OCC staff members get involved in communities throughout the United States by participating in:

• NeighborWorks Week
• Financial Literacy Events
• OCC Staff on the Road

Our involvement in these events allows us to give back to our communities and to better understand their needs and concerns. We also get to see how government policies and private investment work to revitalize neighborhoods, build businesses, and make life better for many. We invite you to share in this experience through the links and photos on this page.

OCC Staff on the Road 

OCC staff participates in tours led by neighborhood organizations, local government officials, and bankers to learn about local community and economic development initiatives.

Dallas, Texas

Tour participants being briefed on the hybrid engine of a cab operated by Dallas Yellow Cab, a company that received an investment from the CRA-oriented Lone Star Fund.		Comptroller Dugan visits the Eagle Ford affordable housing development on the West side of Dallas, which was developed by the nonprofit, Builders of Hope Community Development Corporation.		Tour participants visit an affordable rental housing project under development in downtown Dallas.
OCC tour participants visit PrimeSource, an African-American, female controlled company located in South Dallas which received an investment from the CRA-oriented North Texas Opportunity Fund.

Students at the Fordham Leadership Academy describe what they have learned while working at the bank branch to Comptroller Dugan.

Tour participants visit Elm Place in the Bronx, a block that has been starkly affected by subprime lending.

Comptroller Dugan watches students demonstrate an interactive "Financial Jeopardy" game they created.

Slideshow of sites visited

Chicago, Illinois

The tour stops to view a property renovated by the Neighborhood Housing Services of Chicago.		The Comptroller discusses financial literacy programs with Dory Rand of the Woodstock Institute.		Park National Bank Chairman Michael Kelly describes the financial literacy programs offered at the Community Savings Center.
		Comptroller Dugan with staff members of Park National Bank's Community Savings Center.		Participants view a neighborhood where the Neighborhood Housing Services of Chicago has been helping residents confront the challenges of predatory lending and foreclosures.

San Francisco, California

Tour participants visit small businesses along Valencia Street in the Mission District of San Francisco. Many of the small businesses in this community received assistance from community development financial institutions.		Comptroller of the Currency John Dugan (second from right) and CDFI Fund Director Donna Gambrell (far right) discuss financing challenges facing small business owners in the Bay View community of San Francisco.		Lola Whittle of the Ren/Bay View Business Resource Center discusses their small business technical assistance initiative.
Derene Allen of Home Green Home discusses their worker-owned home cleaning cooperative which received start-up financing from a San Francisco-based microenterprise lender, the Opportunity Fund.		Caleb Zigas of La Cocina provides a tour of their incubator kitchen which provides commercial cooking space for food entrepreneurs. La Cocina also helps small caterers and potential restaurant owners make the transition from being a home-based business to operating a larger scale commercial enterprise.

NeighborWorks Week 
OCC staff members participate in the annual national NeighborWorks Week community fix-up event sponsored by NeighborWorks America (NWA). This event brings NWA's 235 neighborhood organizations together with their communities' residents, business leaders, financial institutions, government officials, and volunteers in support of community revitalization projects. 

NeighborWorks Week 2012

OCC volunteers joined more than 30 representatives from NeighborWorks America's board agencies at this year's NeighborWorks Week volunteer event held in Washington, D.C.'s Ivy City neighborhood in early June. The volunteers conducted a street-by-street cleanup and helped dig the foundation for new housing being developed by Manna, the local nonprofit NeighborWorks affiliate.

Marge Salazar, Associate Deputy Comptroller for Midsize Banks, and Hershel Lipow, Community Relations Expert, pick up debris on an Ivy City street.		OCC employees Ammar Askari (left), Juan Marroquin (second from left), and David Permut (fourth from left) work with two other volunteers on the foundation of a home at the 2012 NeighborWorks Week site.
Volunteers help clear debris as part of the street-to-street cleanup of the Ivy City neighborhood.		OCC volunteers take a break from cleaning up to gather outside the new Bexhill condominiums, which were developed by Manna, a NeighborWorks affiliate.

NeighborWorks Week 2011

In 2011, OCC volunteers helped landscape a 15-unit condominium project in Northwest Washington, D.C., as part of the annual NeighborWorks Week, sponsored by the nonprofit NeighborWorks America. The event was organized with the help of Manna, a local NeighborWorks affiliate and owner/developer of the condominium complex. Manna is one of Washington's oldest and most successful nonprofit developers of affordable housing.

Deputy Comptroller for Community Affairs Barry Wides works on landscaping at the 2011 NeighborWorks Week event.		Ted Wartell, Director for Community Affairs Policy, helps clear a flower bed at the condominium complex.
Lily Chin, Manager for Publishing Services, pushes a wheelbarrow as part of the landscaping project.		OCC staff members and their families work together to improve the Manna property.