NAHRO - NAHRO Introduces Its Newest Joint Venture Partner

One Economy Corporation

One Economy Corporation has built an online vehicle with the potential to bring transformational change to low-income individuals living in NAHRO-member housing who are working to help themselves. It also will bring new ways for NAHRO members to expand their resident self-sufficiency programs. Located at www.thebeehive.org, the Beehive helps to end persistent social and economic isolation of low-income households by bringing them into a virtual network that connects them to each other and to health care, jobs, money, education and opportunities to build assets, online and "on the ground". This flexible network enables people to help themselves; to access a service delivery system that provides them with personal dignity and choice, often in the comfort, convenience and privacy of their own homes; and makes products and services from the conventional marketplace, not outside of it, readily available to them.

The Beehive is designed to be comprehensive-focusing on information, products and services that people need such as financial services, education, jobs, health care and homeownership. It is a vessel for every community to use to enhance the delivery of critical information and products and services to the underserved. It features powerful search tools and interactive content, in both English and Spanish that respond to multiple learning modalities. It is relevant to people with different levels of literacy and from different cultures. Hosted by AOL Time Warner, One Economy currently has the capacity to provide more than 36 million people with a free email account on this site

The Beehive is being built for people to use wherever they see fit. However, it will be most useful when it can be accessed in the privacy and the dignity of a person's home. For this reason, One Economy is building a vast network of nonprofit owners of affordable housing as the primary distribution channel for the Beehive. Through them, One Economy has the potential to access the 5.5 million units of affordable housing in the country that house more than 12 million people. Already owners of more than 40,000 units of affordable housing have committed to bringing Internet access into the homes of their residents in the coming years. This joint venture with NAHRO will enable One Economy to help NAHRO members to bring their housing units into the Digital Age and their residents into the New Economy.