GO Neighborhoods is a placed-based, multi-year program sponsored and coordinated by LISC Houston. LISC Houston is a local office of the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC), the nation’s largest community development support organization. With residents and partners, LISC’s forges resilient and inclusive communities of opportunity across America – great places to live, work, visit, do business and raise families. By providing capital, technical expertise and training, LISC helps to develop local leaders and invest in the creation and growth of affordable housing, local community centers, and businesses that create new jobs.

WE ARE GO NEIGHBORHOODS

Building Sustainable Communities

GO Neighborhoods is a multi-year program that LISC began in Houston in 2009 to develop and implement a place-based comprehensive approach to community development. This approach is now a proven model for forging resilient and inclusive communities.  

GO (Great Opportunities) Neighborhoods was founded on LISC’s six principles for building sustainable communities and achieve neighborhood revitalization:  

  • expanding investment in housing and other real estate 
  • increasing family income and wealth 
  • stimulating economic development 
  • improving access to quality education 
  • supporting healthy environments and lifestyles 
  • strengthening leadership and civic engagement.  

GO Neighborhoods works across these traditionally disconnected sectors. What sets GO Neighborhoods apart is that it is a community driven process that relies on robust civic engagement. GO neighborhoods have proven to be a promising agent of change, one that is flexible, innovative and responsive to local conditions, reaching into every corner of a community’s life.

Program Offerings

To ensure success in the communities we work with, LISC wants to understand the level of readiness and capacity for change in the neighborhood. Based on that assessment LISC provides three levels of investment: Comprehensive, Collaborative and Connected. Currently there are 13 Houston neighborhoods in the GO Neighborhoods network, with Near Northside, OST/South Union, Fifth Ward and Northline at the Comprehensive level of investment, in which we provide Quality of Life Neighborhood Planning support.

Go Network
(Our Neighborhoods)

LISC’s Healthy Communities Leadership Development Series seeks to build the knowledge and skills of participants around meeting facilitation, project planning, conflict resolution, shared leadership approach, and social determinants of health through four leadership development tracks. These leadership development tracks include: Leading Together Workshops, an annual Civic Academy Forum,
the Training 4 Trainers Program,
and the Ambassadors Class.

Leadership Development

Houston LISC offers a wide range of technical assistance and capacity-building resources to local nonprofit organizations as they launch and grow initiatives. We help make tackling new types of programs and projects easier by offering national models and resources. We support organizations as they leverage funding opportunities, navigate complex development regulations, develop housing and economic development strategies, strengthen organizational practices, and increase their ability to serve as an effective neighborhood partner.

Go Network
(Our Neighborhoods)

As part of LISC’s “Building Sustainable Communities” initiative, which focused in bringing together physical redevelopment and the development of human capital (connection between people and place) in the work of community revitalization, Houston LISC invited a select group of neighborhoods in Houston to partner with Houston LISC in the initiative and join the “GO Neighborhoods Program”.

As the network grew, Houston LISC looked at how to cluster investments to neighborhood partners, and created a framework to match LISC resources to each neighborhood’s needs, readiness and capacity. Currently there are 13 neighborhoods in the network, with four at the comprehensive level, shown in dark green on this map.

Comprehensive GO Neighborhoods: Near Northside, OST/South Union, Fifth Ward and Northline.

Collaborative and Connected GO Neighborhoods: Independence Heights, Gulfton, Third Ward, Acres Homes, Kashmere/Houston/Trinity Gardens, Third Ward, Denver Harbor, Magnolia Park, Sunnyside

Core Go Neighborhoods Funders

HoustonEndowment

Journey Charitable Trust