Making a Difference, One House at a Time

 

NeighborWorks Northeastern Pennsylvania is a nonprofit community development organization aiming to revitalize neighborhoods, improve lives and address housing needs within our community.

For one week in late June, NeighborWorks Northeastern Pennsylvania welcomed over 400 volunteers eager to lend a helping hand to our neighbors in need. They scraped, painted, hammered and sweated, all to benefit Lackawanna County’s most vulnerable residents.

 

 

Every summer, NeighborWorks Northeastern Pennsylvania teams up with Group Mission Trips to organize the massive volunteer effort. The roster of volunteers ranges in age from high school and college students to adults. Throughout the week, the volunteers spent their time building wheelchair ramps, repairing stairs, painting porches and clearing brush for 62 specified elderly homeowners around Lackawanna County.

 

 

In just a few years, the NeighborWorks Week Program has completed repairs to over 500 properties in targeted neighborhoods. According to program supervisors, however, this effort is about so much more than a new coat of paint. Rather, by the end of the week, it’s mostly about the bonds that form between the volunteers and the homeowners.

We tagged along to get a closer look at this amazing program in action. Check out the video.