Neighbor Works Community Leadership Institute plenary session

10/22 NeighborWorksCLI, Louisville KY; Building Leader & Sustaining Communities

Opening Plenary. John Santer

This CLI has over 1000 people. 20% of participants are not directly related to NW. NW America provides opportunities for affordable housing, works to improve lives and strengthen communities by financial support, tech assistance, and providing training.

Dorothy Mae Richardson was a mom in Pittsburgh who started National Housing Svcs 42 yrs ago. That became NW. In 1978, Congress made Natl Reinvestment Corp, now NW America.

NW is 230 community based orgs in 50 states. There are 8 geographic districts. Each NW is autonomous. 33% serve rural areas. Neighborworks.org is website. NW served 1 million homeowners since 2007 and issued $629 million in grants.

Susan Naimark, Dir., Community Building & Organizational Progress NW

NW has 3 divisions: training, community building & organization, and field ops. There are 3 elements to community building: resident leadership, resident organizations, and relationship building. This yields effectiveness, inpact and sustainability.

First CLI in 1995. They have had 28 since. First natl CLI was in San Jose in 2008. CLI’s provide chance to learn, discuss community issues.

Lisa Thompson, New Directions Housing Corp in Louisville Director

Louisville crosses KY-IN state line. New Directions works on both sides of the Ohio river. She likes community based coaching.

Dr. J.Otis Smith, Philadelphia professor, keynote speaker.

Good communication allows for discussion on a range of things. 3 toughest leadership challenges/hidden opportunities in plain sight: knowing where you want to go and where you can go [opie clip]; attracting and listing to folks that aren’t clones (this is risky but not listening has consequences) [office space clip]; doing something that matters to you and your neighbors.

2/3 of residents want fairness and respect. This is a leadership asset in plain sight.

Theories: stereotypic vulnerability—the stereotyped start to believe the stereotype; and learned helplessness—past treatment can affect the present [mouse shock experiment example, research on mouse showed that it took 23x to get out of corner].