Tag: Community

Change Starts With Us

For more than 40 years, the affiliates of NeighborWorks® Community Partners have been providing housing and community development programs for low- to moderate-income people and their families.

We have come together across Western NY to be a catalyst for building and strengthening communities, and we will not stay silent about the mass demonstrations happening around us to draw attention to the systemic racism that affects our neighbors every day.

We stand by the Black community and know that change doesn’t happen through words alone. We recognize the challenges in our own daily practices and are committed to doing the work to better the organization. This means taking a hard look at the lack of diversity on our own board, staff and leadership teams, and working with the appropriate consultants to create and implement an organization-wide diversity plan.

We urge our white neighbors to become educated about the history of redlining and the impact it has had on Black people and people of color (POC) when trying to purchase homes (and the divide it has created, which is still felt today).

Watch documentaries. Listen to podcasts. Read articles and books. When someone tells a racist joke, call them out. Have honest conversations with the people around you about race and racism, what you are doing to contribute to it, and what you can do to change your own actions.

Neighborhoods work when neighbors work together.

Change starts with us.

NeighborWorks® Community Partners Launches The Neighborly Fund In Response to COVID-19

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, NeighborWorks® Community Partners (NCP) has partnered with the Westminster Economic Development Initiative (WEDI) to create the Neighborly Fund to offer relief to community members in need. The inaugural distribution of the Neighborly Fund will provide no interest, deferred loans of up to $3,500 to homeowners in Monroe, Erie and Niagara Counties, and $7,500 to small businesses in Buffalo, NY who have been financially impacted by COVID-19 through layoffs, furloughs, or other hardships.

The organizations have set out to collectively raise $500,000 for these no interest, deferred loans, which can be used to pay mortgages or utilities, buying groceries, or keeping their small business afloat. Borrowers will also receive free one-on-one financial counseling to help them put a plan in place to get back on their feet, and repay the loan when (or if) they can. While some folks may not be able to repay their loan in full, many will.

But they won’t be paying it back in the traditional sense – instead, they’ll be “paying it forward.”

Once the coronavirus crisis has passed, NCP Buffalo & WEDI will use any loan repayments that were received to continue providing affordable financing to low-income WNYers who need to address health and safety hazards in older homes, make their homes more energy efficient while reducing their utility bills, or to maintain their small business.

“NeighborWorks Community Partners is committing $100,000 in seed capital for the Neighborly Fund, said Jerome M. Nagy, Chief Executive Officer. We are proud to work with our friends at WEDI, to assist both homeowners and small business owners alike. If you are fortunate enough to be working, even if from home, we encourage you to support your neighbors and donate to the fund today!”

“The Neighborly Fund is a great way for the community to impact on our local economy, said Carolynn Welch, executive director, WEDI. “At WEDI, we’ve been supporting and promoting small businesses for over a decade and could have never imagined that those businesses, and so many in WNY, would face such a detrimental hardship. Now, more than ever, our community needs to come together.”

To learn more about how you can support homeowners through the Neighborly Fund, visit the GoFundMe page by clicking this link: https://charity.gofundme.com/o/en/campaign/the-neighborly-fund.