About Nurses & Neighbors Collaborative Inc.

Nurses & Neighbors is a Delaware-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit of nurses and community members who work together to support the health and well-being of our neighborhoods. 

We started as seven nurses who lived next door to one another in Sussex County, Delaware. We shared ideas on the Nextdoor platform, answered questions from neighbors, and slowly realized that many people needed simple, direct support that nurses are well positioned to provide. Over time, other nurses joined in, and the group grew beyond one neighborhood.

In July 2022, Jane Kurz and Bet Key Wong incorporated the organization as a nonprofit. Nurses & Neighbors is recognized by the IRS as a 501(c)(3) charitable organization. What began with nurses supporting neighbors in southern Delaware soon grew beyond Sussex County. At the request of community partners, we extended our reach throughout the state in 2026 while remaining grounded in our original approach: listening to local needs and bringing nurses, neighbors, and organizations together to improve community health.

Nurses & Neighbors operates much like a nonprofit innovation hub. Each project lead identifies a community need, builds a team, develops partnerships, seeks funding, and guides the work from idea to impact. This entrepreneurial structure allows us to test new approaches, respond quickly, and pivot as community needs change.

Underlying it all is the trust people place in nurses—recognized as the nation’s most trusted profession for 24 consecutive years. That trust opens doors, strengthens relationships, and carries a responsibility to listen carefully, act with integrity, and turn community ideas into meaningful action. People have noticed both our work and the way we work, leading to growing recognition and new partners who want to collaborate with us.

 Nurses & Neighbors received the 2024 Lieutenant Governor’s Wellness Challenge Community Spotlight Award. In 2026, we became an official community partner of Delaware 250, bringing our focus on mobility, freedom, and independence to Delaware’s statewide commemoration of America’s 250th anniversary.

Our innovative, nurse-led projects have received competitive grant support from the 2023 AARP Community Challenge, the Highmark Delaware Fund at the Delaware Community Foundation, and the Delaware Division of the Arts. This funding has helped us move community-informed ideas into action and extend their impact.

Collaboration is central to how we work. We partner with homeowners’ associations, nonprofit organizations, healthcare providers, public agencies, academic institutions, and community groups. We also participate in the:

• Delaware Respite Coalition
• Volunteer Delaware
• Advancing Healthy Lifestyles Coalition
• Health Literacy Council of Delaware
• Delaware Caregiver Action Network
• Delaware State Health Improvement Plan Coalition

These relationships connect us with people and organizations addressing health from many different perspectives. 

  Our members create and lead projects in response to needs they see and hear in the community. Some projects are intentionally local, serving a single neighborhood through direct, personal support. Others address broader challenges through long-term planning, statewide partnerships, public education, advocacy, and policy work. This flexibility allows us to remain deeply connected to individual neighborhoods while developing solutions that can benefit communities throughout Delaware.

 Nurses & Neighbors is an all-volunteer organization. Our work is made possible through competitive grants, charitable contributions, community partnerships, donated goods and services, and the time and expertise of our volunteers. This support allows our project leaders to turn community-informed ideas into action while keeping our organization flexible, responsive, and rooted in service.