Dorothy Richardson legacy extends to next generation

Dorothy Richardson

By Brian Levinson, senior regional public affairs and communications adviser (Midwest Region)

The legacy of Dorothy Richardson, whose efforts to save her Pittsburgh neighborhood led to the creation of what is now NeighborWorks America, has special meaning for one member of the NeighborWorks network.

Born and raised in Pittsburgh’s North Side, Tanisha Rush is proud of her ties to the city and her old neighborhood.

“The pride comes from knowing that the area used to be plagued with deteriorating housing and is now a vibrant neighborhood that includes new residential properties and restored historic homes,” she said of the area just north of downtown Pittsburgh. “It’s completely different from what it used to be.”

The neighborhood that Dorothy Richardson fought to preserve is now home to the Andy Warhol Museum, Heinz Field (where the Pittsburgh Steelers play) and PNC Park (Pittsburgh Pirates), as well as many other attractions.

“When I was growing up the area was primarily black and low-to-moderate income, with quite a few Section 8 housing projects and a lot of crime,” Rush said. “It started to change in the late ‘90s, which meant uprooting a lot of residents. The city saw the area’s potential because of its proximity to downtown and the nexus of all major transportation arteries.”

Rush moved from Pittsburgh to Cleveland nearly 20 years ago after graduating from college, and ultimately became a Community Reinvestment Act officer with a major bank. Her responsibilities included working with community-based organizations throughout northeast Ohio, including network member Neighborhood Housing Services of Greater Cleveland.

Tanisha Rush with
Lou Tisler, executive
director of NHS of
Greater Cleveland

“NHS of Greater Cleveland always stood out to me … knowing that Cleveland was one of the epicenters of the foreclosure crisis and seeing NHS helping so many residents,” Rush said. “NHS of Greater Cleveland was always there, so I’m honored to have an opportunity to serve on the board.”

Rush joined the NHS of Greater Cleveland board four years ago and went through an orientation in which Relationship Manager Angela Rohs presented the NeighborWorks history.

“When Angela started giving information about NeighborWorks and how it started and telling the story of Dorothy Richardson, my heart started pounding,” Rush said. “I said to myself, ‘that’s where I was born, how did I not know this,’ and I had an epiphany. I realized that NeighborWorks was ‘born’ in my neighborhood.”

Today, Rush is chair of the board of NHS of Greater Cleveland. However, she regularly makes the two-hour drive back to the North Side because her parents and many other relatives still live there. Many of her cousins, who had to move when the North Side started to revitalize have all “made their pilgrimage back,” Rush said. “Everybody lives within walking distance of each other.”

Rush said her service to NHS of Greater Cleveland is her way of giving back, not only to Cleveland but also to the North Side.

“My situation is very unique from a lot of my family. They didn’t get to walk the same path I walked. They are still living in affordable housing, still in need of assistance (in Dorothy Richardson’s old neighborhood), so it is only right for me to serve in any way that I can, and how fitting that I have gone full circle and can now serve NHS of Greater Cleveland.”

Rush adds, “I think serving NHS of Greater Cleveland is the ultimate reward. I’m associated with an organization that is really helping to make an impact on the community. I think of all the homebuyers we have educated, the free tax preparation services we have provided, and the number of homeowners we have created … Then I multiply that by all of the NeighborWorks organizations throughout the country. This is all happening because of this one woman in a neighborhood who launched this grassroots effort to say our homes are worth saving, our people are worth saving.”

Forty-five years after founding, Pennsylvania group helps future homebuyers achieve ‘financial freedom’

When visitors walk into the NeighborWorks America offices in DC, one of the first images they see is a floor-to-ceiling painting of Dorothy Mae Richardson, along with the quote, “I believe people get their roots down when they own their own houses….take pride in them. That, in turn, is good for the whole city.”

Dorothy Mae Richardson

These wise words can be generalized to cities everywhere, but in 1968, Richardson – the “founding mother” of NeighborWorks America -- was speaking specifically about Pittsburgh, where she enlisted bankers and government officials to support her block club’s efforts to improve her neighborhood. Together, they persuaded 16 financial institutions and a local foundation to put up the loans needed to create opportunities for affordable homeownership. They named the program Neighborhood Housing Services, and it served as the model for other programs that followed -- today known as NeighborWorks organizations.

Forty-five years later, the NeighborWorks network encompasses more than 240 such organizations, and the group founded by Richardson is still going strong, known as NeighborWorks Western Pennsylvania. The dynamics of the community, however, along with the services needed by residents, have changed – and the organization has adapted along with it.

“More people own their own homes here now, thanks to our efforts,” says Margie Howard, education specialist with NeighborWorks Western Pennsylvania. “But we’ve realized that more than homeownership education and counseling are needed.  Residents also need help keeping their homes in good shape, staying out of foreclosure and managing their budgets to make it all affordable. In particular, we are serving a growing number of low-income, single heads of household. Race isn’t the issue here; economics is.”

While the organization has offered financial education for youth for the past five years, recent support from the Heinz Endowments has made it possible to expand its efforts to include the entire family, combating generational poverty.

 “We saw that parents weren’t teaching their children about money management – mainly because they themselves didn’t learn it,” Howard explains. “You see lots of instances of a mom spending $300 on shoes for her child, yet there’s a shortage of food in the house, or maybe the family is about to be evicted. It’s not just about teaching parents how to budget; it’s about changing attitudes and behavior around money.”

Youth don’t get financial education in the schools either, says Howard. “Schools are test- rather than life-skills-oriented.”

One of the youth financial-education classes

The organization’s youth financial-education program enrolls participants as young as 14 up through age 25, with instruction provided in four, one-hour classes. The program’s practical approach encourages participants to analyze real-life spending choices, such as getting ready for prom.

“The average girl realizes it will cost about $3,000 for a one-day event; for boys, it’s more like $1,000.  Many are okay with these figures when it’s their parents who foot the bill,” explains Howard. “But then they are asked what will happen if their mom has been laid off, or is working a minimum-wage job. How will she afford that while keeping up with the bills? Some of the students find ways to cut back like having a friend style their hair or using a parent’s car instead of renting a fancy one. Others decide to skip the prom altogether. The goal is to teach them to analyze their wants vs.  their needs. We see how their thinking changes when they realize they might have to pay for things themselves.”

The key, says Howard, is to separate spending from emotional triggers, starting with tracking where the money is going with a daily log. Ideally, major spending decisions should be made collectively, by the entire family.  Although teenagers typically prefer to attend workshops with youth from their own age group, family members from different generations are encouraged to come to one of the workshops together. Howard recalls one time when a 10-year-old girl came with her mother to a class because she didn’t want to go to the gym with her brother. After the workshop, the little girl went up to the instructor and proudly reported that she had her own bank account. The teacher asked what the girl would do with the savings, and she replied, “I want to have a princess birthday party.”

“A 10-year-old is breaking the cycle by planning ahead to make sure she has the money she needs to meet her goals,” says Howard. “We’ve created a saver!”

Long-term results from the financial-capability workshops are still being assessed, but the anecdotes are promising. One recent evening, for instance, Howard was approached at a community event by Essence Howze, who completed the organization’s financial-education program five years before, when she was just 16. Always ambitious, Howze first began earning money at age 9, manning a refreshment stand in front of her home. “I would sell iced tea and lemonade to joggers,” she laughs.

Essence Howze

However, self-teaching could get her only so far. When she was in 10th grade, Howze saw a flyer on a bulletin board, promoting NeighborWorks Western Pennsylvania’s youth financial-education program. Howze enrolled, and the practical skills she learned, she says, enabled her to open her own savings account and enter community college, where today she is a sophomore studying business management. Always ambitious, she has supplemented her studies with extracurricular activities such as an internship with The Salvation Army’s Career Development Center, and recently started her own business -- which she calls “Silver Linings,” through which she helps others overcome personal barriers like those she faced during a troubled family life.

“Taking the NeighborWorks financial-education course gave me my financial freedom. It helped me avoid so many mistakes, and now I’m helping others,” Howze says, recalling how she showed her college roommate how to read the “fine print” when a credit card company tried to sign her up. “I refer back to the materials I got in those workshops all the time. It wasn’t just financial management I learned..it was empowerment.”

Written by Pam Bailey, communications writer for NeighborWorks America. 

Dorothy Richardson: An African-American Leader

Dorothy Richardson

As we recognize Black History Month, it is a good time to reflect on the history of African-American leaders within the history of NeighborWorks America.  In fact, the very existence of our organization is due in large part to an African-American homemaker named Dorothy Richardson. 

Richardson’s Pittsburgh neighborhood was in decline, partially due to redlining policies that prevented most banks from lending to her and her neighborhoods. At the time, in the 1960s, most cities tried to solve blight by demolishing neighborhoods, but Richardson knew that she and others were willing to fix their homes if they could get loans.

Richardson and supporters in front of a home
that would be rehabilitated instead of torn down

Together Dorothy Richardson, along with her neighbors, city bankers and government officials  convinced 16 financial institutions to make conventional loans in the community; a local foundation capitalized a revolving loan fund. They named the resulting organization Neighborhood Housing Services, Inc. and it became a model for organizations nationwide 

Richardson is credited with introducing a new model of community development, one that emphasized cross-sector partnership and ground-up solutions for struggling communities.  During the 1970s and 1980s, Richardson remained a prominent figure by educating and inspiring community leaders throughout the country. She assisted them with establishing their own resident-led organizations, which led to the creation of what would be called the NeighborWorks America network. In 1978, Congress later institutionalized the network by establishing the Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation, now known as NeighborWorks America.

Mural of Dorothy Richardson by artist at NeighborWorks
affiliate Orlando Neighborhood Improvement Corporation

Today NeighborWorks America supports a network of more than 235 nonprofits, located in every state, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. Our network members serve low- and moderate- income individuals and families of all racial and ethnic backgrounds, including African-Americans.

In 2012, NeighborWorks organizations served more than 11,000 African-American individuals with homeownership counseling, foreclosure counseling, refinancing, reverse mortgages, and rehab services. NeighborWorks organizations also served nearly 30,000 African American–headed rental households. Together, the NeighborWorks network helps residents to build stronger communities, achieve and maintain homeownership and support the creation and preservation of affordable rental homes.

In honor of Richardson’s life work, NeighborWorks America created the Dorothy Richardson Award for Resident Leadership in 1992. Each year, the award honors seven community leaders from around the country for their outstanding contributions to their communities. Neighborhood Housing Services, Inc. in Pittsburgh, now known as NeighborWorks Western Pennsylvania, created the Dorothy Richardson Legacy Award in 2008 to recognize outstanding contributions by dedicated volunteers and long-serving board members.

To learn more about Dorothy Richardson and NeighborWorks America, watch this video: http://ow.ly/i4ssk
To learn more about the 2012 Dorothy Richardson Award winners, visit: nw.org/drawards 

Training to Change the World

By Sara Varela, Community Building and Organizing program

October 25 to the 28 marked not only NeighborWorks Community Leadership Institute (CLI) in Orlando, Florida, but also my nine year old’s birthday, Hurricane Sandy passing through the East Coast, the closing on my house and much more. So needless to say, things have been crazy recently. However, it's worth stopping to reflect on the great things that came out of the CLI and why it matters.

The CLI is an annual gathering of 110 different resident volunteer teams from across the country. NeighborWorks America holds the event because we believe that residents are in the best position to make substantial positive impact in their communities, and that their impact will be even greater if these leaders are trained in best practices and can learn from the experiences of others.

Attendees are part of teams, each comprised of six to eight people who live nearby and come together to address a specific problem. During the CLI, team members participate in top-notch trainings with some of the best instructors in the country. Teams who submit an Action Plan to NeighborWorks America receive a $2,000 seed grant to help them leverage local resources and see their plans turn into reality.

These plans lead to great community projects, like the Sabor del Northside community festival in Houston, Texas, where schools, businesses, artists, community organizations, and residents came together to put on an event attended by more than 1000 people. Other CLI-related projects have included a cross-state safe prescription drug disposal program, a safety awareness fair, community gardens and youth leadership programs.

The CLI supports these community enhancement projects by providing a contagious, positive and invigorating experience for attendees that helps them to go from concept to completion. The CLI instructors are not what you might expect from a big corporate training event. Each of them was passionate about their work, so much so that their energy radiated from every classroom. They have taught me important skills, but most importantly, they have inspired me as have many of the participants who strive for greatness, to overcome obstacles and to expect positive change when communities join forces to solve their problems.

Dorothy Richardson mural from the Orlando
Neighborhood Improvement Corporation

The CLI is also the time where we honor the Dorothy Richardson Resident Leadership recipients, people who exemplify a spirit of service and a commitment to a better future in their communities. For profiles of these amazing people, check out nw.org/drawards. There’s also a great video there with stories about what a difference resident leaders can make.

Adding to these indoor activities, the CLI had practical workshops and tours of the Orlando communities. We also had a virtual presence via Twitter (see Storify summary) and a Facebook group for participants. Using these tools, attendees could comment on their experiences, talk with others and tocapture the event from their perspective.

It is the first time I’ve see so much interaction and engagement online from so many people. The Facebook group allowed many of us to meet in person, to learn what was happening in the sessions and tours, and hopefully it will continue to capture the energy and enthusiasm of participants as they implement their action plans over the next year.

Tap Bui (center) with her team from Mary Queen of Vietnam
from New Orleans. She was my partner in one of our sessions
and it's great to keep in touch using the Facebook group.

I am really hoping we can continue to see updates, photos and videos from every single team who attended the CLI. It would be fantastic if we could keep up with the successes, road blocks and challenges of the teams as they go back to their communities.

Overall it was a tremendously successful event that reminds me why I do what I do, and which I believe can change the world, one community project at a time.