Old rectory to become Springfield College community engagement center

Dec. 17, 2015 | G. Michael Dobbs
news@thereminder.com

SPRINGFIELD – The rectory for the former Holy Family church at 235 Eastern Ave. will get a new purpose as a community engagement center for Springfield College.

The college announced recently it has purchased the building. Steve Roulier, the college’s executive director of Marketing and Communications, explained to Reminder Publications, a group on campus will be developing the programs that will be run out of the building and establishing a time line for its physical redevelopment.

Roulier said the college plans to act quickly in the redevelopment.

“I know it is a priority of the president and it is a priority of Springfield College,” he said. “We are forward quickly, but very strategically.”

Holy Family parish closed in 2009.

In September during the college’s annual Humanics in Action day, students and faculty members cleared brush and improved the yard at the rectory. A team of college staff and students, led by Charlene Elvers, director of Student Volunteer Programs, is developing plans for the new center.

Elvers said, “Ideally, this center will match the needs of our communities ­– the community of neighbors surrounding the campus and the college students, faculty, and staff at Springfield College - and lessen the feeling of separateness.  This center has the potential to link the issues that students care about with the things they believe they can change, providing a platform to develop students as leaders in service to humanity.”

Upon renovation, the center will consist of two major floors, a full-scale kitchen, basement, and attic space.

Roulier confirmed students will participate in the physical renovation of the building and sees such activity as an important part of their educational experience.

“Students will really build the center from the ground up,” he said.

Springfield College president Mary Beth Cooper said, “We were motivated to acquire this space to design and create a civic engagement center that serves the community and that provides valuable real-life experience training to our students so that they may become engaged civic leaders after they graduate.”

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