Are you familiar with hubs, havens or hangouts? If not, become more knowledgeable about these in your community, since they are there or may be around in the future. They have become part of community development in many locales. There is a need to consider how they fit in to downtowns and central business districts as well as rural communities in the Pocono-Northeast. They can be places to avoid loneliness and have been written up in a recent issue of “Planning,” the magazine of the American Planning Association. These new community words become avenues to pursue by local governments, whether in this region, or other places in the United States.
They are partially becoming a sensible answer to the loneliness plague caused by COVID-19 and the pandemic. How this process can best work is spelled out in the aforementioned article, but we can add value to the discussion by taking a look at this region and adding to the means by which our municipalities can add value to their role. The social infrastructure of the region can benefit from considering ways to prevent loneliness and utilize the above word accordingly.
The “Planning” article states that “for decades, we haven’t invested enough in the design and management of places where connections happen. … it’s time for planners, policymakers and designers to lead the way.”
They define havens as places for people to gather around a shared identity and build bonds in a communal space. In this setting, a form of social structure is about helping people belong and creating opportunities to support class ties — or bonding social capital among people from similar backgrounds.
Hubs are places that intentionally encourage socioeconomic mixing, which happens when people interact with others from different backgrounds. Hubs are where bridging social capital is created. Hubs can help with loneliness and support the diverse social networks that have a positive impact on the economic future of low-income children. They use Akron, Ohio, as an example.
Hangouts are places that support casual interactions where people can just be. Several people and authors have called for a return to the lost art of “hanging out” with other people to improve health and well-being. Hangouts provide opportunities for people to live life in public. The result can be a captivating and dynamic display of public life.
In this region, here are some ideas.
• Conduct a survey of communities and decide where such ventures can be placed.
• Bring in specialists on these ideas and hold sessions on their experiences.
• Determine where havens, hubs, and hangout exists already in the region.
• Decide if loneliness is a factor to be developed further and its solutions regionally.
• How will social investments be made in the future in the region.
• Which partners need to be involved across all there areas of interest.
• Organize a website regionally on this topic.
By undertaking these ideas and others, we can further community development across the Pocono-Northeast.
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