Systematic review of community infrastructure (place and space) to boost social relations and community wellbeing: Five year refresh

We collaborated with researchers at Leeds Beckett University and the University of Liverpool, funded by National Lottery Community Fund, explore the extent to which we can better identify what works in changing community infrastructure and improving wellbeing.

This 2023 review is an update of our 2018 original systematic review, incorporating evaluations published in the past five years, from academic and grey literature, demonstrating how the evidence base has grown.

We used the same parameters, concepts and research team for the original review and the subsequent refresh.

Please note that the full report for the refresh (2023) incorporates the studies and findings from the original 2018 review, superseding it.

The refresh covers interventions operating at the neighbourhood level rather than city or national level:

• 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.

Virtual spaces, such as social media, were beyond the scope.