Brenda Torpy, CEO of Champlain Housing Trust, may be leaving her post, but she isn't exactly retiring. Torpy, director of the Burlington Community Land Trust since 1991, before it merged with Lake Champlain Housing Development Corp., will serve as lead consultant for Champlain Housing Trust's new Technical Assistance Arm, TA/CHT, providing training and support services.
 

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.

"It's about people," says Wayne Meyer, chief executive officer of New Jersey Community Capital. That's one reason he serves as mentor for the Puerto Rico Nonprofit Leadership Development Initiative.

It's not coming until just after Christmas, but one thing that Nevada HAND senior living residents will be able to receive this month is the new COVID-19 vaccine. Staff and medical staff will receive the vaccine, too. In case there are side effects, half the staff and residents will be inoculated in December, and the other half will be inoculated two weeks later. 

The need to address racial justice is in the spotlight in America, more now than it's been in decades, says Susan M. Ifill, NeighborWorks America's chief operating officer. She highlighted other hallmarks of this time, such as the pandemic contributing to an economic decline that is "touching more industries, people and local municipalities, simultaneously than ever before. The impact on communities of color is almost immeasurable."

Just before COVID-19 hit, and with it, the stay-at-home orders, Dora Kellogg was in a car accident. Her car was totaled, she says. She had pain on her right side. She had pain on her left side. Kellogg also has asthma and heart disease. The combination prompted her doctor to insist that she stay home from her daily job.

Kwe, Bree Herne, iónkiáts. Akwesasne nitewakie:non. Kanien'kehá:ka Wastòn:ke non:we kì:teron.