Ken Simpson, facilities director for Manna, Inc. in Washington, D.C., stabs a bag of mulch with a rake and shakes it out in a line along the bushes growing outside Belgrove Condominiums. "It's about whatever technique you’re not too tired to use," he explains to staff from his own organization and

"Big Mama" – this is how Tanya Westmoreland is known in Green Bay, Wisconsin. Kids in the community stop and tell her about their day. They stand a little straighter when she's around and they want her to be proud. She is proud – of the kids and of the community she's called home for 24 years.  

Last year, Marcus Harvin had two graduations. The first? With his class at the University of New Haven. The second? With the people with whom he began his journey into higher education: The men imprisoned at MacDougall-Walker Correctional Institute, where Harvin had spent six years, two months and two weeks. He got special permission to go back and join his friends at the prison's graduation last June.  

"The same place they strip-searched me is the room where I met the governor," Harvin says.  

For NeighborWorks America's recent symposium, "Co-creating an Equitable Future at the Intersection of Health, Housing and Community Development," leaders created a series of case studies to help show how network organzitions are centering resident voice. Following is the study on Little Tokyo Service Center, based in Los Angels, centering on resident co-creation through culture, history and place.

In an evening seeping with inspiration and wisdom,  five resident leaders who have made a lasting impact in their communities received NeighborWorks America's Dorothy Richardson Award for Resident Leadership.

Verna Erby-Ekpeduma has been a resident leader at Mutual Housing for the past decade. Now, she's also a teacher.  

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