Germaine Smith-Baugh, President and Chief Executive Officer, Urban League of Broward County

May 2026 — In an interview with Invest:, Germaine Smith-Baugh, president and CEO of the Urban League of Broward County, discussed how economic volatility, housing pressures, workforce shifts, and artificial intelligence are reshaping the nonprofit landscape and the communities it serves. “In the middle of what seems like chaos, there’s always opportunity,” Smith-Baugh said.

Over the past year, what trends have most affected underserved communities in Broward County?

If we look back on 2025, there have been a lot of changes economically, politically, socially, and technologically. Like any other sector, the nonprofit sector is not immune to those challenges or the opportunities that come with them. For us, the economy and the political environment affect our ability to raise funds and support individuals and families in our community who are struggling financially and otherwise trying to make ends meet.

Nonprofit organizations continue to face human capital challenges. We have to retain talent and remain competitive in the marketplace, and that is an ongoing issue. Then there is the impact of technology. Artificial intelligence is not just a buzzword. It is changing the landscape quickly, both in how we conduct business internally and in how we will need to respond to its impact on the families we serve.

I also believe perspective matters. Some people would describe this moment as especially hard, but I do not look at it that way. When I think about the history of the Urban League and the history of nonprofits more broadly, I know the leaders who came before me faced even harder circumstances. That is why I remind my team all the time: In the middle of what seems like chaos, there’s always opportunity. The question is whether we will recognize it and have the courage to move it forward.

How has the Urban League of Broward County aligned its work with Broward’s growth?

The Urban League of Broward County has been here for over 50 years, and it has continuously evolved to meet the needs of the communities we serve. That evolution matters because communities change, markets change, and the tools families need also change. Our work is organized around six primary areas: education, entrepreneurship, jobs, justice, housing, and health.

Across those six pillars, we operate a range of programs and services, but they all align around one central purpose: helping families advance toward economic resilience. We use that term very intentionally. If you live long enough, life is going to knock you down. Resilience is about how quickly you can rebound and whether you have the tools to do that.

For us, those tools sit in the areas of education, entrepreneurship, jobs, justice, housing, and health. We strongly believe in economic and social equity and equality, and that is at the heart of our mission. Our human capital, our financial capital, and our brand capital all need to be aligned around helping families build the capacity to withstand challenges and move forward.

What role should nonprofit organizations play in affordable housing development?

I strongly believe the nonprofit sector has become a formidable force in the conversation around the economic trajectory of Greater Fort Lauderdale, especially as it relates to housing and housing affordability. One of the most important roles we play is advocacy — putting a face to who needs affordable housing and helping the broader community understand that this is not a niche issue.

Years ago, my niece said something that stayed with me. She said leaders often make affordable housing a poor-people issue, and it is not. It is everybody’s issue. Everybody wants an affordable place to live. Teachers need it. Dental hygienists need it. People working two, three, or four jobs need it. This is about creating safe, stable places where families can thrive.

Beyond advocacy, nonprofits that have the brand capital, human capital, and financial capital can also help develop housing directly or partner as co-developers. What a nonprofit brings to the table is not just financial alignment, but mission alignment. That matters when the goal is to develop housing that reaches deeper levels of affordability and remains focused on community outcomes, not just project completion.

At the Urban League of Broward County, we have chosen a path built on partnerships. We are leveraging relationships with organizations such as AIDS Healthcare Foundation, Cornerstone Group, and Ellavoz Capital to bring capital into the space and develop housing that is layered and mixed-income. We believe communities are stronger when people across income levels can live together.

Why is mixed-income housing so important to long-term community health?

Economic diversity makes a community rich. Too often, diversity is discussed only through the lens of race and ethnicity. That is certainly one form of diversity, but economic diversity matters as well. It shapes how people live together, how they understand one another, and what children are exposed to as they grow up.

This belief comes from a very personal place for me. I grew up in the U.S. Virgin Islands in government housing, and that community included a social worker, a banker, a teacher, my mother who was a stay-at-home mom and seamstress, and families receiving full welfare benefits. It was a little bit of everybody, and nobody was less than others because of their economic status. We lived together, cared for one another, and created a community together.

That matters for children. A child’s trajectory in life should not be predicated on a parent’s current economic status. When children grow up in economically diverse communities, they are able to see possibilities. They see different professions, different lifestyles, and different paths forward. That kind of exposure expands what they believe is possible for themselves. So when we talk about affordable housing, we should think broadly about affordability and intentionally create communities where people of different economic backgrounds can live and thrive together.

How should Broward approach housing affordability for older residents?

We have to recognize that the silver tsunami is here. As our community continues to grow and change, we need to make sure we are creating communities that include our elders. That requires intentionality, because many older residents are living on fixed incomes that are not going to increase while costs around them continue to rise.

If we want a community that is truly thriving, we have to make sure older adults can remain in the neighborhoods where they have lived and contributed for years. Housing affordability cannot only be about younger working families. It also has to include elders who deserve stability, dignity, and the ability to age in place.

That is part of how we think about our multifamily development efforts, including The Village at Oakland Park and another development we are working on called Legacy Village. We are thinking in terms of mixed income and mixed ages because we want communities where everybody is able to live, breathe, and thrive together.

What are the biggest workforce development priorities right now?

If we talk about housing affordability, the next issue attached to that is earning capacity. For many people, that will come through employment, and for others it will come through entrepreneurship. We work in partnership with organizations such as OIC of South Florida and CareerSource Broward because we believe people need access to training, certifications, and job pathways that actually lead to sustainable income.

That means certifications and training need to be available in the community, accessible in terms of time and location, and affordable. Then those credentials have to connect to real job opportunities. Entrepreneurship also has to be part of the conversation. At this point, for many families, it is not really an either-or equation. It is jobs and entrepreneurship, because people often need multiple income streams to make things work.

But income alone is not enough. Families also need financial tools. You can have people earning six figures who still have poor credit because they were never taught how to use their money strategically. We have to help people understand how to grow assets, how to use a home as an asset, and how to build long-term financial resilience, especially for first-generation homebuyers and first-generation college students.

How is artificial intelligence changing your outlook on workforce development?

This is what is keeping me up at night. I am challenging my team to think seriously about what artificial intelligence is going to do to all of this. I saw this very personally when I attended freshman orientation with my daughter at Florida Atlantic University. The career center showed students tools that could take a job description and help tailor a resume, simulate interviews, and assess interview performance using AI.

My daughter has access to that because she earned admission to a strong university. The question I ask myself is: What about the people who come to the Urban League? Have we upgraded our tools so they have access to those same kinds of opportunities? That is where the nonprofit sector has to be responsive.

We still need certifications, training, career fairs, hiring fairs, and financial education. But now we also have to ask how artificial intelligence can multiply those efforts faster and more effectively on behalf of the people we serve. Legacy organizations like ours have to keep evolving to meet the needs of the time. We cannot allow ourselves to be distracted, distraught, or diminished by the speed of change because our community is depending on us.