KALAMAZOO -- Kalamazoo city leaders are close to securing a longterm investment deal with a national company focused on spurring job growth,

Members of the Local Initiatives Support Corporation plan to sponsor the partnership. They want to help Kalamazoo businesses expand and create jobs.

Community leaders believe this partnership could have a positive ripple effect on other development projects already happening.

"People being able to meet their basic needs is one of the foundations of a healthy family unit, a healthy individual," said Carrie Drake, the executive director of Building Blocks Kalamazoo.

She praises the city's effort to secure national funding for job growth, something she calls a necessity for all organizations trying to boost community development.

"In our relationships with residents we are able to have conversations about what their needs are and unemployment is very high in our neighborhoods," Drake said.

Leaders at LISC want to include Kalamazoo in a pilot program involving just four cities in the country.

"We have a definite interest in trying to change the dynamics of poverty and unemployment," said LISC Program Vice President Chuck Vliek.

Vliek said his company intends to provide loans to small businesses and funding for skills training in hopes that will spark expansion.

"So it's very much also focused on jobs for the residents of the neighborhoods we serve," Vliek said.

LISC could end up matching money kalamazoo spends on economic development two for one.

"For people to access employment or people who need additional training for people to have some upward mobility is so enssential," Drake said.

The details of this pilot program are still being worked out but a final agreement could be finished by the end of the year. Chicago, Indianapolis and Buffalo are the other cities taking part in it.