NeighborWorks® Learning Center Consortium

NeighborWorks Learning Centers deliver amenities and services that residents of affordable apartment properties use to increase their own personal assets and to improve their neighborhoods.

The NeighborWorks Learning Center Consortium is a demonstration program including 21 community-based nonprofit organizations operating active Learning Centers at their properties (18 National Real Estate Programs members; three HUD Neighborhood Networks owners.) The Consortium has developed:

• A clearly defined menu of outcome measures
• Quarterly tracking of and comparison reporting on these measures
• EXCEL tools to speed data compilation
• Consulting on the selection and implementation of outcome management
• Training for resident service coordinators

Members share program ideas, funding opportunities and work together with other partners to advocate the importance of integrating learning centers into affordable housing.

The long-term goals of the NeighborWorks Learning Center project are to:

• Drive toward excellence in outcomes by demonstrating the effectiveness of housing-based learning centers in building personal assets of residents.
  
• Create efficiency in production by working with existing housing-based learning centers to determine the most cost effective way to implement programs and services in an affordable housing environment.
  
• Correlate center work to property performance by studying the impact housing-based learning centers have on the overall physical and financial stability of the property.
  
• Build sustainable funding sources by creating a better connection between learning centers and property operations and more effectively link housing-based learning centers to housing development, education, workforce and other funding sources.
  
  For more information on how to get involved in the NeighborWorks Learning Center Consortium either as a member (a housing-based learning center organization) or as a partner (a funding partner or other resource provider), please review the Concept Paper and contact Howard Lewis, National Real Estate Programs Director at 202-220-2448 or hlewis@nw.org.
  
  

back to top