NeighborWorks® America knows it takes people with vision to bring the work of affordable housing and community development forward. During the NeighborWorks Training Institute in Miami Beach this month, the organization presented Visionary Leader awards to two people whose vision expanded community opportunities in the state of Florida: Ignacio Estaban, retired CEO of Florida Community Loan Fund, and Germaine Smith-Baugh, president & CEO of the Urban League of Broward County.
“I began as someone who believed deeply in the potential of people and in the responsibility that w
e all have to remove the barriers that prevent that potential from becoming a reality,” Smith-Baugh said during the presentation, which took place during the opening night reception sponsored by TD Bank, a funder committed to community.
Throughout her career, “I have met families who were doing everything we told people to do. They were working. They were raising their children. They were saving. They were pursuing a better life. Yet too many of them still could not find a safe, stable and affordable place for their families to call home.”
Over time, she came to understand that housing is not simply another issue affecting our communities. “Housing is the foundation beneath almost everything,” she said. “There’s nothing more important than turning that key to a door.”
To her, she said, vision is not just seeing what does not yet exist. “Vision is having the courage and tenacity to accept the responsibility for helping it to come into existence.”
Alecia Dillon, board member of the Community Loan Fund, accepted Estaban’s award on his behalf. She spoke about his legacy, the communities he’s transformed and the homes he’s made possible. She also spoke of the jobs that he’s created and the capital he raised.
But Estaban never just saw capital as numbers on a page, she said. He saw it “as a tool to change a life.” And he built his career doing just that. “He proved that financing can genuinely change people’s lives. Under his leadership, Florida Community Loan Fund brought capital into communities across Florida that traditional financing too often overlooked.”
As an example, she spoke of a mother whose children wouldn’t have a safe place to live without the loan fund. “This is what Ignacio’s life and work looks like,” she said. “It’s this mother. It’s these children. It looks like thousands of families in communities across Florida whose lives have changed because … someone thought that they were worth investing in.”
NeighborWorks America’s President & CEO Marietta Rodriguez made opening remarks before the presentation.
“There couldn’t be a better place to come together,” she said. “As you know, Miami is a city built by people from different backgrounds, different experiences and different cultures, all contributing to something much bigger than itself.”
That spirit reflects NeighborWorks itself, she says, with each of its 250 organizations serving a differe
nt, unique community creating a network that serves one purpose: “Creating opportunities for people to live in affordable homes, improve their lives and strengthen their communities.”
The theme for the training institute was “Waves of Leadership: The Next Wave Starts Here.” And the waves could be seen throughout each event during the institute, as leadership was celebrated and cultivated at each level.
That theme, Rodriguez said, “reminds us that the work we do never stays in one place. Every new idea, every new partnership, every lesson that we learn this week, it all ripples outwards into the neighborhoods, into the communities and to the people that we serve.”
Vice Mayor Laura 
Dominguez also welcomed the participants, which reflected more than 1,500 community practitioners, partners and philanthropists. What makes Miami Beach special, she said, “is creating neighborhoods for people to thrive,” a commitment that aligns closely with the mission of NeighborWorks America.
The event was put together with the generous help of the NeighborWorks Florida Collaborative, a group of 12 NeighborWorks network organizations that strengthen housing and communities across Florida.
Regional Vice President Joanie Straussman Brandon, who supervises the Northeast and Southern Regions, talked about Florida as a state of cultural towns, urban and rural communities that see different challenges. “But across all of these places one thing remains constant: The commitment of NeighborWorks organizations to help people achieve stability,” and find that safe place to call home.
The story of housing in Florida – and at NeighborWorks – is a part of the story of the United States, now celebrating its 250th birthday. For 250 years, homes and neighborhoods have helped shape the American experience. NeighborWorks is celebrating that experience as part of America250, and in the work the organization does every day.
Watch the video about the impact of the Florida Collaborative.
