The Hub began as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Founder Melissa Baker created community-based “hubs” in faith-based and community locations to bring COVID resources — PPE, vaccines, testing — directly to underserved Black and Brown communities.

During that time, a community needs assessment revealed the need went far deeper than COVID. Gaps in housing, nutrition, primary care, behavioral health, maternal care, employment, and education were leaving people without a clear path to support. So the model evolved: a one-stop hub where community-based organizations and health care providers worked together to provide the resources the community needed. The hub also gave students the practicum placements they urgently needed during the pandemic.

The hubs were powered by outreach teams made up of community members and undergraduate, graduate, and professional degree students, who provided health education, assisted with referrals, and supported vaccine appointments. These outreach workers received ongoing training in public health topics and professional development soft skills — training that helped shape what would become known as the community health worker role.

Lehman College’s School of Health Sciences, Human Services, and Nursing students began participating as interns, and a strong partnership was formed. That partnership evolved further when Baker created the Health Equity Summit, a student-led conference focused on establishing a path to socially conscious health equity through policy. The conference has since become an annual event hosted each year at Lehman College.

In the Bronx, older adults and low-income residents face compounding barriers to wellbeing: limited access to primary and behavioral health care, provider shortages, financial constraints, language barriers, and social isolation. These barriers are experienced not as isolated problems but as a fragmented system — screenings without follow-up, mental health needs without counseling access, and aging residents without safe, welcoming spaces to stay active and connected. In 2023, Baker formed a nonprofit organization with the goal of opening a Hub to close the gap between where people live and where care exists.

Building on the relationship with Lehman College, The Hub will officially open its doors in October 2026. What began as a broad, multi-service response has since sharpened into a student-led model built around three interconnected pillars:
Community-based health access
Health and wellness
Care navigation and referrals