As Black History Month begins, stories about Black innovators and innovations abound. At NeighborWorks America, those stories stem from the work of Dorothy Mae Richardson, "founding mother."

Sherry Shannon knows what it's like to be isolated – not just the kind of isolation where you're alone in a space, but the kind where you withdraw, where you shut down, where you don't talk to anybody. That's what happened to her when she was homeless, she says. After she found help and an apartment with Aeon, a NeighborWorks organization in Minnesota, it still took time before she started to open up.

Unprecedented. Difficult. Heartbreaking. The words that come up when people discuss 2020 are rarely positive. But as a pandemic and economic hardships spread across the United States, NeighborWorks network organizations moved quickly, created new partnerships, worked long hours and offered new services to help residents in their communities. As we begin a new calendar year, we asked a few leaders across the network to share some of their thoughts about the year we just completed, and about the year ahead.

CommonBond Communities in St. Paul, Minnesota, works with communities in Minnesota, Iowa, South Dakota and Wisconsin.  Right now, organization leaders say, many of the neighbors who live in those communities are struggling.

Hilly Jacklin had wanted to own a house for years, and the one she finally found was beyond her wildest dreams: a Victorian-style duplex, built in 1895, in Hannibal, Missouri. Half, she would be able to rent to help her afford the mortgage. The other side, she would live in herself.

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. 

NeighborWorks President and CEO Marietta Rodriguez spoke with the National Credit Union Administration on Sept. 15 to help educate credit unions about NeighborWorks and about the potential for future partnerships. "We are very focused on local communities," she explained, and on generating the highest impact.