When I was a kid, the center of my small, rural, Hudson Valley town featured an ice cream shop with a sticky, walk-up service window and a tiny, one-register grocery store where they carried one of practically everything. Today, the grocery is an antique store, and it sits a stone's throw from a new marketplace that peddles organic, farm-sourced products of a certain aesthetic, accordingly priced.

A Native strategy. An aspirational training plan. Listening to the network and finding the programs that will help the most. With the start of a new year, NeighborWorks leaders look at some of the plans and goals in store. 

NeighborWorks' commitment to Native communities 

Mel Willie, NeighborWorks America's director of Native American Partnerships & Strategy, says that in 2023, the national nonprofit focused on developing a five-year Native strategy. "Now we're focused on launching it."  

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

"Why do you do what you do?" This is the question that we posed to a few affordable housing and community development leaders in and around NeighborWorks America. 

"I work at NeighborWorks America because the work we deliver for our network and our communities improves the lives of people!" 

—Marietta Rodriguez, President & CEO, NeighborWorks America

It's been 30 years since the Eastern Shoshone Housing Authority (ESHA) built brand new homes on the Wind River Indian Reservation in Fort Washakie, Wyoming, the seventh largest Indian reservation in the country. 

 A partnership between GROW South Dakota (GROW SD), a NeighborWorks network organization, and  the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate tribe, is helping grow businesses in South Dakota. For the past few years, GROW SD has assisted the tribe's economic development arm in helping set up business plans for tribal members.

This year, leaders from Native-led organizations and those advancing Native community development programs are working to expand their community impact through the NeighborWorks Achieving Excellence Program.

At Military Warriors Support Foundation, the mission is to provide support services to gold star families and military veterans who were wounded in combat. A big part of that support is homeownership, and the organization has awarded more than 900 mortgage-free homes to veterans across the country, many of which were donated out of foreclosure.

NeighborWorks America kicked off a yearlong observation of the organization’s 45th anniversary year this week, celebrating four and a half decades of partnerships and strengthening our communities.

NeighborWorks America kicked off a yearlong observation of the organization’s 45th anniversary year this week, celebrating four and a half decades of partnerships and strengthening our communities.