Lauren Maresca for Campagna Center
The Campagna Center on South Washington Street in Old Town Alexandria.
The Campagna Center sits on a parcel of land that has a long history of education. This is something that the center’s president and CEO, Tammy Mann, doesn’t take for granted.
“It’s pretty amazing to imagine being a place in the city where education has had such an enduring presence,” Mann said. “Education — and all that education can mean for people having an opportunity to really realize their full potential — is quite inspiring.”
And they’re here to stay. On Saturday, the Campagna Center welcomed the community into its newly renovated space, which will house more than 60 Campagna Center staff and expand the center’s ability to provide much-needed services, including language programs, literacy and more.
The new space has brightly-colored walls and an open design that lets in plenty of sunlight. There are numerous conference rooms and classrooms, which are outfitted for learning in a technological era. Mann is particularly excited about their new children’s library, which anyone participating in the center’s programs can borrow books from. She hopes children will feel at home in a space designed just for them.
Phillip Williams for Campagna Center
Ribbon Cutting at the newly renovated Campagna Center on Saturday, April 20, 2024.
“You can never expose children to books — and all that they inspire us to think about — too early,” Mann said. A designated space for children is one of a number of features the Campagna Center had to do without prior to the renovation. Now they have small rooms that can be used for private conversations, something staff hope will offer a higher level of dignity to families as they visit to discuss their needs.
The Campagna Center’s language and literacy programs are just some of the programs that will benefit from the new space. Katrina Foelsche started at the Campagna Center as director of Wright to Read, the center’s literacy tutor-mentor program, and later took on the New Neighbors program, which offers language learning and other services to immigrant families. Both programs run on the backs of a large team of committed volunteers.
“If people are looking for ways to see the visible impact that they can have, mentorship is the best way you can do that,” Foelsche said.
Wright to Read doesn’t have a designated site like some of the other Campagna Center programs do, since volunteer tutor-mentors typically meet with students in the public library. Foelsche says that having a renovated headquarters will allow them to host enrichment events for families and training for volunteers. Likewise the New Neighbors program, which is housed at the Christ Church Fowler House, will be able to use the additional classrooms to offer even more resources to immigrant families, such as citizenship classes and summer book clubs.
Mann also recognizes how important space is, beyond the things that it can be used for. She gets a bit emotional talking about how, when she began work with the Campagna Center in 2013, they had to make do with a facility that was falling apart and not meeting their needs. Now that the space is well-lit and allows the staff to do their best work, in person or remotely, Mann can sense a tangible difference in morale.
The Campagna Center is also grateful for the longtime support they have received from the community and for the financial support that allowed them to complete the renovation, which has been in the works since 2015. Mann hopes that the building will be a way to give back to their partners.
“We are fortunate to have partnerships with others,” Mann said. “(We’re) thinking about how we too can share and make this resource available to those that are doing work with us.”
