Butler SUCCEED office leaving Main Street
Butler SUCCEED will begin moving out of its office at 150 N. Main St. on Monday, June 24, but the Slippery Rock University branch will continue its work alongside the university’s other community engagement offices.
Melissa Swauger, a professor in the Department of Nonprofit Management, Empowerment and Diversity Studies at SRU, said the university is restructuring its community engagement offices to work in tandem with one another. She said the university’s goal is to unify the Institute for Nonprofit Leadership, Butler SUCCEED and the Office for Community-Engaged Learning, to better integrate the university with the Butler County community.
“What we want everyone to know is the community and engagement and partnerships will continue,” Swauger said. “The partnerships aren't ending and the activities aren't ending. Just being in one office will centralize things.”
Swauger said the restructuring process will take about a year to complete, and the university’s approach to it is “intentional and collaborative.” Swauger is working with Josette Skobieranda Dau, associate director of Butler SUCCEED, and Jeffrey Rathlef, director for Community-Engaged Learning, to restructure the departments.
Butler SUCCEED opened on Main Street in Butler in September 2021 and has been hosting community programs and university outreach efforts ever since. Skobieranda Dau said the end goal of the restructuring is to further bond the university with the community.
“Outreach in the community will be much more coordinated rather than siloed,” Skobieranda Dau said. “My understanding is there will be some additional community sessions to get input and feedback, where people would like to see the community become more involved and more linked with the university.”
Butler SUCCEED has worked with organizations including the YWCA Butler, the Center for Community Resources, Dress for Success and Butler County Community College, and Skobieranda Dau said those partnerships will continue even after the move. Already, the center has plans to relocate its annual Lemonade Fridays, with July’s event taking place at Cranberry Township’s public library.
“There were already seven different organizations who already offered their meeting spaces for us, and that was unsolicited,” Skobieranda Dau said. “We’re really looking forward to actually doing an even better job of highlighting what those organizations are offering to the community.”
The restructuring of the university’s community arm is one of the four pillars of SRU president Karen Riley’s new strategic plan for the university. Swauger said the move will also allow for the offices to work more closely with other university offices, further ingraining one another with the rest of the staff and students on campus.
“We are really optimistic that it's an opportune time,” Swauger said. “We'll be also partnering with other on and off campus offices — like alumni affairs, career center, small business center — to expand and extend our outreach.”
