The active engagement of community residents is at the core of many NeighborWorks network organizations. But how do you make sure that the resident involvement is effective? How do you make sure you, as a community-serving professional, are approaching the residents in an authentic way?

Prestamos CDFI, a division of NeighborWorks network nonprofit Chicanos Por La Causa, has funded billions of dollars in Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans during the pandemic, with more than three fourths of those loans going to minority-owned businesses. By the end of June, the Community Development Financial Institution funded $7.6 billion in loans, supporting hairstylists, artists, custodians and more.

Kerri-Ann Griffith had just returned to her apartment in the Germantown neighborhood after an evening out with friends when the lights started to blink. Then the howling started. She grabbed her cat, Jaeda. "We were both screaming."

NeighborWorks network organizations across the country celebrated NeighborWorks Week with paint, plants, trash pickups, cards, signs, hammers, nails, food, and all of the other trappings you’d expect in a community celebration. Held each year the first full week in June, NeighborWorks Week highlights the collective impact of NeighborWorks America’s nearly 250 network nonprofits. The week, celebrated nationally since 1983, also celebrates the resiliency and strength of communities.

The recent expansion of NeighborWorks America's network will allow member organizations to make an even greater collective impact in a number of areas, including education for future homeowners, financial coaching and wrap-around support through partnerships. The network also adds new Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs), providing affordable lending opportunities for low- and middle-income individuals and businesses.

NeighborWorks America welcomed eight new affiliates to its robust network, adding both capacity and expertise. This brings the number of NeighborWorks network organizations, located in every state, Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C., to 247.

When Billy Palmer received the Dorothy Richardson Award for Resident Leadership in 2015, he was a board member for NeighborWorks Salt Lake and chairman of the organization’s YouthWorks committee. Palmer had been involved with the program since he was 16, when he went to court for noncompliance.

Erich Nakano, executive director of Little Tokyo Service Center (LTSC), says his journey to housing and community development began with three events. An activist whose parents sought to amplify stories about Japanese internment in the United States, Nakano says friends, family and fellow college students all shined lights on a path to working with the community he loved.

The 1970s

Sharon Lee was born in New York and spent part of her formative years with her grandparents in Hong Kong when her parents divorced. Even at age 5, Lee, executive director of Low Income Housing Institute (LIHI), reports being conscious of the wide wealth disparities that existed in the world. Each morning when she arrived at school, she passed men and women sitting outside the gate, asking for spare change.