NHC Housing Leadership Support Program Partner NeighborWorks® America was named as a 2009 NHC “Pioneering Housing Strategies” Award finalist for its Achieving Excellence in Community Development program (AE) – a high-impact, organizational transformation program designed to produce better leaders in the affordable housing and community development field.
This 18-month, performance-driven program is an organizational investment – providing the forum, the guidance, the push and the opportunities for leaders to move their organizations to a higher level of effectiveness and long-term, sustainable success.
During the program, each participant tackles a performance challenge that is most critical to the future of their organization and the communities they serve. With the participant’s organizational performance challenge as the focal point, participants attend three week-long sessions developed and delivered by Harvard Kennedy School faculty; receive 18 months of intensive executive coaching by a team of top-notch leadership consultants; and share learning and best practices in peer groups.
As a result, participants have created new lines of business, expanded their reach, re-engineered their organization’s business approach, created innovative strategies, built beneficial partnerships and leveraged new financial resources.
AE provides significant returns on investment, with independent evaluations showing nearly all participants and more than 90 percent of staff and board members reporting lasting, profoundly positive impacts on organizational coherence and innovation; outcomes focus; organizational capacity; and community results.
An evaluation of just one program cohort demonstrated:
- An increase in total clients (146 percent).
- An increase in affordable housing units developed/managed (32 percent/22 percent).
- An increase in the number of successful homeowners (15 percent).
- An increase in the average total assets (23 percent); average increase attributed to AE was $6,860,507/organization with $96,047,109 cumulatively.
These results contribute to NHC’s mission in helping ensure that Americans, regardless of income, have the opportunity to live in decent, affordable housing in a suitable neighborhood.