Meghan DeGregory’s relationship with the Community Foundation of the Mahoning Valley began with a phone call. Less than a year before that, the executive director of Thrive 10:10 had a sense the organization was on the edge of expanding its work beyond Ruth’s Boutique and its Getting Ahead pilot program.
So, on a wing and a prayer, she called the Community Foundation to offer a site visit and discuss the possibility of funding.
“One thing I’ve learned in this job is that when something comes to you, you take the next step. Sometimes they’re strategic steps and sometimes they’re not,” DeGregory says. “At that time, we hadn’t considered any sort of grant funding because we didn’t know what success we really had until that first graduation [for Getting Ahead].”
Now, three years later, grant funding from the Community Foundation has helped Thrive 10:10 grow into a trusted community partner.
“Meghan and her team are passionate and thoughtful as they do their work and are always willing to try something new,” says Mae Medore, CFMV’s community impact coordinator and one of the staff members on the initial site visit. “Creating systemic change is no easy task, but Thrive 10:10 helps people understand how they’re affected by issues and how our relationship to each other can be used to overcome those challenges.”
The Getting Ahead program, which focuses as much on the systemic causes of poverty as it does on building relationships that can be used to overcome those challenges, has continued growing. The summer 2025 cohort was the first with no participants from Girard (where Thrive 10:10 is based); participants are coming from all three local counties.
“Our grant allowed us to dream. It allowed us to take a moment that was so exciting – where we’re seeing what someone could do in 16 weeks – and dream about what was next,” DeGregory says.
“What’s next” was the creation of the Staying Ahead program. Created for Getting Ahead graduates who have brought stability to their day-to-day lives, participants work on self-improvement and volunteer projects.
“The Getting Ahead program is very individual. By the end, it’s looking at my resources and my strengths and my needs. You have to do that work to understand what you need from the community and how you can help the community,” she explains. “What I’ve seen is that when people understand that, they move away from trying to be Superman doing everything and instead build a community that supports everyone’s needs.”
Thrive 10:10’s work isn’t limited to these two cohorts. Ruth’s Boutique, held one Saturday a month, has grown into a lunch and learn series, where clients hear from local leaders about a range of topics – finance, health and community resources – while they go through the pantry to pick up supplies. The nonprofit also offers Bridges Out of Poverty and Mental Health First Aid trainings. Each program builds on and reinforces the others in Thrive’s suite of offerings.
“We’re providing people with basic necessities and then using that to build an understanding of who we are, of our individual ability to change the world around us,” DeGregory says.
But beyond just financial support, DeGregory has taken advantage of the Community Foundation’s other work to build Thrive 10:10’s programs and long-term success. She’s a regular attendee at workshops – a 2023 course on using data to develop and improve programs was particularly helpful, even though the topic was intimidating at first.
“Even if it’s not something we can use immediately, the information is always presented in a way that’s understandable and kind of exciting. It lets us think about what we might be able to do, even if it’s not right now,” she says.
In early 2025, Thrive 10:10 hosted the Foundation’s quarterly Nonprofit Coffee Hour and DeGregory attends when she can to meet others in the nonprofit community and offer support to other leaders.
“Being a leader can be isolating. When you’re able to sit with like-minded people who feel that too, you build a safe space where everyone can lean on each other. You build relationships that allow you to feel less isolated,” she says.
And, in the summer of 2024, Thrive 10:10 opened an agency fund with the Community Foundation – the Bridgeway to Thriving Fund – to support the long-term financial stability of those who have gone through the Getting Ahead and Staying Ahead programs. The decision to house that fund at the Community Foundation was because of the years of work that have gone into building relationships with foundation staff.
“I believe in sustainability. We feel this is bigger than us. We have to make sure that the work we’ve started continues regardless of who’s here. It will, because of the people we have involved and because of the avenues we’re creating,” DeGregory says.
For her work, DeGregory was honored in 2023 as Gem of the Valley by the Community Foundation’s Fund for Women & Girls, an award given annually to women doing important work that is often overlooked. And in 2025, her nominee – Susan Sutton of The Ember Project – was chosen as a Gem.
“[The award] was motivation for me to push forward and show women that it’s OK to do something outside the box. There is always going to be uncertainty in doing that and I can say ‘You did the right thing,’” she says. “That was a moment when I saw it wasn’t about the people of Girard, or the Getting Ahead group, or even me. It was about the mission and changing the way people live in our community.”