Our Mission
The mission of the HUB Augusta Collaborative is to pursue innovative, collaborative solutions that
bolster equitable access to all the essential elements of a thriving community.
The HUB for Community Innovation is collaborative campus that empowers residents,
unites nonprofits, and drives equitable access to education, health, and economic opportunity.
Through shared space and purpose, we foster innovation, amplify community voices, and
build a stronger, more connected Augusta.
ABOUT
The HUB Augusta Collaborative
The HUB Augusta Collaborative is a partnership that began with the Medical College of Georgia Foundation at Augusta University, the Boys & Girls Club of Greater Augusta, and the Community Foundation for the CSRA. With a desire to, at a minimum, replace the grocer that left the Harrisburg neighborhood in 2017, friends at each of these organizations brought together partners with similar goals and vision.
The collaborative started as the Laney Walker-Harrisburg Community Partnership (LWHCP), and extended to include many other partners through the shared goal of achieving a HUD Choice Neighborhoods grant. The Collaborative knew that the community's revitalization would not be realized - no matter how well-intended - without many partners working together towards a common goal through strategies that were complimentary and supportive of each other.
Ultimately, the Collaborative led the City of Augusta to achieving its first ever Choice Planning Award, bringing together nearly $1 million in aggregate grant dollars to develop a comprehensive neighborhood plan. Simultaneously, the Collaborative - now working as the HUB - quickly built what became the HUB for Community Innovation - a + 50,000 square foot community center meant to be at once a gesture to the neighborhood that community mattered, and also to create strategies that led residents to a place of upward mobility.
ABOUT
Our History
When the 15th Street grocery store closed in 2017, the Medical College of Georgia Foundation leadership quickly learned it had responbsibilities to the communities surrounding the university's health sciences campus. Leaning on the wisdom of partners invested in opening doors for communities - like Doug Neil and Daniel Communities - the MCGF introduced the concept of the Dream Center to the Boys & Girls Club of Greater Augusta and Community Foundation for the CSRA. The Dream Center, only lines on paper at the time, was a idea Doug brought from a Purpose Built Community in Birmingham - Woodlawn United.
ABOUT
Our Community
Harrisburg flourished along the Savannah River in the 1800s as a mill village centered around the Sibley and King mills. When the mills began to decline in the 1930s the area remained largely residential. However, Harrisburg suffered from the effects of suburban flight in the 1950s, followed by urban renewal efforts in the 1970s that left large open swaths of vacant space. In the 1980s, the John C. Calhoun Expressway sliced the neighborhood in half, bringing further decline.
Britney Pooser
President & CEO
Shaneria Vaughns
Director, HUB for Community Innovation
Diane Siefre
Business Manager
David Sims
Facilities Manager
