NOAH Executive Director Thomas Roberts accepts a ceremonial check for $20,000 from South Florida LISC officers.

NOAH Development Corp. was among eight agencies to take its share of $270,000 in LISC grants awarded to increase neighborhood development in Palm Beach and Broward counties.

NOAH Executive Director Thomas Roberts accepted a ceremonial check of $20,000 from Annetta Jenkins, the Senior Program director for LISC South Florida who promised the agencies she would do even more.

"We’re going to do everything we can to increase the size of those checks," she said. "Our commitment is to do more, to find more resources and get them out to you. We don’t need to talk about the needs, we don’t need to talk about the challenges, they are staring us in the face everyday," Jenkins continued at the quiet, but happy May 23 ceremony. "We want to help you transform neighborhoods as we transform lives."

Roberts thanked Jenkins and LISC Senior Program Officer, Lynda Charles, for the support and said the grant money would allow him to have in-house staff to ensure NOAH’s development programs would move forward through completion.

"We all know of the complications we deal with," Roberts said in addressing LISC officers and other community development representatives. "I’d like to thank LISC for the opportunity to make life better for the folks we serve out in The Glades." Jenkins made note of NOAH’s Renaissance Housing project which involves construction of affordable housing and that it is the only program of its kind in The Glades. Roberts said much of his success as NOAH’s executive director is due to the assistance he has gotten from LISC.

"This grant that they’re giving us is almost like icing on the cake," Roberts said. Other organizations to receive grants from the South Florida Local Initiatives Support Corp were: Boynton Beach CDC, Delray Beach CDC, Hawkins Homes, Lake Worth CDC; New Visions CDC; Northwest Riviera CRC and Northwood Renaissance.

LISC is a national organization that focuses on community development. It came to South Florida in 1985 when it opened an office in Miami and added another office in West Palm Beach in 1991. The organization has helped 2,800 CDCs build or rehabilitate 215,000 affordable homes.

"Thank you all for the hard work you do and for working with neighbors and working with other partners ... and for working with extreme passion," Jenkins said to the community development representatives. "… When someone gets the keys to their new house, when a family has safe surroundings, when a child gets access to the internet, it’s rewarding work. We wish we had millions of dollars to give to each of you because you deserve it."