At a time when funding is scarce for so many vital services, there is one source of support that remains strong—volunteerism. According to the Corporation for National and Community Service, volunteers provided service worth $184 billion last year. Americans around the country also will roll up their sleeves and pitch in Monday, Jan. 16, for the MLK National Day of Service. In this issue, we look at how volunteers from NeighborWorks organizations are giving back to their local communities and emerging as leaders.

Manfred Reid Sr., a 2016 winner of NeighborWorks’ Dorothy Richardson Resident Leadership Award, will receive the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Freedom Award Jan. 15 from Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer. Reid is a longtime advocate for affordable housing and has been chair of the board of commissioners for the Louisville Metro Housing Authority since 2000.

Don Feist refused to give up on his Montana neighborhood, even when many of the residents felt like they were living in a slum. He helped mobilize the residents of his manufactured housing community and they fought back. With the help of NeighborWorks Montana, state leaders and other nonprofits, they were able to secure millions of dollars in grants and restore their homes. Learn more about how they saved their community.

Dorothy Richardson is well known within the community-development field as the original inspiration for the creation of NeighborWorks America. But much of her life was a mystery. A community scholar intern at NeighborWorks set out to learn more.