West Marion Resilience Hub is ‘Not Your Grandma’s Community Center’ 

West Marion Inc. is the first and only Black-led nonprofit in McDowell County, North Carolina. In collaboration with the city of Marion, the nonprofit is working to transform the historic Mountain View School building into the West Marion Resilience Hub to create a more resilient and equitable future for the community.

“It is not your grandma’s community center,” says Paula Swepson, executive director of West Marion Inc.

Mountain View School, a public high school for Black students, closed its doors in 1966 after the racial integration of McDowell County Schools. In 2024, the abandoned building was donated to West Marion Inc.

According to a feasibility study for the project, the 54,000-square-foot facility “will serve as an emergency refuge and provide essential services such as healthcare, childcare and workforce development, focusing on historically disadvantaged communities in West Marion.” The hub will also feature climate-resilient infrastructure, such as solar panels, electric vehicle charging and other energy-efficient solutions.

While the vision for the space predates Hurricane Helene, the storm’s devastation in Western North Carolina further instilled the need for a resilience hub.

“People wouldn’t be still sleeping in tents,” Swepson says. “They wouldn’t be worried about getting evicted.”

Currently, West Marion Inc. is accepting donations and working with funding partners to raise over $800,000 for the project’s pre-development work.

“If anybody can do it and make it work, we can,” Swepson says. “We just need our friends and our allies and our funders and everybody to just come together and help us make this dream come true.”