New community space comes to Grant County

The Community Foundation of Grant County has announced their new project Collabora is
coming to Marion.
Dawn Brown, president and CEO of the Community Foundation of Grant County, said that
Collabora has been in the works for a couple years.
“My board created a new strategic plan that focuses a lot on collaboration and trying to show the
community that not only do we ask them to work together, but we’re going to model that,”
Brown said.
The new building for Collabora is located at 100 South Washington Street and is going to be the
new office space for the Community Foundation of Grant County and five other nonprofit
organizations.
“It’s not just our office, but it’s kind of this community space that hopefully will birth a lot of
collaborations in the future,” Brown said.
Brown said that Collabora as a whole has been a big dream for her and the Community
Foundation of Grant County.
“We want to share it with the community so, it’s kind of monumental that we’re doing that here,”
Brown said.
Haley Anderson, executive director of the Grant County visitor bureau, said that Collabora will
be a perfect place for visitors and residents.
“I think collaborator will be a huge asset to Grant County by providing one place for visitors or
residents to go to find out information, find out about events, to get the help that they need,”
Anderson said.
Collabora is set up to have separate spaces and conference rooms for community members and
groups to use.
Anderson said that the community is in the front of their minds as Collabora moves forward.
“We definitely hope that as this process continues and grows, that the community can be
involved and feel like they have a voice and a say in some of the projects that Collabora as a
whole takes on,” Anderson said.
Anderson said that they also want to provide a space for the community to come and ask
questions about projects or events happening in the community.
With Collabora underway, there will be many opportunities for growth in Grant County as well
as other counties in the area.
Brown said that she hopes that Collabora can reach more than just Grant County.

“My dream would be that we can be able to show other rural communities how this can be done
because we’re in the middle of East Central Indiana,” Brown said. “We don’t have a strong urban
center like Indianapolis or Fort Wayne right next to us, so we have to help each other.”
As Collabora moves further along, the Community Foundation of Grant County will release
more information.