What does it take to transform a neighborhood long defined by poverty into a community of opportunity, dignity, and hope?
For Logan Herring, CEO of The WRK Group, the answer isn’t quick fixes or surface-level change. It’s about rebuilding the very fabric of community life brick by brick, voice by voice, and generation by generation.
In a recent episode of The Do One Better Podcast, Logan shares how The WRK Group made up of The Warehouse, Kingswood Community Center, and REACH Riverside is leading a $600 million revitalization effort in Wilmington, Delaware’s Riverside neighborhood. It’s not just about new buildings or shiny programs. It’s about breaking the intergenerational cycle of poverty that has gripped this community for decades
Community-Led, Not Just Community-Served
Too often, “revitalization” means decisions are made for the community, not with it. The WRK Group flips that script. Residents are not just beneficiaries they are designers, builders, and leaders in the work.
As Logan puts it: “When we’re showcasing the work, we’re showcasing the people who are helping us do this work.”
But listening to the people most affected isn’t the end goal it’s the foundation. Because if poverty has been passed down generation to generation, then the solutions must be strong enough to stop that cycle for good
Breaking Generational Cycles
One of the toughest realities in Riverside is that families have lived in poverty for four and five generations. Public housing, which was meant to be temporary, became a permanent condition. That cycle has kept opportunities out of reach for too long.
Logan doesn’t mince words: “You can’t get more complex and challenging than breaking the intergenerational cycle of poverty.”
And breaking it requires more than one program or one grant. It demands a holistic approach attacking the issue from every angle: early childhood education, housing, safety, health, and jobs.
But here’s where it gets even more compelling: The WRK Group isn’t measuring success by traditional markers like attendance or square footage. They’ve redefined what winning really means.
Redefining What Success Means
When asked what success looks like, Logan doesn’t talk about revenue goals or growth metrics. His answer?
“Success for me is putting ourselves out of business.”
At first, it sounds radical. But the more you think about it, the more it makes sense. Nonprofits exist to solve problems. The WRK Group’s mission is to make sure families in Riverside are self-sufficient, empowered, and thriving so much so that they no longer need the organization’s services.
This isn’t about creating dependency. It’s about building dignity, capacity, and generational wealth. And the proof is in the personal stories the lives transformed, the young people who’ve gone from struggling to leading.
Stories That Prove Change Is Possible
Logan shares stories that cut right to the heart. Like Deontay, a young man who once worked at Kingswood to help support his mother. Today, he’s a project engineer overseeing $80 million in community development projects right in the neighborhood he grew up in.
That’s not just economic development. That’s generational transformation.
This Matters Beyond Riverside
And it doesn’t stop here. Riverside is just one neighborhood. Brookings estimates there are over 5,000 neighborhoods across the country facing the same challenges.
What The WRK Group is building isn’t just a local project it’s a national model. A model based on abundance, not scarcity. A model that says there’s enough to go around when everyone brings their expertise and resources to the table.
Logan calls it the “Thanksgiving Day Model.” Everyone contributes, everyone eats, and there’s more than enough for all.
A Call to Hope
At the end of the conversation, Logan leaves listeners with one powerful question:
“What can you do to help instill hope in the next generation?”
Because at the end of the day, that’s what this work is all about hope. Hope that cycles can be broken. Hope that opportunities can take root. Hope that communities long overlooked can rise again.
If this conversation moved you even a little, the full interview will move you even more. Logan’s stories, strategies, and vision go deeper than we can capture here.
Listen to the full episode here and hear how The WRK Group is transforming Riverside and what it teaches us about rebuilding communities everywhere.