NeighborWorks Blackstone River Valley, located in Rhode Island, was an early adopter of geothermal technology. But it wasn't always smooth going, says Christian Caldarone, deputy director. He was forced to get a quick education on geothermal soon after he started his job. The organization used an open-looped system, relying on fresh groundwater to transfer heat, for The Meadows, bright, one- and two-bedroom apartments that look like they're part of a small village.

Angela Bannerman Ankoma wanted her mother to have peppers, yams, and other foods she missed from her native Ghana. A 30-year resident of the densely populated, culturally diverse West End in Providence, Rhode Island, the community where she grew up, Ankoma says she knew immigrants in her community who would travel as far as New Jersey to find or sell produce and specialty items that were native to their diet. And she felt for the people in her neighborhood who just needed access healthy food that was culturally responsive.  

In November, just before Thanksgiving, ONE Neighborhood Builders paraded through the streets of their community with an announcement, posted on signs and shouted from the back of a truck. "Free WiFi," they said. And then in Spanish, "Gratis WiFi."

The announcement was for the community's new WiFi network, providing about 3,000 households in the Olneyville neighborhood of Providence, Rhode Island, with free high-speed internet.
 

NeighborWorks America's network organizations pivoted quickly over the last year to make sure their residents were safe. They provided rental assistance. They provided food. And some even partnered with health departments to respond directly to the pandemic. 

A number of Halloween traditions are taking the year off, as social distancing guidelines make community classics like trick-or-treating, well, trickier. But some NeighborWorks organizations are finding ways to get their communities together with guidelines intact, like NeighborWorks Blackstone River Valley (BRV) in Woonsocket, Rhode Island.

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. 

As we enter a new year, NeighborWorks America's network organizations examine the lessons they're carrying with them from 2019. Last time, we heard about a community project and the art of the ask. Today, regional representatives talk about forming partnerships, tiny houses, competing for new hires and the challenges of NOAH projects. 

Sarah Norman, Director of Healthy Homes & Communities, NeighborWorks America
Leah Ettman, Senior Associate of Health & Wellness, National League of Cities

“Music is a moral law. It gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind and flight to the imagination.” These are the words of Plato, and centuries later, music continues to be a building block of community-building and engagement.
 
Two members of the NeighborWorks network offer good examples of how the universal attraction of music can be harnessed to bring people together.