Preem Cabey had wanted a house for years. But when she found the perfect home, a "fixer-upper" available through the Albany County Land Bank, she didn’t qualify for a loan that would cover the repairs. "I wasn’t working enough hours," says Cabey, who had been a director of a recreational facility while working as an artist and community advocate.

NeighborWorks America welcomed eight new affiliates to its robust network, adding both capacity and expertise. This brings the number of NeighborWorks network organizations, located in every state, Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C., to 247.

Jennifer Sun's parents had strong opinions about what her career path should be. Her mom wanted her to be a teacher. Her father wanted her to have a corporate job. They'd fled Communist China for Taiwan and left Taiwan for the United States, and security, financially and otherwise, was paramount to them.
 

Thomas Yu hadn't planned on a career in community development. But as an immigrant growing up in lower Manhattan, there was something about it that felt right.
 
"My family lived in affordable housing, so that theme runs throughout my life," says Yu, who serves as co-executive director of Asian Americans for Equality (AAFE) with Jennifer Sun. "There's a strong belief in my family that the pathway to security and economic mobility starts with a safe and affordable place to live."
 

Warren Dawson has lived in one of RUPCO Inc.'s apartment communities in Kingston, New York, for three years. Before that, he was homeless for some time in South Carolina, he says. He stayed in shelters and in parks. He eventually went north to New York for a funeral and decided to stay to be closer to family. That's when he entered a shelter program for veterans, qualifying through his service in the National Guard and the U.S. Army.

Creative placemaking, or placekeeping, is essentially a resiliency tool. Normally in discussions of placemaking or placekeeping, the stress or disturbance communities face have to do with economic factors, like displacement due to shifting development, or sometimes even environmental factors. In 2020, placekeeping projects designed by organizations in the NeighborWorks cohort faced an unanticipated outlier: the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Preeya Subedi has always had an interest in public health. Next year, she plans to go to medical school to start her studies, with a goal of becoming a doctor. But between graduating from the University of Maryland and beginning medical school, she wanted a job that would remind her of the needs of the people she'll eventually help as a doctor. 

Jamill Martinez, director of network organizing at Lawrence CommunityWorks, Inc., a NeighborWorks organization in Lawrence, Massachusetts, has spent her recent afternoons visiting bodegas. That's where many residents in her community who rent single rooms in homes or apartments go to eat hot meals of empanadas, sub sandwiches, plantains and more. So that's where Martinez and her coworkers have gone to talk about the dangers of scams.

The Tableau Fellows, a cohort chosen from among NeighborWorks America's network organizations, work to tell new stories about their nonprofits through the information they collect, with the help of mentors, using Tableau, which helps organi

Leslie Reid was born into a family of two: It was her and her mother, alone in New York, in need of better prospects. Reid spent time in foster care while her mother went to find them a home. Her family grew exponentially when she rejoined her mother, who had found work in Boston with a community of social workers. They'd started an organization for homeless youth, Reid says, and they lived together and worked together, providing shelter and services.