Volunteers and residents build community block by block

CHICAGO, June 14, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- On Saturday, June 2 more than 600 corporate volunteers, community leaders, and neighborhood residents participated in Neighborhood Housing Services of Chicago's 25th Annual NeighborWorks® Day.  The day included curb appeal activities and resource fairs in seven of NHS' targeted communities, including Auburn Gresham, Back of the Yards, Chicago Lawn, North Lawndale, Roseland, West Humboldt, and Elgin.  For the projects, volunteers donated over 3,600 volunteer hours to revitalize the neighborhood blocks by painting homes and fences, landscaping, and creating community gardens or staffing topical workshops offered at the resource fairs. In total, over 90 homes were touched by the day's projects and over 200 residents attended the fairs.

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NeighborWorks Day® is also an opportunity for NHS' partners to get personally involved with neighborhood revitalization and see first-hand the impact of their support.  "Volunteering with NHS of Chicago on NeighborWorks Day is an annual event that I look forward to.  I believe it is my duty as a citizen to contribute to the community. This gives me the opportunity to hopefully make a neighborhood feel safer," said Nick Skipitaris, Branch Manager, U.S. Bank.   In the years since the NHS' first NeighborWorks® Day, volunteers have made more than $5 million in improvements in Chicago neighborhoods.

Volunteers from the following organizations participated:  Baker Tilly, BMO Harris Bank, Charter One Bank, Citi, COUNTRY Financial, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, Glanbia Foods, IFF, Inland Bank, JPMorgan & Chase, Lowe's, Madison Capital Funding, LLC, MB Financial Bank, Northern Trust, Pan American Bank, Resurrection Project, Standard Bank & Trust, State Farm Insurance Companies, The PrivateBank, Travelers Insurance, UPS, U.S. Bank, and Webster Construction Group. 

As an extension of NHS' community revitalization efforts, NeighborWorks® Day is a small part of a larger strategy to attract new homebuyers to target neighborhoods and to bring residents together to foster a sense of community on the block.  "Come back one year from today and you won't recognize this block," said NHS Neighborhood Director, Mike Reardon.

Each year volunteers leave the day feeling rewarded for their investment of time and resources.  Homeowners have a greater sense of pride in their block.  All look forward to the next year's event.

Established in 1975, NHS of Chicago is the city's largest nonprofit community development organization committed to providing Chicago and Elgin residents affordable resources so they can buy, fix, and keep their homes. Since its creation, NHS has created more than 3,880 new homeowners.  NHS also works to stimulate community reinvestment through a partnership of residents, businesses, and government.  With the help of these partners, NHS has leveraged investment of more than $1.1 billion in Chicago's neighborhoods.  

NHS Chicago is also part of the NeighborWorks® America network, which includes 235 independent, community-based nonprofit organizations serving more than 4,500 communities nationwide.

For more information on NHS, please call (773) 329-4010 or visit www.nhschicago.org.

Contact: Stephanie Martel, NHS of Chicago
(773) 329-4104

SOURCE Neighborhood Housing Services of Chicago