economic Opportunity EMILY JONES Program Officer, Green Retrofit Initiative TIA VICE Program Officer Program Operations MARILYN SANCHEZ Office Manager 75 Kneeland Street, Suite 1102 Boston | 617.338.0411 BostonLISC@lisc.org | www.lisc.org/Boston

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THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS VISIONARY

CHAMPION PARTNER

FRIEND AAFCPAs * Boston Private Edward M. Doherty * Klein Hornig, LLP

SUPPORTER Boston Capital * Howard Cohen *Kevin P. Martin & Associates Massachusetts Housing Investment CorporationPeople’s United Bank Preservation Of Affordable Housing *TD Bank

& SPECIAL THANKS TO OUR AFFILIATES

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EVENT PROGRAM RECEPTION Drinks and Hors d’oeuvres Featuring: Catering by Lyndigo Spice Music by The MastaDonis Project

STORY SLAM WELCOME Karen Kelleher, Executive Director, LISC Boston

STORYTELLERS Shantel Alix • Nicole Burke • Horace Cooper Jerome Daye • Vicki Gray • Danny LeBlanc • Teresa Thompson Maynard • Cathy Mercado • Scarlett Mitchell Intermission Featuring: Dessert by Sweet Teez Bakery

CLOSING REMARKS

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is thrilled to join Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) Boston in celebrating Word on the Street: A LISC Story Slam.

We honor and support your commitment to engaging members of the community through advocacy, job training and supportive services.

winncompanies.com

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Brigham Health, Massachusetts General Hospital & Partners HealthCare are delighted to support

LISC Boston - Story Slam

Boston Private is proud to support

LISC BOSTON Investing in our neighborhoods, and financing homebuyers, small businesses and community development

bostonprivate.com

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Thanks to our Supporters Boston Capital

Howard Cohen Kevin P. Martin & Associates Massachusetts Housing Investment Corporation People’s United Bank Preservation Of Affordable Housing TD Bank 11

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