When are community hubs best used?

Community hubs enable community members to access resources and services in a single location by clustering community facilities and integrating services. They are collaboratively planned and designed to:

  • improve community access to your services
  • maximise shared investment outcomes of providers
  • improve infrastructure utilisation for greater social benefit.


Components of community hubs

They can be made up of a range of individual elements:

  • core infrastructure (health, education and social services required by the community)
  • self-service facilities that encourage the community to use the space (e.g. toy library, book exchange, playground)
  • referral to targeted services (these could be off-site)
  • community led activities (e.g. parents group, creative hobbies and interests).

The service mix is based on the needs of the community and remains flexible and agile. Community hubs, like all effective social infrastructure, should be place-based. Integrated community hubs can facilitate a soft entry approach where it's easy for people using a service to access complementary services at the same location.

An effective community hub will involve a range of service-delivery organisations partnering to develop a model of service with input from stakeholders and the community. The model will shape the operational approach and will inform broader business functions and decisions. The benefits section provides 7 success characteristics to plan and deliver community hubs.


Choosing the right mix of services

There is no ‘one size fits all’ approach for community hubs. A successful community hub identifies the gap in the existing social service mix, then addresses it. There may be opportunities to partner with an existing facility. Alternatively, a new community hub may need to be collaboratively planned and delivered.


Practical steps to planning and delivering a community hub

Refer to the Delivering a Shared Community Hub Practice Guide in our Toolkit/Resources section for a practical approach to developing a hub.