Community Hubs for wellbeing support in public spaces –  learning about accessibility for local diverse communities.

Background: Integrated care developments recognise the importance of improving access to formal health and social care support to address health inequalities, and in coordinating with Voluntary, Community, Faith and Social Enterprise sector (VCFSE) resources, but understanding how best to do this within different locations is not yet known. This research evaluated Community ‘Hubs’ set up to provide social care for diverse communities in UK local public ‘third’ spaces (e.g. libraries, community centres, football clubs, foodbanks and supermarket cafés) which are open spaces for the public.

 

Hubs take a systems-level, strengths-based approach where local authority social care, health services and VCFSE organisations work together to engage people with formal and informal support services. This builds on community and individual well-being and social capital. The presentation will include both academic and a colleague with lived experience sharing research findings and practical examples highlighting what we can learn for good practice.

 

Approach: The research was guided by; a group of people with lived experience of social care, practice organisations, and human geography’s Third Space theory (Oldenburg 1999). It used a mixed methods study design which included ethnographic observations of hubs across four case study sites, surveys with hubs attendees, interviews with multi-agency staff and hub volunteers.

 

Results: Community hubs can be beneficial for people needing support and can change the ways communities access support services. Hub location is crucial for the inclusion of different communities.

 

This relates to the type of space occupied, physical accessibility, the primary use of the building, the resources and organisations within it, geographic location and routes the hub is on. We relate this to the social capital for included and excluded communities. The research highlights how hubs enabled service providers to become more embedded in communities and therefore offer tailored supports for specific groups accessing hubs.

 

Implications: Service providers should consider: the hub's geographic location; the space’s primary purpose; how and by which services it is populated; how attendees navigate the space; and how the hub is promoted as points for success in attracting diverse communities to access support.

The use of third space theory helps understand factors to consider and potential benefits. All communities have third spaces which could be used to develop social capital, therefore findings are relevant across international boundaries.