The Erie-GAINS (Gannon Alliances to Improve Neighborhood Sustainability) initiative was established as an agent of change in the neighborhoods surrounding Gannon University's campus. This initiative is at the heart of the University's strategic plan to engage in the community and provides a vehicle for meeting challenges needing attention, so they may be recognized in a formal manner by Gannon, working with others to address those challenges. Such awareness and focus can create a channel by which community resources — time, treasure and talent — can flow to those people, places and needs where they will do the most good.

These initiatives, and many more, are served and nourished by a culture of service at Gannon University exhibited by:

• More than 80,000 hours of service to the community — 67,000 hours of students' time at 425 sites last year.

• GoCollege, a program in which Gannon students tutor, mentor and encourage high school students at Strong Vincent, East and Central High Schools. The goal is to bring communities together to increase college access and success for low-income, first generation and under-represented students.

• Club Fit, a 10-week after school program at East High School, incorporates an active lifestyle and healthy living habits to engage students and improve their health and their grades.

• Significant work in health, social concerns and wellness through programs including the Erie County Child Abuse Task Force, Gannon University's online Human Service Directory and the GreenEriePA.org website.

• Gannon's Neighborhood Garden has provided over 800 pounds of fresh produce to food pantries, along with recipe cards, created by the students in Sports & Exercise Science classes, to residents in the Erie-GAINS Neighborhood.

• Summer camp scholarships awarded by Erie-GAINS to inner-city youths each year.

• More than $54,000 from the Erie-GAINS Endowed Scholarship Fund awarded to 28 inner-city junior and senior high school students attending Gannon University.

• The West Bayfront collaborative where Gannon University, HANDS and the MLK Center are facilitating a West Bayfront neighborhood plan driven by those that live and work in the neighborhood.

• Expanded relationships bolstering the work of the Martin Luther King Center, including a grant: Enhancing the Education Experience of an Inner City After School Program.

• Little Free Libraries, a project to promote literacy and the love of reading by building free book exchanges within the Erie-GAINS neighborhood.

• The transformation and annual cleanup of Gridley Park on the city's lower west side.