A new deck for a retired veteran. An overgrown yard, weeded and tamed. In Green Bay, Wisconsin, NeighborWorks Green Bay is joining with Neighborhood Associations and the city to work on these projects and more. It's part of their Good Neighbor Week, held Sept. 21 to 27, the week leading up to National Good Neighbor Day. 

Elizabeth Alonzo-Villarreal works with a staff of eight at NeighborWorks Laredo, where she serves as CEO. But together, the staff helps about 1,000 others each year. So when the staff switched from working in a central office to working from home at the start of COVID-19, the organization utilized grants from NeighborWorks America to help things run more smoothly as they continued to provide homebuyer education, financial capability training and foreclosure prevention counseling.

Melodee Lister enjoys being around people. She was looking for something to do where she could be with people but, because she's a person with a disability, something where she could sit down. A friend told her about volunteer transportation at Kennebec Valley Community Action Program (KVCAP), a NeighborWorks network organization in Maine. She gets reimbursed for her mileage, she says. But the main reason the program was the perfect fit for Lister? "I like to help people."

The AmeriCorps VISTA volunteers at The Neighborhood Developers Inc. (TND), in Chelsea, Massachusetts, had been at their various assignments for just over seven months when everything changed. Starting in March, when the spread of COVID also caused the spread of hard financial times, there were new needs. For the VISTAs (Volunteers in Service to America), there were new responsibilities.

Victor Cruz, former wide receiver for the Super Bowl-winning New York Giants, believes giving back – and coming back – to a community can inspire others. He brought his own brand of inspiration to a conversation with Marietta Rodriguez, president and CEO of NeighborWorks America, during an afternoon workshop sponsored by JPMorgan Chase.

Black homeownership rates continue to lag behind those of the white community. This is a gap that the affordable housing and community development fields have strived to close for generations. And the issue hasn't gotten better over time. In fact, communities of color are consistently among the hardest hit during economic downturns. 

Isileli Tausinga says people often wonder: Why leave a beautiful island to come to the desert in Utah? His answer? Education, religion and opportunity.

In New Orleans, Louisiana, COVID-19 hit fast and early, following on the heels of Mardi Gras season. The city saw another coronavirus spike at the beginning of July. Meanwhile, the city has seen protests, largely peaceful, as people have cried out for racial equity.

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, Florida is described as "a surging state," which is not what the president of a housing nonprofit — or anybody else — wants to hear. At Rural Neighborhoods Inc., a NeighborWorks network organization in Florida City, Florida, they are working to keep residents safe.