NeighborWorks® America’s Training Division knows collaboration is key for participants when they are learning new skills. So in Chicago last month, division leaders piloted a new course with a collaboration focus during the NeighborWorks Training Institute.

When we talk about strengthening affordable housing and community development, we often focus on what is visible. 

Units built. 
Homes preserved. 
Families counseled. 
Dollars leveraged. 

But there is another asset driving every one of those outcomes. 

It does not show up on a construction site. 
It does not sit in a line item. 
It does not appear in a ribbon cutting photo. 

It is professional learning. 

If you work in housing counseling or community development, you know the pressure is real. Renters are navigating rising costs. Funding requirements are tightening. Expectations for compliance and measurable outcomes are growing. 

You do not have time for training that feels theoretical or disconnected from your day-to-day work. 

That is where Regional Group Learning makes the difference. 

NeighborWorks® America recognized the achievements of the newest graduates of its Advancing Leaders in Real Estate Program with a ceremony during the NeighborWorks Training Institute in Chicago.

NeighborWorks America capped off its NTI on Friday the way it began: With learning and a focus toward the future. More than 1,000 affordable housing and community developers came from across the U.S. to expand their resources – and capacity – during a weeklong training institute in Chicago.

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. 

This past week has much of the nation focusing on weather conditions and forecasts. At NeighborWorks® America, Chief Operating Officer Lee Anne Adams is also looking at the conditions for the housing market, as NeighborWorks and the network focus on scaling solutions for the year ahead.

Graduates of a NeighborWorks® America program are starting the year with new skills and determination.

The graduates, all from the Northeast Region, were part of a nine-month Strong Leaders Program for Middle Managers. The program, funded with generous support from the Federal Home Loan Bank of New York, focuses on the long-term professional growth of middle managers.

Students in the program found not only targeted training but a group of peers who will support each other long after the end of the program.