Sussex County Health Coalition opens Rural Innovation Hub

Sussex County Health Coalition cut the ribbon Dec. 16 in Georgetown on its new Rural Innovation Hub, a work space aimed at incubating new nonprofits and entrepreneurs.

“We thought it would be nice to build out a space that would allow co-working,” said CEO Peggy Geisler said. “It would allow people who want to expand their services to do so but not break the bank with infrastructure costs.”

The hub is located across from Sussex Academy on Airport Road, and includes a co-working space that can be rented by the month, a conference room, a training center that can do in-person or hybrid meetings, and office spaces. Geisler said the idea is to allow up-and-coming businesses have meeting space at a low cost that can be used to get off the ground. Among the groups already in the space are the National Alliance on Mental Illness’s Delaware chapter, Spotlight Delaware, Parent Information Center of Delaware and Delaware Futures. 

Geisler said while a lot of the focus in healthcare is on surgeons and doctors, one of the goals of the hub is to encourage the growth of community health workers who will end up doing a lot of the clinical work that is part of healthcare.

“We’re helping to create a pathway for them,” she said. “So if they want to go into nursing, want to go into mental health or want to go into some other form of work, we’re going to be shepherding them.”