Community problems are complicated and simple solutions don’t suffice: “A job alone is not enough,” explains Valerie Moffitt, Senior Program Officer at Toledo Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC).
A national organization, LISC works locally to empower communities through sustainable, supportive efforts.
A Toledo LISC project that layers physical and human capital development is the ProMedica Ebeid Job Training program, a yearlong training that couples job opportunity, financial education counselling and coaching to impact people’s lives and social determinants affecting health.
“We’re not aware of any other hospital system that has created a grocery store, layering on a workforce development piece to really train neighborhood residents anywhere else,” Moffitt continues. Partnering with Toledo LISC, the Ebeid Institute benefits from the instituional knowledge of LISC nationally.
“Since we do community building working across the country, we share best practices to make sure we work with our communities in the most effective ways,” says Moffitt.
“We talk about placemaking a lot, but it’s really about people making,” explains Moffitt. “The investment you make in people will last for generations. The investment that you make in a building will last as long as the investor wants to invest in it. That’s why it’s so important to invest in the people in the community.”
Unsung Heroes is sponsored by Market on the Green. Part of ProMedica Ebeid Institute, the market is dedicated to improving the health and well-being of our community by increasing access to healthy, affordable food; delivering nutritional education; and providing job training opportunities.
Ebeid Institute is proud to house a Financial Opportunity Center (FOC), supported by the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC), which works with 80 FOCs in more than 30 cities (four in the Toledo area).
Visit the market at 1806 Madison Ave., Downtown Toledo, and like them on Facebook at Facebook.com/ProMedicaMarketOnTheGreen
