When Hurricane Maria struck Puerto Rico in 2017, it decimated roads, power and infrastructure. In the small community of Villalba, government workers weren't able to access the people who needed help. But volunteers and staff from Ponce Neighborhood Housing Services were already there.  

"We were the liaison," says Elizabeth Colón Rivera, Ponce's CEO. "We went to the municipality's emergency centers, offering our services and letting them know we had the resources, tools and water to help them."  

Often when people speak of Black wealth, they talk first of homeownership, and that's certainly one path to get there, explains Sheila Anderson, senior director of NeighborWorks America's Western Region. "But that's not the end all for building wealth." To truly increase wealth and assets in Black households and communities, we must think more broadly, she says.

During Women’s History Month, NeighborWorks America looks back on its own history, which is rooted in the work of Dorothy Mae Richardson and her neighbors. Working together, they saved their Pittsburgh neighborhood, convincing landlords, bankers, businesses and government officials to engage – and to halt – years of neglect and disinvestment.