Don Gilmore, CEO of Community Housing Development Corp. (CHDC), is keeping his community green. In California, where the environment is first on a lot of people's minds, his NeighborWorks organization is putting energy into green buildings and a transportation assistance program that helps low-income individuals buy or lease "clean" cars.

Carrie Davis, president and CEO of Wealth Watchers, Inc., a NeighborWorks organization, began helping Black farmers during the 2008 housing crisis, encouraging them to use their land to grow food to keep families and neighbors fed – and to provide extra money to offset job losses when factories shut down. In 2020 and 2021, during the pandemic and the economic crisis that accompanied it, she is again encouraging backyard farmers to let the land help with both food and finances.

In Lincoln, Nebraska, Tim Rinne and Kay Walter launched an urban gardening movement in their Hawley neighborhood. In an area classified as a food desert, the couple devised a plan to increase access to fresh, healthy produce, while also developing a way to bring their neighbors closer together. The idea formed about 10 years ago when Tim became increasingly more concerned about how climate change could potentially affect the food supply.

Climate and sustainability haven't always been first in the minds of the people who live in the Talbot-Triangle Eco-Innovation District in Dorchester, Massachusetts, and the surrounding community. Gail Latimore, executive director of Codman Square Neighborhood Development Corp. (CSNDC), knows this.

Sometimes the thing you really need is breathing room, says Malcom Yeung, executive director of Chinatown Community Development Corporation. His organization got a bit of that through funding from NeighborWorks America, in partnership with the Wells Fargo Foundation. Grants from NeighborWorks America's Critical Relief Fund and Rental Resilience Fund allowed staff to focus on their work and on their residents. 

In Texas, Foundation Communities, a NeighborWorks organization, is working hard to keep residents housed with the help of an emergency fund. So far, they've helped more than 700 residents with rental assistance. A grant from NeighborWorks America, in partnership with the Wells Fargo Foundation, made a difference. 

In the laundry room of White River Estates in Hesperia, Michigan, the colors are in the baskets that sit on top of the washing machines. They're also on the wall, thanks to a new mural project meant to bring people together. The project, painted by local artist Renae Wallace, draws on in the rural community's river and surroundings. 

When the new residents came to Manchester, New Hampshire – from Nepal, from Somalia, from Sudan, from Bhutan – they wanted to farm, growing food that would allow them to be self-sufficient in their new home. Some of them lived in apartments, with no gardening space. The Organization for Refugee and Immigrant Success (ORIS) found them that space. And since 2011, farmers have grown and sold crops through Fresh Start Farms.