Carrie Davis, president and CEO of Wealth Watchers, Inc., a NeighborWorks organization, began helping Black farmers during the 2008 housing crisis, encouraging them to use their land to grow food to keep families and neighbors fed – and to provide extra money to offset job losses when factories shut down. In 2020 and 2021, during the pandemic and the economic crisis that accompanied it, she is again encouraging backyard farmers to let the land help with both food and finances.

Tasha Oliverson is a fighter. She stands up for what she believes in. She fights for the powerless. She works to give a platform to people who feel they have no voice. Through her activism, leadership and volunteerism, Tasha has helped to build a safe space for the LGBTQ+ community in Roseburg, Oregon, a small city located in the Umpqua River Valley in southern Oregon.

College freshman Vanesa Medrano has a vision to inspire the youth in her Near Northside community in Houston, Texas. Through Millennialz Youth Fest, the community organization she founded with friends, she motivates young people to give back to the community, get involved and make their voices heard. 

Rasheada Caldwell founded Let Me Be Great #44 in 2018 to honor the memory of her beloved son, Rasheed Baker. The young man was known for being patient and kind; for his ability to make people around him smile; and for his positivity.

When Evelyn Harrison learned her apartment building in Southeast Washington, D.C., was being sold she was shocked. "We were surprised because we never heard anything about it," says Evelyn.

In Lincoln, Nebraska, Tim Rinne and Kay Walter launched an urban gardening movement in their Hawley neighborhood. In an area classified as a food desert, the couple devised a plan to increase access to fresh, healthy produce, while also developing a way to bring their neighbors closer together. The idea formed about 10 years ago when Tim became increasingly more concerned about how climate change could potentially affect the food supply.

Rose Espinoza grew up in the Corona Camp neighborhood of La Habra in Orange County, California. When NeighborWorks Housing Services constructed new houses on her old street in the early 1990s, she bought one. Her purchase was built, in part, on the good memories of her childhood, like her mother sewing costumes for participants of the Our Lady of Guadalupe Parade.  "I wanted my son to have those same memories," she says. "But when we purchased our home, things had changed."

As Black History Month begins, stories about Black innovators and innovations abound. At NeighborWorks America, those stories stem from the work of Dorothy Mae Richardson, "founding mother."

"It's about people," says Wayne Meyer, chief executive officer of New Jersey Community Capital. That's one reason he serves as mentor for the Puerto Rico Nonprofit Leadership Development Initiative.