Housing is on everyone's lips, says Sheila Rice, who just completed a term as interim executive vice president and chief operating officer for NeighborWorks America. She expects the trend to continue through 2020. 

For starters, the health-care industry is highlighting housing, Rice says, pointing to a quote that is everywhere from the Champlain Housing Trust to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: "Housing is health care." 

At the café in the Poughkeepsie Underwear Factory, young people, ages 16 to 24, spend the summer cooking, baking and welcoming customers. Down the street and around the corner, they're helping out in a recording studio or at the shoe repair shop.

Nwando Ofokansi just finished looking over a stack of college essays. It's for "her kids," she says. They may not be technically a part of her family tree, but by the time she's seen them through the Sure Track to College program in Woonsocket, Rhode Island, they feel like family. 

She's known some of them through the after-school College Ready Communities Program, run by NeighborWorks Blackstone River Valley (NWBRV), since they were in kindergarten. 

This year has been full of projects for NeighborWorks America's network organizations: new homes, refurbished buildings and community gatherings, just for starters. With each project, there are new things to learn and adjustments to make. NeighborWorks spoke with representatives from across the country to learn some of their takeaways from 2019. Today, we're sharing lessons from the Southern Region and the Midwest.