The Allegheny College Community Impact Hub celebrated its one-year anniversary this fall, building on Allegheny’s history of community engagement with the city of Meadville. Launched in November 2024 with a $15 million endowment from an anonymous source, the Hub provides funding, support for long-term growth and sustained student engagement for local nonprofits and government agencies, according to the Nov. 14 college press release and Hub executive summary.
“The Hub is a significant initiative that builds on Allegheny College’s long and rich tradition of community engagement in our region,” said Provost and Dean of the Faculty Jennifer Dearden in the Nov. 19 press release. “The Hub is a vital component of academic programs, providing our students with experiences working with government and nonprofit organizations as they engage with faculty and community mentors to make Meadville a vibrant place to live and work. This announcement reinforces our commitment to Meadville and Crawford County.”
Community Impact Hub Director Colin Hurley, who has served in the role for five months and has a longstanding connection with Allegheny, describes the work as communal rather than collegiate.
“It’s been a five-plus month journey,” Hurley said. “It’s not mine, it’s the community’s.”
Hurley pointed to the deliberate choice to place the Hub in downtown Meadville as emblematic of that relationship.
“Choosing a downtown location rather than keeping everything on campus celebrated the energy of innovation and placed us near student and community projects,” he said.
The Hub established its downtown presence with the opening of an office within Hatch Hollow on Market Street which is owned by Allegheny alum, Heather Fish, ’15. The Hub also hosted two summer networking events that drew about 100 guests and now runs regular student, faculty and community partner meetings in the downtown office, according to Hurley.
“We have intentionally flattened the hill, working side-by-side rather than looking down from the campus,” Hurley said.
In its first year, the Hub engaged 25 students across 20 regional placements and worked with 16 faculty mentors on projects. Five impact teams were active: Arts & Culture, Community & Economic Development, Education & Social Development, Environmental & Sustainability, and Health & Well-Being. This brought 35 steering committee members together to align priorities and coordinate action, according to the Hub executive summary.
The Hub received financial support from 19 subgrant proposals totaling over $135,000 and awarded 10 subgrants totaling $79,000 to 11 local nonprofits and government agencies.
“We have set a minimum goal of $100,000 in 2025-2026,” Hurley said, noting the plan to mix traditional subgranting with rapid-response funding for emergent needs.
Associate Professor of Psychology and Grant Principal Investigator Lauren Paulson is satisfied with the Hub’s work in the first year.
“The Hub’s pilot projects have already had substantial impact, and we expect the Hub to have a multiplier effect with a tremendous impact on the community in perpetuity,” Paulson said in the Nov 19. college press release.
Paulson emphasized the Hub’s commitment to a collective-impact model.
“Instead of the idea of students helping the community and the college coming down and offering support, we are building spaces where students and faculty, community partners are at the same table,” Paulson said. “They are working side-by-side on shared goals and shared priorities.”
Early projects reflect that shared approach. At the Meadville Area Free Clinic, a $10,000 subgrant from the Hub supported database upgrades, a new website and staff training. The clinic reports improved diabetes-prevention services and better blood-pressure equipment reaching more than 500 patients per year which occurred after the grant. Additionally, the Family, Children & Community Association’s PedalPower program received intern-backed research and a pilot earn-a-bike model for youth.
“We cleaned and inventoried 100+ donated bicycles and built out the program manual,” said a project summary from Hub materials. A “Code with Chompers” initiative delivered six-week computing sessions to more than 100 elementary students with support from computer-science student fellows. A $10,000 award funded dynamic door training equipment for first responders, strengthening volunteer recruitment and emergency readiness across county departments.
Hurley said the Hub is proving especially valuable when systems strain.
“When you look at times of crisis, when you look at the pivotal moments, and then when you look at the simple moments I think you can think of making a difference between those and within those. I’ll give you some examples: When you see pictures of children and youth getting to have field trips when you get to see the efforts of the mini grant program or the subgrant program. When you see summer research lead to dynamic changes within an organization for their need not because you want it, it’s a collaborative effort it’s mutual. When you see what happens in 2025 where we have many changes happening in society. Funding streams cut or delayed as of this current moment because they passed something so we are behind with the state and the federal. When people turn to the Hub as a possible answer, that’s evidence of impact,” Hurley said, pointing to recent SNAP funding delays and the way steering committees have discussed expedited responses to emergent community needs. “It’s unprecedented to see emergency safety nets delayed, and while it’s hard, we’re responding rather than reacting.”
The Hub is prioritizing academic integration plans for a spring 2026 faculty-development three-part series aimed to help faculty build E-designated community engagement courses, refine syllabi and strengthen mentoring for campus-community collaborations, Hurley said.
The Hub provides real expression of the college’s local commitments including downtown investment, student learning tied to regional needs and measurable support for community organizations. For Hurley, Paulson and the students and partners now involved, the Hub’s first year shows that institutional resources, when paired with local relationships and student energy, can produce both immediate outcomes and the building blocks for long-term community capacity.
“One of the biggest goals,” Paulson said, echoing the words of President Ron Cole, ’87, “would be that the college and the town of Meadville are no longer seen as separate.
