Vaya al final de la página para leer esta historia en Español.

Vaya al final de la página para leer esta historia en Español.

Last year, when The Unity Council couldn't put on the annual Dia de los Muertos festival in person because of the pandemic, the Fruitvale community felt their losses more acutely, says Itzel Diaz-Romo, interim director of development and communications for the NeighborWorks network organization.

In Aurora, too many households – 1 in 6 – have zero net-worth, says Rick Guzman, CEO of The Neighbor Project (TNP), a NeighborWorks network organization. His nonprofit formed in 2018 to do something about it, with a focus on helping low- to moderate-income individuals build financial health and wealth. Much of this takes place through the newly formed Aurora Financial Empowerment Center. Now in its second year of operation, the center has already served 672 families. 

"Alianza" means "alliance" in Spanish and it’s the name for a group of Latinx leaders and future leaders in the NeighborWorks network who meet to discuss issues that are important to all of them. They talk about challenges, says coordinator Maria Garciaz, CEO of NeighborWorks Salt Lake. And they talk about solutions.
 

Growing up in New York, Jessica Padilla Gonzalez watched the way her parents fostered community. The two of them had come to New York's Washington Heights from Puerto Rico as teenagers. When he was in his early 20s, Padilla Gonzalez's father, Porfirio, opened a meat market. "Everyone knew his