What works: Successful community hubs

This short report takes a look at the enablers to success for community hubs. It is part of a series of reports into ‘what works’ for community hubs, sports and leisure and health and wellbeing sectors. It was produced by SERIO, an applied research institute at the University of Plymouth. For community hubs, to be financially sustainable depends on: acquiring and developing assets (e.g. through building transfer from the local authority) diversifying income streams (e.g. introducing new services as part of trading activity). developing and maintaining strong partnerships with the local community (to respond to their needs and engage them as volunteers) and with other service providers (for signposting, working together to meet specific needs and ideas sharing) focussing on the needs of their community ensures relevance of the services provided buy-in from the community – their customers – and potential funders who can be reassured that the hub is meeting the community’s needs. We looked at five different community hubs: Aspire Ryde, BS3 Community Development Centre, The Cheese and Grain, Netherton Community Centre and The Old Co-op Community Building.