From all across the country, affordable housing and community development practitioners convened at the NeighborWorks® Training Institute (NTI) in Chicago, Illinois, this week to learn, to grow and to help build solutions to an affordable housing crisis that continues to put homes, both rented and owned, out of reach. The training institute attracted well over 1,000 participants, though some were slowed by an East Coast snowstorm that landed just as the institute began.
“Chicago is a powerful place for us to gather,” said Kemba Esmond, NeighborWorks America’s chief financial officer, speaking at the opening plenary. “This is a city built by neighborhoods,
shaped by industry and sustained by people who understand that progress does not happen by chance. It happens through planning, partnership and persistence.”
She spoke of the legacy of community engagement on the South and West sides, and a city that has rebuilt and reimagined itself again and again. “Chicago reminds us that place matters and so does people-powered change,” she said.
The week of training was designed to build capacity and prepare community practitioners for what comes next. It provided a chance for participants to deepen their skills, learn from peers, and understand the challenges of their communities. Most of all, it was meant to share ideas that could be put into action. “Our goal is not just to inform you, but to equip you, so that when you return home, you are ready to apply what you have learned in ways that create real outcomes,” Esmond said.
Training, she said, is not a cost. “It is an investment in impact.”
She shared data that shows NeighborWorks’ own impact. In fiscal year 2025, she said, the NeighborWorks network helped create and preserve homeownership for nearly 29,000 families and supported more than 216,000 rental homes nationwide.
And for every dollar of our congressional appropriation, we leveraged 74 dollars in additional investment.
The numbers are not just statistics, she said. They represent families in safe, affordable homes, in stabilized neighborhoods and communities built for long-term resilience.
“This year, we are reinforcing that clarity through our Creating Homes, Building America campaign,” she said. “At its core, this effort is about alignment. It is about telling a clear and consistent story that connects local action to national outcomes and positions NeighborWorks America and its network as proven housing solution providers. We are not just responding to the housing crisis. We are delivering solutions.”
Strong communities, she added, are built by prepared leaders.
Anthony Simpkins, president and CEO of Neighborhood Housing Chicago, also spoke during the plenary session, saying that the funding and training from NeighborWorks is critical to the NeighborWorks network of
nearly 250 affordable housing and community development nonprofits across the country. The first training institute was held in Chicago back in the 1970s, he said. “At this NTI, we come together to deepen our understand of common challenges, to explore best practices and to innovate solutions together.”
The institute opened this week with classes that focused on everything from housing counseling to telling the stories of our communities and our work. The Housing Supply Solutions Lab, scheduled for Wednesday, promises to be a highlight of the week.
The training institute brings much-needed capacity to the NeighborWorks network, but also brings an economic boost to Chicago.
According to Choose Chicago, the event was projected to support 809 total jobs, contribute more than $480,000 in combined state and local tax revenue and generate $5.2 million in total business sales.
Want to learn more about what goes on at a NeighborWorks Training Institute?
Read about how NeighborWorks honored area network organizations during the conference and hear what participants learned. NeighborWorks America's training builds capacity nationwide, all year long!
