Places, spaces, people and wellbeing / Community hubs and green space

We are working with researchers at Leeds Beckett University and the University of Liverpool to update the current review incorporating evaluations published in the past five years, from academic and grey literature.

The update will explore the extent to which we can better identify what works in changing community infrastructure and improving wellbeing.

Find updates on our project page.

This resource comprises of:

• a systematic review and briefing on social relations: Places, spaces, people, and wellbeing
• a case study synthesis and briefing: community hubs and green spaces

Systematic review: places, spaces, people, and wellbeing

The systematic review and briefing look at the global evidence base for improving people’s wellbeing through changes to the community infrastructure. This covers:

• Public places and ‘bumping’ places designed for people to meet, including streets, squares, parks, play areas, village halls and community centres.
• Places where people meet informally or are used as meeting places, such as cafes, pubs, libraries, schools and churches.
• Services that can facilitate access to places to meet, including urban design, landscape architecture and public art, transport, public health organisations, subsidised housing sites, and bus routes.

The focus of our review has been on interventions operating at the neighbourhood level rather than city or national level. Virtual spaces, such as social media, are beyond the scope of this review, although these are important and there is a growing evidence base.

The evidence locks relate to the systematic review evidence only.

Case study synthesis: community hubs and green space

This review of practice-based case studies plugs some gaps in the evidence on how community
hubs and green spaces can enhance wellbeing in a place.

Case study evidence provides important and rich detail on these projects and activities, and how they are delivered.

This provides policy makers and practitioners with tangible illustrations to refer to in the design and modification of interventions.

Specific to the delivery of community hubs, practice based case studies highlighted the following.

• Additional community wellbeing benefits: community empowerment, new groups in the community forming.
• Additional individual wellbeing benefits: from opportunities for social interactions and improvements in
  mental health.
• Organisational benefits: opportunities for networking and partnership, raising organisational profiles, improved access to commissions/funding.
• Delivery: Multiple activities developed, organised/ delivered by range of stakeholders with a variety of learning techniques used to develop and sustain projects.
• Unforeseen outcomes: new informal support networks in the community, creation of skills training programmes, ‘peer-led’ becoming widely appreciated, asset-transfer programme developed, reduction in health and social inequalities as community hubs support disadvantaged communities.

Specific to the delivery of green space interventions, practice based case studies highlighted:

• Additional community wellbeing benefits: opportunities for social activities and volunteering, increased skills, knowledge and confidence within the community, community empowerment via participant-led activities
• Additional individual wellbeing benefits: gaining employment and a sense of purpose, a transformative change in some people’s lives.
• Organisational outcomes: strengthened organisational capacity; strengthened or new partnerships; increased influence or organisational profile.
• Delivery: multiple and layered interventions developed in response to local need and to reach disadvantaged groups, effectively reduce wellbeing inequalities and achieve broad aims of wellbeing and empowerment.
• Learning processes to gather insights to improve interventions were prominent in some cases.
• Mechanisms identified: building connections and partnerships, asset-based approaches, adapting to local need, community participation and co-production