Boundless Impact is excited to welcome 3 new ImagineHub sites to our network of community economic development centers - bringing us to 28 sites! The churches are all located in Buncombe County and were part of the 2023 Winter cohort that recently finished the on-boarding process.

The team from Trinity United Methodist Church is led by Rev. Nancy Walton and Rev. Dustin Mailman. Along with several community partners, they are launching Deep Time to serve recently incarcerated individuals. The mission of Deep Time is to build employment skills and workforce development through a coffee roasting and retail operation.

Rev. Avery White has led the team from Francis Asbury United Methodist Church in Candler, NC, as they seek ways to serve middle school youth. The church has a fabulous gymnasium and they want to find impactful ways to use it to serve the community. With a Middle School within walking distance and a YMCA close by without a gym, the team is dreaming about summer and after school programs to develop healthy mindsets and learning activities for youth.

Skyland United Methodist Church's team is led by Rev. Joy Moss. Their goal is to bring artists and creatives together in a program called Wild Goose. They will host pottery workshops, pop-up markets and an eventual retail space for folks seeking a supportive community. Pictured below is a Wild Goose artist at a recent pop-up event.

Imagine inviting 12 of your favorite people to work with to help dream and create a new program? Well, that is exactly what Boundless Impact Executive Director Cindy Thompson got to do in launching the Community Entrepreneur Collective this Spring. Supported by NC IDEA, this new immersive collaborative learning experience will support and build capacity for ImagineHub's diverse network of site leaders. 

Community Entrepreneurs are bridge-builders who nurture and grow thriving equitable ecosystems. The Collective's mission is to develop ecosystem builders who multiply economic mobility opportunities for under-resourced communities. Through the Collective, we will be able to develop a Community of Practice for ImagineHub site leaders - creating peer learning opportunities and a catalog of knowledge to help further identify, explore, and develop new metrics for measuring ImagineHub’s inclusive ecosystem health effectively.

Be on the lookout for announcements over the summer about the first Community Entrepreneur Collective forming this Fall.

Pictured: Lyndon Rego of CoMetta teaching the design team about Polarity Management

Boundless Impact Executive Director, Cindy Thompson, joined a distinguished panel to discuss Equitable Economic Development and Economic Mobility at the recent NC Economic Development Association's 2023 Emerging Executives Forum in Winston-Salem, NC. Moderated by Sarah Langer Hall, Director of the Institute for Emerging Issues at NC State University, Cindy was joined by former Board Chair Tom White, Director of the Economic Development Partnership at Poulton Innovation Center at NC State University, and Kenny Flowers, Assistant Secretary of the Rural Economic Development Division of the North Carolina Department of Commerce.

Cindy was able to share the great work in equitable economic development that the 28 faith communities in the ImagineHub network are doing in their communities. She also announced that through the support of NC IDEA, Boundless Impact is launching a Community Entrepreneur Collective in 2023 to deepen the economic impact of ImagineHub sites. Community Entrepreneurs are bridge-builders who nurture and grow thriving local equitable ecosystems.

Boundless Impact is pleased to announce the addition of two new board members effective January 1, 2023:

Roberta McCullough currently serves as Senior Vice President of Operations for Institute Capital, a community development financial institution (CDFI) program for the National Institute of Minority Economic Development.  She leads her team in providing investment capital for small businesses, affordable housing developers, and community-based organizations. Also, she encourages HBCU collaboration through partnership development, providing training and funding to its future entrepreneurs in their student bodies. Her focus has been to alleviate systemic economic injustices by providing much need access to grant and loan capital for women- and minority-owned small businesses. She holds a BS in Mathematics from Shaw University and is a master’s candidate for an MBA Finance in 2023.

Rev. Dr. Preston Davis serves as Minister to the University at High Point University, leading the religious and spiritual life by shaping the vision and culture for Christian spiritual formation and interfaith dialogue and service. Rev. Davis, an ordained Elder in the United Methodist Church (UMC) in the Western North Carolina Conference, has pastored Christian communities in Decatur, Georgia, New York City, and western North Carolina. He holds a B.A. from Davidson College, M.Div. from Union Theological Seminary in New York City, and D.Min. from Duke Divinity School.

The board is also thrilled to welcome Felix Muriithi back to the board after a mandatory one-year absence. Mr. Muriithi was a founding board member of Boundless Impact, and served as Chair, Past Chair and Treasurer. He serves as Chief Financial Officer at Participate Learning in Chapel Hill, NC. Felix is a native of Kenya and brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to the board.

Boundless Impact is wrapping up 2022 - and our 10th year of operations - with a flurry of good things! Pictured is the ImagineHub leadership team at our gathering at Lake Junaluska in October. We celebrated the 27 faith communities who have joined the ImagineHub learning network of innovation centers to grow and nurture entrepreneurship and spark community economic development in their neighborhoods. We loved packing the room at our ImagineHub Forum with over 50 attendees from across NC and Florida.

In November, Boundless Impact staff and board joined over 500 attendees at NC IDEA's Ecosystem Summit to build more inclusive and equitable entrepreneur ecosystems in NC. We were honored to receive a 2023 ECOSYSTEM grant to support deepening the community economic development impact of ImagineHub sites, and to stand with our diverse ecosystem partners pictured across the state.

In December, Boundless Impact collaborated with the Candler School of Theology at Emory University in facilitating a leadership program for clergy at Lake Junaluska with Bishop Larry Goodpaster. We also wrapped up a 5-month strategic planning process with Murphy First United Methodist Church. As the church celebrated its 100th anniversary, the congregation reimagined and cast a vision for how the church can positively impact the community for the next 100 years!

We are full of gratitude for the growing number of collaborators, partners and advisors who deeply contribute to our work. As we wrap up 2022 and celebrate our 10th anniversary, we look forward to a new year with new initiatives in new places with new people - continuing to grow our impact in new ways!