The mission and core values are still solidly the same, but The Neighbor Project—a social change organization, part of which started as our family’s small foundation—has a new website and new branding. These are cleaner and more direct, I think, and more forcefully show how home ownership builds up communities and family wealth. How this also develops leadership, and how The Neighbor Project has been honored for this with, among many other things, a 2016 citation as one of the “Top 100 Most Innovative” social change enterprises in the world, and a 2024 $2 million gift from Yield Giving, MacKenzie Scott’s philanthropic organization.
Opening shot of the VIDEO below
But you never gain something without losing some things, so this post—as part of this site’s mission to preserve the history of Bryan House, Emmanuel House, and now The Neighbor Project—looks to preserve some of the old stuff. (Go HERE for a compilation of most of that history.) The VIDEO below, was used for years on the old website’s landing page and played many times at Neighbor Project galas and other events to introduce or re-introduce The Neighbor Project to everyone. I narrate it and remember so clearly the afternoon I recorded it at the Zero Gravity studios in downtown Aurora. My first take, I tried to sound so “professional,” but, said the recording tech, “You’re sounding a little like a voice from Star Wars. Try it again in your own voice.” So I did, easy and natural. They had planned to use other voices reading different parts of the script, but in the end I guess I sounded good enough alone. Cheryl Pacillio, a key member of The Neighbor Project staff, always said it made her misty-eyed every time she heard the first line of the narration: “What is a city without its people?”
And speaking of Cheryl. The Video below also opened The Neighbor Project’s first, and so far only, virtual gala, which was streamed on September 19, 2020, the first year of our pandemic, which forced many things to go virtual. Watch the full virtual gala HERE. It’s 47 minutes long, hosted by Cheryl and Peter Burchard, our fabulous live auctioneer at earlier Neighbor Project (and Emmanuel House) galas. The video is itself a mini-history of The Neighbor Project and contains several other wonderful videos. There’s one explaining Illinois’ first Financial Empowerment Center, sponsored by The Neighbor Project and the City of Aurora. There’s a section honoring our long-standing relationship with Exelon Corporation. There’s a moving video about Jerria Donelson, a key Neighbor Project staff member who suddenly realizes that Neighbor Project programs—some of which see oversaw!—could lead to home ownership and a more secure future even for herself. There’s one of our earlier video’s “Kai’s Story,” about Burmese refugee Pao Kai, who started out at Bryan House, the earliest incarnation of what is now The Neighbor Project—after Bryan House became Emmanuel House and Emmanuel House merged with The Joseph Corporation to form The Neighbor Project. And there’s executive director Rick Guzman’s talk “Every Person’s God-Given Ability to Contribute,” the best single place to catch the growth, vision and values of The Neighbor Project. (It’s also on this site HERE).
Rick and Desiree Guzman started Bryan House in 2007 as a living memorial to Rick’s youngest brother Bryan Emmanuel Guzman, whom we lost in 2006 just days after his 21st birthday. From its earliest days as a small foundation to today as The Neighbor Project, a foundation and social change enterprise honored as one of the best in the nation, I remember more keenly every day that it was all born out of the pain of losing my youngest child.
Whales, and An Ethic for the Age of AI
The graphic for Addrienne LaFrance’s Atlantic article.
Below is a 3:48 highlights VIDEO of a recent trip my wife and I took to Cabo San Lucas, specifically to watch whales. We were not disappointed. But aside from the Video, this commentary isn’t really about whales. It’s my take on Adrienne LaFrance’s article in the July/August 2023 Atlantic titled “In Defense of Humanity.” As the subheading says, “We need a cultural and philosophical movement to meet the rise of artificial superintelligence.” It’s more nuanced and sophisticated than my summary, so I’d urge you to read it for yourself. It’s not long. It amounts to four points from which a possible ethics for the age of AI could arise. Whales are an illustration of Point Four below.
1. TRANSPARENCY: If you’ve used AI to create anything, just tell us you did. Writers like Ayad Akhtar, who won a 2013 Pulitzer for his play Disgraced, are already openly making AI a part of their writing process, as are many visual artists. As a former writing professor, I would just ask students if they used AI and have them describe their process of using it at the end of their papers. A law or an ethic of transparency would do much to warn consumers about AI-generated pictures purporting to be of someone doing this or that, including posing naked. Short of banning such pictures or hunting down and prosecuting each offender—which would be the best solution, of course—a statement saying something like “AI was used to generate this image,” or “this sound,” would give consumers important information and afford victims some semblance of protection from the beginning. This point is related to Point Three below.
2. PERSONAL CONNECTION: How convenient to meet on Zoom. Yet this should not take away from meeting in person, face-to-face. Live, personal contact should be seen as a necessity. This point is related to Point Four below.
3. PRIVACY: LeFrance says, “privacy is the key to preserving our humanity.” On a personal level, this means learning that you don’t have to share everything you’ve ever done or thought. This calls for a measure of modesty, a growing sense of your inner vs. public self, and for a careful drawing of lines that will protect you and those closest to you from outside intrusion.
4. PERSONAL WITNESSING: Whenever possible, go see things for yourself and through your own eyes. Do not rely on a virtual reality tour of Rome, but go there yourself. Which brings me back to the Video below. How long I’ve wanted to actually see whales in the wild. I watched films, including one of my oldest son’s family going whale watching in kayaks and having a humpback surface no more than 10 feet from them. So during one of the coldest days in 2025’s Chicagoland winter, we were able to fly off to Cabo San Lucas and experience what the Video below shows. What a privilege. And how privileged was I. Not everyone can do that, or actually step onto Vatican Square in Rome, as I was also able to do many years ago, but the more you can see with, and through, your own eyes, with no intervening technology, the better. Actually see your neighborhood, your backyard, the people closest to you, and even those who are strangers.