Saint Anselm College’s Meelia Center for Community Engagement is partnering with Manchester’s Saint Raphael Parish to provide new resources for the Manchester community. In Dec. 2022, the college was awarded $600,000 for this initiative. According to the College’s website, these funds may be used “to coordinate and deliver programs that connect refugee and immigrant families with services like childcare, health care, mental health services, job training and financial assistance.”
St. Raphael is located in the West End of Manchester to provide better opportunities for those who are often disadvantaged, compared to those on the other side of the river dividing the city of Manchester. Manchester’s West Side residents often cross the river by foot to access the resources on the other end of the city.
Though the parish was initially founded under a specific purpose, it ultimately seeks to serve the Manchester community. One of the ways this is done is through the Community Center, with the help of Saint Anselm staff, students, and volunteers. This project is a collaborative effort between the college and the parish due to the Benedictine social justice values woven throughout the community.
The new Community Center is a Saint Anselm and St. Raphael partnership to benefit the West End of Manchester community. Initiatives include Anselmian hospitality and food insecurity issues, resources for immigrants, and enriched learning for students. What is new to the parish community is the Community Center as a program and what it can do for the community. The funds granted to the college and the parish make it possible for the center to hold classrooms and programming events put on by this collaborative effort.
Morgan O’Regan is one of four student employees working for the Community Center through the Meelia Center. These students play a critical role in developing the Community Center. Unlike other Meelia volunteering opportunities, these students work with Saint Raphael Parish as a team to do programming and events. O’Regan says, “There is a lot more of what’s to come at the community center including setting up office spaces for local service agencies, moving and expanding the food pantry at St. Raphael’s, and more. It is very exciting to see this place start to come together and also become part of the food pantry and helping with that as well.”
As a student employee, O’Regan hopes that “this center will bring Saint A’s closer to the Manchester community and it will bond the strong connection between St. Raph’s and St. A’s. Additionally, [she is] hoping that this community center becomes a great place to receive help with different social services regarding health, food, etc.”
Kathryn O’Loughlin, from the Meelia Center, is the parish’s Director of the Community Center. As the director, “[she] will be overseeing programming of the Center, supervising staff, creating mutually beneficial relationships with local community partners, and working on spreading the word of the new community center and resources on the West Side.”
Though the Community Center is a college initiative, St. Raphael Parish and Fr. Anselm guide the vision according to the parish’s Catholic mission. O’Loughlin says they are the ones who are “providing the space for programming, assisting in providing volunteers, [and] getting word out.”
As Director of the Community Center, O’Loughlin hopes to “create a long lasting and mutually beneficial relationship in the Manchester community, especially with organizations serving immigrant and refugee families, providing important services and resources for those living on the West Side, and at the same time provide transformational learning opportunities for our students.”
Kathryn O’Loughlin says that though the parish was initially founded to serve immigrants, as the community of Manchester has changed, so has the purpose of the parish. Both the Meelia Center and St. Raphael Parish are “hoping to serve the families and populations who live there now – getting back to the roots of the parish, supporting newcomers and their families. This work is oriented to the Benedictine values – practicing hospitality and love for our neighbor in our programming and welcoming all.”
This collaboration can bring new opportunities to the West Side of Manchester and encourage the College community to foster values of care and hospitality. The new Community Center marks a positive shift in Anselmian involvement with the Manchester community. It brings the communities of the college and Manchester together while adapting to the needs of each. The Meelia Center and Saint Raphael Parish both have Anselmian values of hospitality and service at their core, and this common ground is what makes the Community Center so special for the Manchester community.
