Building Connections for Community Benefit. Proceedings of the Schools as Community Hubs International Conference 2020

This is the story of a community hub in an independent South Australian faith-based school. The aim of this community hub is to address multi-generational disadvantage with an agile approach that is personalised to the needs of local families. While co-located infrastructure exists—comprising a school, church, kindergarten, public sector children’s centre, opportunity shop, community shed and emergency housing—there is a need to promote connections within and beyond this infrastructure through a dedicated community hub space. To address this need, in 2020 we prepared an architectural design concept for a welcoming community space located at the intersection of school, church, and kindergarten, providing a physical structure to ‘wrap around’ the existing personal services. This space has yet to be built but will ensure the community hub can help people develop the capacity to change their own lives. The ethos, culture, and approach that has been adopted for this community hub is based on the ‘Family Zone’ model developed by Lutheran Care. The vision for this hub has wellbeing as the focus which resonates with the shared values and mission of school, care agency and church. In this chapter we, the school’s principal and the architect who developed the architectural design, reflect on the school community’s journey. The common theme is that it takes time to build cooperative relationships, connections, and trust. ‘You are welcome’ and developing a sense of belonging is at the heart of developing this community hub.

Designing for the Needs of a Thriving School Community Hub

Moeck¹,

Branford²

2023

Theorising the Development, Implementation and Sustainability of Schools as Community Hubs

Rivera-Yevenes

2023

Increasingly, school-based community hubs are aiming to engage and connect communities and service organisations in their daily operations. While some schools offer additional services to community members and share their facilities, there is limited research in the Australian context into how schools succeed in making their infrastructure and extended services accessible to both school and community members. This chapter proposes a research framework to investigate how schools as community hubs (SaCH) have been developed, implemented, and sustained, for the purpose of seeking insights into the processes, challenges, and lessons that have been learned by those involved. The chapter presents findings from the PhD study being undertaken by the author to illustrate how the framework guides attention to the socio-material relations at play within schools operating as community hubs, helping to make connections between the built environment and inhabitants’ practices, activities, and behaviours. The framework supports qualitative inquiry into the lived experiences of those associated with conceiving, delivering, operating, and using schools as community hubs, privileging the voices of policymakers, planners, designers, operators, and users.

A Framework for Building Schools as Community Hubs: If It Were Simpler Would It Happen Everywhere?

Cleveland

2023

Developing, implementing, and sustaining schools as community hubs is not necessarily easy. Nevertheless, the potential gains for students, parents, carers, and members of the wider community may be significant, as has been documented internationally. Drawing on information from a range of research activities, this chapter outlines the process undertaken by a multi-disciplinary research team to create a framework for planning, designing, governing, and managing schools as community hubs. The ‘How to Hub Australia’ framework offers evidence-based advice on school infrastructure provision and management linked to the activities, programs and services that may be offered from school sites in addition to schooling. Commonly, these include early years and adult education, organised sports, recreation, library and information services, visual and performing arts activities, and health and wellbeing services. The framework is intended to help policymakers, school leaders, and designers overcome the uncertainties and perceived obstacles that tend to limit the provision and use of school facilities for broader community benefit. If it were simpler, would it happen everywhere? This chapter argues that community-facing schools could become commonplace, rather than exceptional, through the establishment of effective and enduring partnerships and updates to governance and funding models.