News

The Congdon Hub for Great Futures Is Almost Complete—And So Is the Transformation of a Neighborhood

April 24, 2026

Staff Reports | Boys & Girls Clubs of the Greater Triad

There’s a moment in any construction project when you stop looking at what’s being built and start seeing what it will become. We’ve reached that moment at the Congdon Hub for Great Futures.

Phase II construction is in its final stretch, and the outdoor spaces are coming together in ways that are nothing short of remarkable. An outdoor basketball court. A pickleball court. Two Gaga pits. A dedicated outdoor meeting space with restroom facilities. Open green space designed for athletics and soccer drills. And a community garden that will directly fuel our garden-to-table culinary classes for Club kids. The entire site is being enclosed within a secure perimeter—creating a safe, welcoming campus that belongs to this community.

This is more than construction progress. This is a promise kept.

From the Ground Up—Inside and Out

For those who haven’t followed this journey from the beginning, the Congdon Hub for Great Futures was born from the transformation of the historic Rankin United Methodist Church. In 2024, we completed a full remodel and reconfiguration of that building into something the neighborhood had never seen: a facility purpose-built for young people and their futures.

Inside, the Hub features a three-quarter-size gymnasium, multiple classrooms, a cafeteria with a commercial kitchen, and a vibrant teen center that includes an E-sports lab, a recording studio, an art studio, a teen lounge, and additional classroom space. The third floor houses our regional executive offices—because where our young people grow, our leadership works.

Phase II completes the vision. It brings the outside in—meeting the energy of the interior with outdoor spaces that extend the Club experience into the open air and the heart of the neighborhood. When the dust settles, it will have been a two-and-a-half-year active project, inside and out.

A Community Transformed

There was a time—not long ago—when this block was better known for drug activity than for opportunity. Teens in this neighborhood were at risk, the community felt it, and law enforcement spent a lot of time navigating it. Today, the Congdon Hub is a centerpiece of this neighborhood’s resurgence. The presence of young people playing, learning, and growing here has changed the character of these streets in ways that matter. Safety. Hope. Belonging.

“I’ve watched this project from concept to construction, and what strikes me most isn’t the building, it’s what’s happened to the neighborhood around it,” said Tom Schaaf, long-time BGCTriad board member and one of the key stewards guiding this construction effort. “When you put something this meaningful in the center of a community, the community responds. That’s exactly what we’ve seen here. I’ve said from the beginning that we weren’t just building a facility. We were making a statement about what this neighborhood deserves. Phase II completes that statement.”

“The Congdon Hub was always designed to be more than a Club site,” said Dr. William D. Gibson, President & CEO of Boys & Girls Clubs of the Greater Triad. “It’s a proof of concept; that when you invest in young people where they live, the whole community rises. That’s the Future Ready Triad model in action, and we’re just getting started.”

A Blueprint for What’s Coming

The Congdon Hub—which represents one of six Club sites in High Point and Asheboro—isn’t a one-of-a-kind project. It’s a blueprint. Within our Future Ready Triad expansion, Hubs like this one will anchor the teen experience across multiple cities—concentrating our most elevated teen programming, workforce readiness, and enrichment opportunities in central, accessible locations.

Our model is intentionally hub-and-spoke. The Hub sits at the center, providing concentrated resources and specialized programming for teens and advanced elementary-age youth. Neighborhood Clubs extend outward from there—closer to where families actually live—reducing barriers of transportation and participation that have historically kept kids on the sidelines. It’s a scalable, equitable design, and High Point’s Congdon Hub is the proof of concept.

As we expand into Greensboro, Winston-Salem, Burlington, Thomasville, and beyond, this model travels with us. Our vision is for 25 to 30 Club sites to serve more than 9,000 young people annually by 2030. Every Hub we build and every neighborhood Club we open move us closer to that goal.

And woven through all of it is the BGCTriad Athletics League—our commitment to making competitive, organized sports free and accessible to every young person who wants to participate. No pay-to-play. No barriers. Just sport as a front door to academic excellence, character development, and community. From the basketball courts at the Congdon Hub to the leagues growing across the Triad, athletics is part of the fabric of everything we’re building.

We’re Not Done—We’re Just Warming Up

Phase II is nearly complete. The community garden is coming. The courts are taking shape. The fencing is up. And Club kids across High Point are about to have an outdoor space that matches the extraordinary facility we built inside.

And speaking of inside, we want you to see it.

Most parents and community stakeholders have never had the chance to walk through the Congdon Hub. That changes soon. We’re planning a community open house to celebrate the completion of the entire project—both the building and the outdoor spaces that now surround it. The event will include activities and a picnic for the community, because a milestone this significant deserves to be shared with the people who made it possible and the neighbors who will benefit most.

Details are coming. Stay close.

This is what “Better. Bigger. Bolder.” looks like on the ground—one nail, one paint stroke, one conversation, one young person at a time.