Thousands of National NeighborWorks® Week
Volunteers
Spruce Up Local Communities and
Promote Affordable Housing
June 16, 2004 – In Reading, Pa., some
300 volunteers armed with paint, smoke alarms, and gardening tools
rejuvenated a struggling neighborhood. In Oakland, Calif., the
Spanish-Speaking Unity Council hosted a homebuyer's fair
with information for first-time homebuyers. And in Washington,
D.C., volunteers for the nonprofit community development organization
MANNA hosted a bicycle fair for neighborhood kids.
These are just a few of the nearly 500 events that were held
June 5-12 across the country in observance of National NeighborWorks
Week, an annual celebration of community partnerships and revitalization
that is now in its 21st year. National NeighborWorks Week activities
benefit more than 60,000 families, improve more than 2,700 homes,
and involve more than 30,000 people.
Kenneth D. Wade, executive director of the Neighborhood Reinvestment
Corporation, visited Jackson, Miss., for a NeighborWorks Week
event held by Voice of Calvary Ministries. The newly-chartered
NeighborWorks organization sponsored a homeownership workshop,
a neighborhood cleanup, renovations of individual homes, and a
health fair. [View
article on event]
NeighborWorks Week is supported in part by corporate partners
of the NeighborWorks network, including Citibank, which contributed
more than $300,000 in grants for local NeighborWorks organizations.
Twelve insurance companies, all members of the NeighborWorks Insurance
Alliance, contributed funds and volunteer hours to NeighborWorks
Week.
Many local, state, and national officials attended NeighborWorks
Week events. In Utica, N.Y., for example, Federal Reserve Board
Governor Edward Gramlich spoke at the June 7 Utica Neighborhood
Housing Services annual dinner. According to an article in the
Utica Observer-Dispatch, Gramlich said that "residential
leadership and attention to individuals" are what make the
organization and its homeownership center so successful. "It
enables you to be a force of positive change in Utica, the region,
and as a model for the nation," he said. [View
article]
In Houston, Avenue Community Development Corporation held its
first NeighborWorks Week scholastic creative writing contest for
students in grades six through 12. Participants were asked to
submit essays, poems and song lyrics on selected topics including:
"Define Home," "Poverty and Solutions," "My
Community" and "Improving My World."
"A lot of the entries focused on their home life and their
immediate community, like their schools and neighborhoods,"
Yvonne Jones, project manager for NeighborWorks Week at Avenue
CDC, told the Houston Chronicle. "It was amazing some of
the wisdom we got from these sixth-graders." [View
article]
In Lisbon, N.H., NeighborWorks Week volunteers renovated the
home of the Fisher family. When Terri Fisher had been diagnosed
with cancer, and began chemotherapy and radiation treatments,
the family was not able to maintain or improve the home as planned.
AHEAD, a NeighborWorks network member based in Littleton, N.H.,
sponsored the renovation, which included painting, window installation,
and repairs. [View
article]
The NeighborWorks network, comprised of more than 225 local nonprofit
organizations across the United States, was founded 26 years ago
to promote community revitalization and affordable housing for
people of modest means.
For more information on National NeighborWorks Week, visit www.nw.org.
View
President Bush's June 3 NeighborWorks Week statement
[PDF, 520KB]
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