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First readWhat to know+
Topic: Resident leadership and community ownership programsSource: Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC)Programs Covered: Training for Trainers (Houston), Newark Resident Leadership Academy, Community Connectors (Philadelphia)Reading Time: About 3-5 minutesFocus Area: Neighborhood, organization, and systems-level community development
A 2024 report from LISC (Local Initiatives Support Corporation) spotlights three resident leadership programs — Training for Trainers (T4T) in Houston, the Newark Resident Leadership Academy (NRLA) in Newark, and Community Connectors in Philadelphia. Each program helps everyday residents build skills, raise their voices, and shape decisions in their own neighborhoods. The report also connects this work to a long history of community-driven change across the country.
The report digs into three programs that put residents in the driver's seat. In Houston, Training for Trainers (T4T) equips community members to teach and lead others. In Newark, the Newark Resident Leadership Academy (NRLA) builds the skills residents need to participate in decisions that affect their neighborhoods. In Philadelphia, Community Connectors links residents to resources and to each other. Beyond these three, the report points to similar work in Indianapolis, San Francisco, Washington D.C., and Chicago — proof that community-led change is happening at every level, from individual buildings to city-wide coalitions.
Use this report as a map. If you want to get involved in Houston's T4T program or learn from what's working in Newark and Philadelphia, the report gives you the full picture. If you lead a nonprofit or community group, the companion resources — including practical field guides, multilingual organizing toolkits, and frameworks for sharing power — can help you strengthen your own work. Start by reading the spotlight, then explore the resource list to find tools that fit your situation.
No fixed date
Not location-specific
This resource connects to community development, civic engagement, affordable housing, land trusts, and nonprofit capacity-building work happening across Houston and beyond. It's especially relevant for residents interested in neighborhood leadership, organizations working on economic mobility, and local groups looking to strengthen their community voice.
Neighborhoods thrive when the people who live in them help lead the way. LISC calls this 'community ownership' — the idea that local voices should guide where money goes and how decisions get made. This report shows that community ownership isn't new. It grows from generations of organizing: labor activists building affordable cooperatives, Black farmers defending land rights through community land trusts (CLTs), and neighborhood groups pushing back against redlining to create community development corporations (CDCs) and win passage of the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA). That history still powers today's programs.
