Looking back on a successful year

For 45 years, NeighborWorks America has strived to make every community a place of opportunity. Each year, different projects and initiatives work their way into the spotlight. As 2023 comes to a close, we look back on a successful year – and some of the initiatives that made it that way.

Native partnerships

Mel Willie, NeighborWorks's director of Native Partnerships and Strategy, hosted the first Native Partnership Gathering this year in Chicago, bringing together network organizations that received Native Partnership Grants to work closely with Tribal communities. The event highlighted the work and years of creating a strategy that will serve as the foundation for the year ahead.

Participants reported on success stories: working with schools on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota and helping prepare residents for new homes on the Wind River Indian Reservation in Wyoming. 

"Every Native community is different – and that means there are different needs in each community," Willie says. "We have to have flexibility to tailor programs. And we must perform this work alongside our Native partners when we're invited in."

Comprehensive community development

Comprehensive community development is the phrase for a strategic way to help the whole community. One story that stood out? A NeighborWorks network organization in Delaware, NeighborGood Partners, opened an ice cream shop and service hub with Project Safe Neighborhoods to provide joy and jobs and to foster community change. Meanwhile, in Florida, Community Partners of South Florida was able to partner to provide a mobile health clinic, after listening sessions to learn the history of health care in the community – and what the community wanted.

Advancing leadership

NeighborWorks always explores new initiatives, especially those that bring together a cohort of peers who can rely on one another for years to come. That's what happened with Advancing Leaders in Real Estate, a nine-month program of courses and collaborations, meant to support leaders who will stay in the industry. The graduates came to NeighborWorks America's new headquarters in Washington, D.C. to celebrate.

Advancing equity for people of color

Another part of NeighborWorks' training this year has been deep dives into issues that affect the entire network. In three symposia last year, NeighborWorks brought together experts to talk about different facets of Advancing Equity for People of Color. The discussions, which built over the course of the year, included Advancing Equity for People of Color: Local Solutions for Housing Stability; It Takes a Village: Achieving Black Wealth and Economic Prosperity; and Climate Resilience: Fostering Wealth, Health and Sustainability in Communities of Color. Leaders see the conversations as a starting point, and expressed hope that the discussions will continue in the years ahead.

Community and resident leadership

Nothing speaks more to NeighborWorks America's roots than the organization's dedication to resident leadership. This year, the Community Leadership Institute in San Francisco, California, featured hours of training and inspiration along with a ceremony presenting the Dorothy Richardson Award for Resident Leadership to five individuals continuing Richardson's legacy.