This week, NeighborWorks America welcomed more than 1,200 community development practitioners from across the country to the NeighborWorks Training Institute, the premier professional learning event for community development and affordable housing professionals in the country. The event was held in Philadelphia, known as the City of Brotherly Love and Sisterly Affection.
“We also want to celebrate neighborly love,” said Douglas Sessions, senior vice president of training, adding that being a good neighbor was not just about proximity, but about kindness and showing up for each other. Every small act of neighborly love helps bind us together as a nation, he added during an opening plenary session, before introducing NeighborWorks President & CEO Marietta Rodriguez.
“Whether you are on the front lines helping families secure stable housing, building he housing, shaping strategies hat expand access to opportunity or funding initiatives hat drive lasting impact, your work is essential to the future of strong communities,” Rodriguez said. “This week, you are part of something bigger than a training event. You are part of a movement dedicated to building stronger communities, expanding opportunities, and ensuring housing is not just available but sustainable and affordable for the long term.”
Housing, she added, is not just about physical buildings. “It’s about people. It’s about creating places where individuals and families can grow and businesses can thrive.”
And she said that opportunity means ensuring that where you live doesn’t determine the course of your life. “A zip code should no dictate access to quality education, financial security or the chance to own a home.” Too often, opportunities feel out of reach. “Our work is about changing that – about breaking down barriers so that individuals and families have the resources and support they need to thrive no matter where they live.”
Local leaders provide welcome, inspiration
NeighborWorks has two affiliate organizations in Philadelphia: HACE CDC and New Kensington Community Development Corp. (NKCDC). Leaders from both organizations stood side by side to welcome the housing community, bolstered by a Philadelphia Eagles Super Bowl Win.
“We need more of a celebration of humanity as we go about our daily lives,” said Maria Gonzalez, president of HACE. “We feel connected. Digitally we can connect in the blink of an eye. But we feel distant from ourselves personally. Let’s be audacious and see what we can do to be more connected – more united – and take it back home and share.”
People want to be where they are, said McKinney, executive director of NKCDC. “How are we going to be there to make it as wonderful a place as it can be?”
Showing neighborly love also includes helping build trust, he said, so that people can be informed as they make the choices they need to make to live their lives. As community development practitioners, we create processes so we can move forward together. “We also need tools.” The training institute is an opportunity to get those tools and be of greater service. “We need as many tools as possible. We have so much to learn.” There are a lot of things that are out of our control, he said. But we can control is how we care about each other and show up for each other.
The next generation
Among the affordable housing practitioners were students from Philadelphia area universities who, Rodriguez said, represent the next generation of leaders in community development.
“When we equip students with the knowledge, networks and experiences they need, they don’t just graduate, they step into leadership roles that shape communities for the better.”
She added that it takes all of us “across sectors, across disciplines and across generations” to move this work forward.
Tony McMurty, a psychology student from Lincoln University, is one of those “next generation” leaders. He said he came to the NTI to enhance his knowledge of the community development field. “After I graduate, I hope to become a licensed therapist,” he said. “I would like to take that to benefit my community and the struggles my community faces.”
Simran Sharma is also a student at Lincoln, but in accounting. “I’m looking to learn more about the financial side of things,” she said. “The courses I’m taking right now have a lot to do with numbers… It’s really great for me to explore more in my field but also to figure out ways to help my community because that’s extremely important to me.”
A week of learning
Classes on the site included everything from “Housing Rehabilitation and Design Basics” to courses on growing microenterprises and “Building Skills for Financial Confidence.” They will continue all week amid a background of anticipiated snow and E-A-G-L-E-S cheers.
In one classroom, Rev. Harvey Clemons Jr., board member and founder and chair emeritus of Fifth Ward CDC, a NeighborWorks network organization in Houston, Texas, spoke about embracing a neighborhood’s historic appeal. His words summed up not just the subject, but the conference. “The work that we do is not easy. It is very, very complicated. But it is doable,” he said.
