For NeighborWorks America's recent symposium, "Co-creating an Equitable Future at the Intersection of Health, Housing and Community Development," leaders created a series of case studies to help show how network organzitions are centering resident voice. Following is the first study, for Piedmont Housing Alliance in Charlottesville, Virginia, on centering resident voice, leadership and decision-makg in the redesign of place.

The Preserve at Emerald Villas, a 55+ community run by Orlando Neighborhood Improvement Corporation (ONIC), has become a beacon of shared experiences for residents who otherwise might be in isolation. Part of the success comes from the community's dedication to dismantling social barriers and nurturing connections among its residents. 

The Preserve at Emerald Villas, a 55+ community run by Orlando Neighborhood Improvement Corporation (ONIC), has become a beacon of shared experiences for residents who otherwise might be in isolation. Part of the success comes from the community's dedication to dismantling social barriers and nurturing connections among its residents. 

In Texas, a NeighborWorks network organization holds community activities year-round to bring residents together. In Florida, a teatime and social hour connect residents in a 55 and older community. In different locations and in different ways, NeighborWorks network organizations are addressing social isolation in an effort to ensure healthy, thriving communities. A consumer survey from NeighborWorks America shows just how essential that is. 

The redevelopment of the area around a Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) station in Oakland's Chinatown weighed heavily on the staff at East Bay Asian Local Development Corporation (EBALDC). The station itself had disrupted Chinatown, displacing residents when it opened in the 1970s.

One of the highlights at any NeighborWorks Training Institute (NTI) is the chance to tour the communities where NeighborWorks network organizations are doing the work and having the greatest impact. Neighborhood tours offer NTI attendees a chance to learn, exchange ideas and be inspired. The May NTI in San Francisco, California, included several tours of Chinatown, with a stop at an SRO building. 

When affordable housing and community development organizations look at climate resiliency, they approach it from many different angles. Some focus on solar. Others focus on landscaping, HVAC systems and building new homes that can withstand the storms to come.

For Adeshia Session, it starts with a phone call. But it's more than that, says the community health worker at Beyond Housing in St. Louis, Missouri. "It's about making a connection." Session, who has been in her post for three years, reaches out to residents with Type 2 diabetes. The clients she gets are often referrals from a local, partnering hospital. "In that first phone call, I explain what I do. And how our program can help." From that phone call, a relationship is born.

America's veterans have given their service to the country, and across the nation, NeighborWorks network organizations are working to ensure they have a safe place to call home. In the last fiscal year, 145 NeighborWorks network organizations created or preserved at least one home where the client was a veteran or active duty service member. Ninety-two network organizations reported set-aside units for veterans or active duty service members in their rental portfolio in the last quarter of the year.