A distinguished UNC professor recently asked me how EmPOWERment Inc. adds value to our community. That's an excellent question. Here's a look at the return on investment in each of the three aspects of EmPOWERment's mission: home ownership, economic development and community organizing.

EmPOWERment builds new homes and rehabilitates existing homes for first-time homebuyers with low to moderate incomes. We also manage affordable rental units for ourselves and for other nonprofits in Orange and Chatham counties.

We have focused our home ownership efforts on Chapel Hill's Pine Knolls and Northside neighborhoods, though recently we've built and sold homes in Carrboro and Hillsborough and worked to ensure that the Briar Chapel development in Chatham County will include affordable properties. We also collaborate with Orange County Community Housing and Land Trust, the Women's Center and Habitat for Humanity to provide homebuyers' education classes.

The benefits for the community? Improved housing stock in our existing neighborhoods; economic diversity in new developments; financially literate homeowners who stay in their homes-and pay taxes long-term; and housing that people like our teachers, nurses and police officers can afford.

EmPOWERment also opens doors for small businesses to grow.

Our Midway Business Center -- Chapel Hill's first and only small business incubator -- makes office and retail space available to entrepreneurs who can't yet afford rents elsewhere in town. Midway provides services and fosters networking to encourage new enterprises in the heart of our community. Right now, it houses nonprofits, retail establishments, a small manufacturer and several service-oriented businesses. A number of businesses that have graduated from Midway remain in our community and contribute to the tax base.

Through our Career Explorers program, EmPOWERment partners with UNC and local business leaders to provide young people from traditionally African- American neighborhoods with meaningful summer employment and educational experiences. Our interns gain income and job skills and nearly all of them go on to college. Our community gains a better educated, more professional workforce.

Between them, the Midway Business Center and the Career Explorers program help community residents move toward lifelong employment, business success and long-term prosperity.

Through ongoing efforts like Community Watch and annual celebrations like Neighborhood Night Out, EmPOWERment brings neighbors together and encourages them to work closely with the police and other town departments to make positive changes in their communities. With the police and UNC, we sponsor the Good Neighbor Initiative, which welcomes student renters and integrates them into our neighborhoods.

These community organizing efforts benefit all our citizens, whether or not they live in our targeted neighborhoods, because they help keep our community safe, attractive, diverse and inclusive. EmPOWERment also spurred the creation of the Neighborhood Conservation District model, which gives all our neighborhoods a way to preserve their character and retain influence over their destinies.

By encouraging home ownership, economic development and community strength, EmPOWERment helps build individual prosperity, safe, stable neighborhoods and a stronger tax base. That's the value we aim to add to our community.

Delores Bailey is the executive director of EmPOWERment Inc. She can be reached at dbailey@empowerment-inc.org.