As part of our long-term study into how 26 communities have responded to COVID-19 with the Third Sector Research Centre (TSRC), Angus McCabe examines the evolving nature of community hubs, halls and centres and the crucial role they played in community responses to COVID-19 and what the future might hold.
Community hubs and public spaces are back in favour. After a decade or more of decline and neglect, neighbourhoods across the country are once again relying on communal spaces, with many having received emergency grants over the past 18 months from local authorities, signifying their importance to local communities. Our latest report finds that whilst buildings have slowly started to return to being places for people to gather, the value of public parks and green spaces is being recognised not just in terms of environment and nature, but also for their benefits to mental health. Yet what have we learned about such spaces as the pandemic has evolved?
These played an incredibly important role at the beginning of the first lockdown in 2020. They allowed communities to react quickly and re-direct resources to where they were most needed. Often these hubs were converted, rapidly, to storage and distribution points for not only food, but also other essentials such as children’s clothing, activity packs, toiletries and, in some cases, household and electrical items.
During the lockdowns over the winter of 2020/2021 some hubs closed again but re-adjusted and re-adapted to offer services in different ways.
As restrictions initially eased over the summer, hubs re-focused to offer a range of activities to promote wellbeing, trying to restart groups, albeit within the limitations of social distancing and other, often unclear or confusing, guidance from Government. During the lockdowns over the winter of 2020/2021 some hubs closed again but re-adjusted and re-adapted to offer services in different ways. As Locality has noted, throughout the pandemic such buildings have attempted to retain their core purpose of “providing opportunities for community engagement and a focal point for people to meet.”
One of the key learning points from the pandemic has been that community buildings, on their own, are not everything. Not only have green spaces been critical in sustaining mental wellbeing, but they have also become places to meet safely – either for small scale social activities – or, indeed, as the places community groups have conducted their business with the closure of buildings.
Not only have green spaces been critical in sustaining mental wellbeing, but they have also become places to meet safely.
Local activists and workers have (re)learned the value of outreach. Not everyone in a community uses, or is attracted to, a community hub. They can become associated with particular cliques within an area – and in winter they are often just very cold and can feel un-welcoming.
People we spoke to constantly talked about street level working, running activities in parks and other green spaces, as a means of engaging the community beyond those who, prior to the pandemic, came along to activities at the community hub. Benches have been installed for people to socialise; allotment spaces were used by those displaced from buildings and new outdoor spaces were created. Spaces where new people engaged and new needs emerged in conversations: conversations about debt, about uncertain future employment, about mental health.
So much of the informal street level organising throughout the COVID-19 crisis, has been done through WhatsApp and other social media platforms. The management of community groups continued to be done largely online using Zoom.
The reliance on virtual communication has highlighted the issue of digital poverty in many communities.
Some have, with varying degrees of success, moved their activity classes, counselling services and social groups online. Yet these virtual spaces, invaluable as they have been, have their limitations. It is not just that some dislike this virtual world or that people miss face-to-face contact.
The reliance on virtual communication has highlighted the issue of digital poverty in many communities where those that cannot afford either the IT equipment or, more importantly, the ongoing data costs, find it difficult to stay in contact with others.
COVID-19 has reinforced the important role community hubs play as a focal point for local activities and organising. At the same time, it has highlighted their vulnerabilities. Small centres in particular find it difficult to comply with any ongoing social distancing requirements whilst remaining financially viable with reduced numbers.
People are social beings and face-to-face contact is crucial: the digital world is not enough.
Yet, as we point out in Briefing 13 – even where community buildings are struggling and may be financial liabilities rather than assets – a huge amount of emotional energy can be expended in keeping them going: they are “spaces of care” that are important to people – whatever their state of repair or financial insecurity.
Experiences of COVID-19 tell us that people are social beings and face-to-face contact is crucial: the digital world is not enough. We also know that we cannot take community hubs or public place for granted, whether physical or virtual. The spaces which enable people to socialise and organise need defending.
We are emerging into a very different space to where we were pre-pandemic.
It’s clear our emergence from this crisis poses both challenges and opportunities. Crucially, we need to find ways in which we can blend all three aspects of community hubs – the building, the public space and the virtual world. However we do this, one thing is certain, we are emerging into a very different space to where we were pre-pandemic.