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By the time a pine tree is 40 feet high, it may have roots reaching out 200 feet.
When Diana Kyle, director of Tampa Bay's Local Initiatives Service Corporation, speaks of the work her company is doing, she uses the pine tree's growth as an analogy.
For more than two years, LISC has been striving to help community development corporations in Tampa Bay make a difference. Slowly, the efforts of Kyle and her staff have taken root, and now LISC is looking for those efforts to begin sprouting more success.
In St. Petersburg, the corporation served as a risk manager for a social services complex called the Sophie Sampson Center of Hope, helping it acquire $600,000. LISC then connected the center with a nearby development organization that provides a transition program for homeless veterans living at the center. The program involves circuit board welding training, and when the vets complete the training, Raytheon guarantees them employment.
On this side of the bay, the Community Development Corporation of Tampa had a dream of acquiring a run-down nightclub on Hillsborough Avenue and converting the building into a place that could be home to a company offering up to 100 jobs. Working with the University of South Florida, LISC helped make the $3-million project more affordable for the CDC.
"It's good having LISC here to help us tell our story," said Chloe Coney, chief executive officer of the CDC of Tampa.
You also can spot LISC's good deeds on youth football fields, where they have partnered with the NFL Charity's Grass roots Program to build or renovate facilities in distressed communities.
And in each example, LISC has helped fulfill desires identified by the community, instead of telling communities this is what we're going to do for you. It's as much about self-help as it is about community building.
"This is all about local initiatives, neighborhoods doing neighborhood plans and deciding what are their needs," LISC director Kyle said.
LISC was born out of the Ford Foundation, which did extensive research in 1980 to learn more about successful revitalization efforts in low-income neighborhoods. What they discovered was a common thread of community involvement.
So with $10-million in seed money, the foundation opened two LISC sites in two different cities. Now LISC is in 30 cities, with Tampa being the newest location.
"We're connecting the dots between people who have the need and people who can help once they know what those needs are," Kyle said.
Sometimes those people are donors, developers and volunteers. At an intimate reception last week, some of the city's top movers and shakers gathered to learn more about LISC. Organizers told of a neighborhood that would love to have a pizza place and a convenience store/gas station.
Now someone who can make that a reality is exploring the feasibility.
LISC's community roots are going to get deeper, and we can only hope the result is a growing sense of confidence when it comes to investing in urban areas.
For a good part of his campaign, U.S. Senate hopeful Bill McCollum has labeled opponent Mel Martinez as a trial lawyer who has more in common with Democratic vice president nominee John Edwards than with the Republican Party.
But it's McCollum who shares at least one common trait with Edwards, who always celebrates his wedding anniversaries with wife Elizabeth at a particular fast food restaurant. Yep, after Friday night's debate at WEDU-Ch. 3, I spotted McCollum and his aides at the Wendy's on Kennedy Avenue.
I'm not sure what he ordered, but I guess Wendy's can revel in the fact there appears to be bipartisan support of Big Bacon Classics. And really, the visit was appropriate when you consider the relationship between McCollum and Martinez has gotten, well, Frosty.
That's all I'm saying.Ernest Hooper can be reached at 813 226-3406 or Hooper@sptimes.com