NeighborWorks America announced that it received $4,860,802 in funding from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to help support training and certification opportunities for thousands of counselors from HUD-approved nonprofit counseling agencies.

“The grants announced by Secretary Donovan provide tremendous support for the critical housing counseling and training activities being carried out by NeighborWorks America and our affiliated NeighborWorks organizations across the country,” said Jayna Bower, director of the NeighborWorks Center Homeownership Education and Counseling (NCHEC).

NCHEC and the NeighborWorks Training Institute will use $3,240,301 of the grants to provide nationally-recognized training and certification to thousands of counselors and plans to award over 1,300 training scholarships to counselors throughout the year.

The grant also includes funding to support NCHEC in providing reverse mortgage counseling administration services nationwide, including comprehensive training, HECM Certification Exam oversight, online courses and other Web resources.

“We thank HUD and Secretary Donovan for this immense support,” said Bower. “Our ability to equip counselors around the country with the critical knowledge and skills they need to help more families understand the increasingly complicated sustainable homeownership process is greatly enhanced. ”

Earlier this year, NeighborWorks took over administering the Reverse Mortgage Education Project from AARP after it elected to focus its efforts on consumer education.