It's the leafy greens and peaches that residents go for the most this time of year, shares Carly Sanders, food program director for NeighborImpact. She's talking about the fresh produce that comes from a partnership between the NeighborWorks network organization and High Desert Food and Farm Alliance (HDFFA). The HDFFA matches farmers who have extra produce with NeighborImpact's food bank. 

Before the pandemic, when Junie Celestin, student loan counselor at Urban Edge, saw clients with loan debt, she was helping them get out of default. During the pandemic, with a moratorium on student loan interest and payments, the questions she's getting have changed.

Growing up in New York, Jessica Padilla Gonzalez watched the way her parents fostered community. The two of them had come to New York's Washington Heights from Puerto Rico as teenagers. When he was in his early 20s, Padilla Gonzalez's father, Porfirio, opened a meat market. "Everyone knew his

When a group of residents from NeighborWorks Northeastern Pennsylvania (NEPA) attended NeighborWorks America's Community Leadership Institute, a training event aiming to strengthen the voice and skills of community and resident leaders, they already had an idea of what they wanted to do. Their project idea?

The Truist Foundation is setting course to strategically invest in historically excluded communities and address systemic inequities. The Foundation was formed in 2020 with a mission to inspire and build better lives and communities by giving everyone the equal opportunity to thrive. 

Chef Space, a Community Ventures kitchen incubator, wanted to find a simple way to help the community. They started by collecting food for residents when COVID-19 was at its peak. This summer, once they learned students were going back to school in person, they decided to help them with the supplies they needed for the school year. While backpacks may not have been a necessity last year with kids at home, they are now.

The active engagement of community residents is at the core of many NeighborWorks network organizations. But how do you make sure that the resident involvement is effective? How do you make sure you, as a community-serving professional, are approaching the residents in an authentic way?