Houston – Neighborhood Centers, Inc.

Last October I was lucky enough to participate in the CityLab conference in New York, organized by Bloomberg and the Atlantic, where I met some amazing people involved in making better cities around the world (more on that in another post). One of the people I was particularly privileged to meet was Angela Blanchard, President and CEO of Neighborhood Centers, Inc., the largest non-profit in Texas. I eagerly accepted an invitation to visit Houston, and in December, Angela herself took the time to give me a tour of, among other things, the extraordinary Baker-Ripley Center, a beautiful village-like campus in the heart of one of Houston’s poorest, most diverse neighborhoods. It provides a wide array of services to the community, from pre-school to language courses to immigration support to personal banking.  You can read about their wonderful work here:   For Good | Home