'At the end of the day, I'd helped somebody'

Donald R. Phoenix is retired. Allegedly.  "My nature is to overextend," explains the former NeighborWorks leader, who continues to run a consultancy business and serves on three boards. "I wanted to be busy."

 

His wife, Sandra, says it has always been a time commitment to go the grocery store with Phoenix. Since his days working to create and then lead Neighborhood Housing Services of Savannah, someone was always stopping him to talk about a roof, an HVAC system or a new home. But that's because Phoenix's work, at the former NHS of Savannah and then at NeighborWorks America, centered around people. 

 

This week, he will receive a NeighborWorks Founders Award in recognition of his focus on resident leadership and his capacity building in the Southern Region. Rev. Norman Fong, who promised his parents he would care for San Francisco's Chinatown, also received a Founders Award. 

 

"Don was a fierce champion of the values and foundation that made NeighborWorks America and the network great," Joanie Straussman Brandon, vice president of the Northeast Region for NeighborWorks, shares in a letter nominating him for the award. He was a role model for her and for others, she says, calling his leadership and ally-building "transformational." 

 

Phoenix believes in partnerships and was one of the early pioneers in developing the Community Leadership Institute (CLI), NeighborWorks' showcase and training event for resident leaders. 

 

"As leaders of NeighborWorks America came and went, Don always 'educated' them on the beginnings and importance of the resident voice," Straussman Brandon says. "And he always, always recognized the contribution of others."

 

Phoenix began his work in finance and real estate development before shifting full time to community development work. When he became executive director of NHS of Savannah, he says, "I finally had a job where I could be hands on with the community and feel the impact of the network." He spent four years with the organization before moving to Atlanta to join NeighborWorks as a district director. "That was in 1995. I was so excited I stayed for 27 years."
 

Phoenix's work has always been grounded in people — and in understanding them. "When you work in your hometown, every customer becomes personal," he shares. It wasn't uncommon for him to walk into someone's home and see a familiar photo on the mantle. "'Oh, is that your son? I went to school with him!' It was never just another case for me. My calling is to connect and give back to my community and do what I can do to make a difference in people's lives. It was never just about the numbers. At the end of the day, I'd helped somebody." 

 

He still has vivid memories of his days at NHS of Savannah, where he learned close up how seemingly small things are truly big things. Once, he visited a woman whose home NHS of Savannah had just rehabbed. They had helped with all kinds of upgrades, he says, but to her, the most important one was having a doorframe wide enough to move her wheelchair into her bathroom. It was a repair that gave her independence, and a moment that stuck with Phoenix decades later.

 

Then there was the housing auction where he spotted three women, hugging each other and crying. "I learned that the daughter, a recent college graduate, had successfully bid on her first house. She and her mother and grandmother would finally become homeowners. Three generations of African American women would become homeowners in one day. That's still an important story for me."

 

He also has a photo of another woman, arms raised in the air after winning the first housing auction NHS of Savannah held. "To see her dream come true, it was a hallelujah moment."

 

 

At NeighborWorks, Phoenix became vice president of the Southern Region. "I interviewed for the job with the idea that we could do great things in the south," he shares. "And I was pleasantly surprised to find that I was right."

 

The region had lagged behind in community development, "but we had a great staff," he says. "We were on a mission to do good." 

 

Then, Hurricane Katrina hit. With only two NeighborWorks network organizations in the Gulf region, Phoenix pushed to extend grants to organizations outside of the NeighborWorks network, forming partnerships and building capacity with other housing and community development organizations to more quickly and adeptly help residents and communities struggling to recover. At his urging, NeighborWorks set up an office in New Orleans to further nurture these partnerships and provide relief. 

 

"What I thought was people who were tremendously impacted, physically and emotionally," Phoenix says. "They had no way of making their voices heard." 

He worked to help elevate their voices as communities worked on redevelopment plans. One of those voices belonged to LaToya Cantrell, who now serves as New Orleans' mayor. Phoenix was a part of the first Community Leadership Institute and brought the resident leadership event to New Orleans. Cantrell attended that one and many after, and when Phoenix retired, she gave him a key to the city.

 

"I practically lived there," he says of New Orleans. "We went on listening tours and just listened to what people said. People were traumatized. Before we could even think about putting things back together, we needed to understand the pain and the needs of the community. That drove our strategies and how we went about our rebuilding efforts."

 

A long advocate for asset-based community development, Phoenix adds, "The idea is that you look at a community based on its assets rather than needs. What are the jewels of the neighborhood? You think about what they have rather than 'they need so much.'" Having a historical understanding of the neighborhood is a part of that and understanding what makes a neighborhood a neighborhood. "It's the flower club, the churches, an oak tree where men play checkers every day." And of course, Phoenix adds, it's the people.