Social Infrastructure: Connecting People and Places for Healthy Communities

Social Infrastructure: Connecting People & Places for Thriving Communities

Many calls to shape more equitable, resilient, and healthy communities center on the power of social infrastructure — the network of physical and social structures that build relationships and foster thriving communities.

To better understand the keys to quality social infrastructure, a team of U.S. design, planning, and policy practitioners from Gehl, Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC), Reimagining the Civic Commons, and Washington Housing Conservancy went on three learning exchanges in Belfast, Brazil (São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro), and Cape Town, with support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. These visits revealed lessons learned for the United States on how to better define, invest in, and sustain social infrastructure in communities.

Dr.

A multidisciplinary team experienced in community-centered planning, design, & development

Gehl assembled a team to gain global perspective and develop a call to action for shaping and sustaining quality social infrastructure in the United States.

Why Social Infrastructure?

1

When you hear infrastructure, this is what you think of — essential facilities and networks for moving Energy generation and water supply

just as essential a network — for connecting people to each other and to opportunity.

Yet, in the United States, social infrastructure isn’t treated like it’s essential.

Even

though we need it more than ever.

Social Infrastructure

Segregation

81% of all US metro regions with over 200,000 residents, were more racially segregated in 2019 than in 1990.1

As people, we are disconnected from one another and institutions.

Polarization

90% of Americans think the country is divided and 60% are pessimistic about the possibility of overcoming these divisions to solve big, collective problems.3

58% of Americans are lonely – people with lower incomes and people from underrepresented racial groups more likely to be lonely.2

The share of Americans who agree that “most people can be trusted” has fallen by 23% since 1964.4

Trust

Social Infrastructure

Our places are disconnected and disinvested, too.

75% of library directors surveyed across the US operated with reduced budgets in 2020.6

Divestment

Communities of color are three times more likely than white communities to live in nature deprived places.7

Injustice

Inequality

Neighborhood economic connectedness has a greater impact on social mobility than other factors like inequality, segregation, or income.5

The widespread legacy of redlining continues to shape higher neighborhood poverty levels, lower labor market engagement, and greater environmental hazards.8

Racism

A 2023 U.S. Surgeon General Report reports on the individual health effects of social isolation.9

This all comes at a cost to people and to society.

People without access to popular, well-maintained parks reported lower levels of social connection and trust in local government.10

Social infrastructure can address this crisis by connecting

people.

Social

infrastructure creates opportunities for people to build critical relationships within and across difference in their communities.11

Public life is a shared experience of place created by people when they live their lives outside of their homes, workplaces, and cars.

Bonding within a defined group is important for reinforcing a shared identity, which may be particularly important for members of marginalized communities to feel safe, understood, and empowered.

Bridging across different groups is important for decreasing polarization and building trust and tolerance in communities.12

Strong bonding and weak bridging, especially within a defined group that is dominant, may reinforce attitudes of superiority and prejudice – bonding and bridging together is critical for advancing social equity.13

And, when done right, social infrastructure generates outcomes beyond relationships alone to address other crises.

Sense of Place

Relational outcomes Communal outcomes

Social infrastructure for climate action

Eric Klinenberg’s study of the 1995 Chicago heat wave found that the presence of social infrastructure — vibrant community spaces and networks that connected people — was tied to lower mortality rates in areas like Auburn-Gresham.14

A community farm in Cape Town’s Gugulethu township provides residents with access to local produce and is co-located with a facility that diverts household food waste from landfills (900 households currently participate).15

CicLAvia, a recurring Los Angeles program that opens up streets to people, bicycles, and micro-mobility, improves air quality by reducing ultrafine particles in the air by over 20%, compared to days when cars drive on participating streets.16

CICLAVIA LOS ANGELES

Social infrastructure for economic mobility

Brazil’s SESC facilities provide access to resources as well as spaces for skills development – creating a supportive environment for individuals to improve their financial status and well-being.

Raj Chetty’s research on economic opportunity in the US indicates that children who grow up in communities with more cross-group interactions — often facilitated by social infrastructure — are more likely to rise out of poverty.5

Streetscapes is a non-profit and green oasis in Cape Town CBD that offers chronically unhoused people peer mentoring and access to employment opportunities to rehabilitate their lives – 79% of their workforce moves off the streets in 6 months.17

BOYS & GIRLS CLUB OF MANCHESTER

STREETSCAPES

Social infrastructure for health and well-being

At SESC locations throughout Brazil, residents can conveniently access dental care and participate in health education courses and programs focused on building healthy habits to improve quality of life.18

pathways for walking and cycling has been linked to a 1.5x increase in perceptions of community belonging.19

Therapeutic community gardening in Essex, UK significantly improved and sustained self-reported well-being for people with mental illnesses, even as well-being was deteriorating nationally.20

Social infrastructure for racial justice

From 1966-1982, some 60,000 residents of color were forcibly displaced from District 6. Today, Streetscapes’ program in the area combats harm done by this and other racist exclusions – from housing, opportunity, and care.21

The revitalization of Tom Lee Park in Memphis, TN set out to dignify and find justice in Black rest by creating a vibrant and accessible riverfront oasis in a city that barred Black people from outdoor recreation areas.

The Peacemaking Center in Syracuse, NY transformed a vacant building into a space offering programs focused on healing and restoration as a solution to violence and conflict in the community.23

Social infrastructure for creative expression

Redes de Maré’s cultural center offers a free dance school creating an inclusive invitation for individuals to share, celebrate, and express their unique cultural identities.

iThemba Walkway features vibrant murals and an homage to the resilience of Guhuthelthu in the face of apartheid and ongoing racial and spatial injustices. The public art displays engage and inspire local primary school children.

According to a recent study of lower-income neighborhoods across New York City, cultural resources are strongly associated with better health, schooling, and security – including a 18% decrease in the serious crime rate.24

DAVID MAMBOUCH

Social infrastructure for civic engagement

Community-led transformation of Methow Park in Wenatchee, WA fostered community power, including the formation of a stewardship group whose voter drive in the park increased Latino voter turnout by 300%.25

TRUST FOR PUBLIC LAND

A WhatsApp group to organize support for creating the iThemba Walkway is still active today engaging neighbors in collective stewardship and championing expansion of the project to other neglected walkways in the area.

Between 2015 to 2018 (before and after Girdwood Community Hub opened), the number of people in a community survey reporting that they engage across the social divide, or across the historic sectarian peace line, increased twofold.

Project Introduction

2

Social infrastructure in the US is saddled with challenges...

Longstanding, inequitable gaps in access

Limited shared understanding or definitions

Unclear funding and operating models

Due to histories of racism and disinvestment, who you are or where you live often dictate your level of access to social infrastructure.

Social (“ThirdInfrastructure Places”)isNot DistributedEqually AcrosstheU.S.

Unlike hard infrastructure, social infrastructure lacks agreed-upon definitions within fields that shape it.

Worrylessabout CrumblingRoads, MoreAboutCrumbling Libraries

The paths to supporting existing and shaping new infrastructure are not as clear-cut as for hard infrastructure.

LocalParksCanʼtKeep UpWithDemand.This NewToolkitCouldHelp

Insufficient support and belief

Practitioners and decision-makers may be resistant to prioritizing investments in social infrastructure

NewYorkerslovetheir libraries.Sowhyare theyalwaysonthe choppingblock?

…but now is the moment to act!

Interest and attention in research circles

A wave of articles, publications, and reports are emerging to build advocacy and support.

More

policymaker calls to action

More

The U.S. Surgeon General made social infrastructure his first recommendation in his report on loneliness.

private and public funding opportunities

Leaders at the local level are catching on

The paths to supporting existing and shaping new infrastructure are not as clear-cut as for hard infrastructure.

High profile grants like the Reconnecting Communities & Neighborhoods Program prompt local leaders to consider and assess local social infrastructure.

A group of urban leaders from across fields came together over 18 months to better understand and advocate for high-quality social infrastructure.

Understand key concepts and potential audiences

Gain global inspiration through learning exchanges

Synthesize and apply to the U.S. context Activate findings with diverse U.S. audiences

Together they set out on three learning exchanges to places with U.S. relevance. Selected for learning exchange

KEYSELECTIONCRITERIA

RelatabilitytoU.S.context Belfast

Historyofdiscrimination

Mixofkeyactors

Documentedoutcomes

Positionedforlongterm

Cape Town

Rio de Janeiro &

São Paulo

A Belfast peace barrier…

Foreign places with familiar challenges to the U.S. – like discrimination, disinvestment,

& disconnection.

Belfast

Recalls a divisive U.S. highway bisecting a neighborhood

Failing stormwater management in the urban periphery…

Apartheid-era geographies of Cape Town…

…mirror the living legacy of racist redlining policies across the U.S.

São Paulo …resembles that of flood-prone US communities.

Cape Town

In Belfast, leaders at all levels are working to reverse decades of segregated & securitized infrastructure to connect people of different beliefs to each other and to economic opportunity

Alley is an intimate, resident-created shared space for neighbors to spend time and gather.

Belfast has a comparable…

→ Population to Des Moines, IA

→ Population density to Baltimore, MD

→ Land area to San Francisco, CA

→ Racial composition to Boise, ID*

Forth Meadow Community Greenway stitches together once-divided communities through open spaces along a 12 km route.

Shankill Mission a vacant historic site turned into a community-serving arts hub.

Wildflower

Shankill Women’s Center will transform a derelict interface area to create a welcoming, safe and accessible shared space for women on both sides of the former peace barrier.

Girdwood Community Hub transformed a contested site into one with social housing, recreational facilities, public resources, and learning services.

In Brazil, communities that have been pushed to the periphery of cities and society are shaping spaces that center their cultural heritage and secure rights to resources.

Sao Paulo has a comparable…

→ Population to New York City, NY

→ Population density to San Francisco, CA

→ Land area to Houston, TX

→ Racial composition to Nashville, TN*

Rio de Janeiro has a comparable…

→ Population to San Francisco Bay Area

→ Population density to Boston, MA

→ Land area to Los Angeles, CA

→ Racial composition to Nashville, TN*

and common ground for city residents.

is a program and site that empowers young people through circus arts.

Circo Crescer e Viver

creative space for residents of one of Rio’s largest favelas.

The Museum of New Black Memory fosters dialogue about Brazilian memory and cultural identity in the African diaspora.

Sundays transform Avenida Paulista into a canvas for public life.

Galapão ZL is a resource hub for people living in the peripheries.

The Port of Rio de Janeiro is a hangout

In Cape Town, disconnected Black and mixed-race neighborhoods are organizing in partnership with NGOs and government authorities to improve local infrastructure.

Lotus Park Neighborhood Center and Waste Facility clusters every-day amenities to deliver important services and create local economic opportunity.

7 key projects

Cape Town has a comparable…

→ Population to Seattle, WA

→ Population density to Austin, TX

→ Land area to Jacksonville, FL

→ Racial composition to Jackson, MS*

resource

Streetscapes Urban Garden is a green oasis and haven for community-centered rehabilitation.

a neglected space

community initiative empowering local residents and promoting sustainable transportation.

iThemba Walkway, a community-driven project, transformed

Langa Bicycle Hub is a

Monwabisi Park Neighborhood Center is a central hub for gathering and accessing resources in an informal settlement.

Harare Library is a centrally-located

hub and local hangout serving residents of Khayelitsha.

Operating model overview

Multi-national government program

National government program

Initiatives funded by multiple governments or multi-national organizations

Initiatives that rely on national funds for infrastructure or service provision

Municipal government space or program

City-funded programs, projects, and initiatives

Community-

led initiatives

Resident-led projects on public land that rely on individual contributions of time and money, and/or public funds through advocacy

Neighborhood -based community development

Dedicated philanthropic commitments to a specific community / geographic area

Crossneighborhood initiatives

Privately funded public spaces and programs

Programs that receive philanthropic funding for investments in multiple areas

Projects that are financed through corporate taxes or direct private dollars

Diverse array of funding sources

Micro financial inputs

Projects that are financed through a mix of public, private, and philanthropic funding

Projects created through individual contributions of time and money steered by a process of co-design, co-production, and co-management. Individual

SESC community centers, São Paulo

Tide Setubal Foundation and Jardim Lapena, São Paulo

Centros Educacionais Unificados (CEUs), São Paulo

European Union PEACE Programme, Belfast

Defining Social Infrastructure

3

Many are thinking about this term and what it means.

“Social infrastructure represents the crucial organisations, places and spaces that enable communities to create social connections – to form and sustain relationships that help them to thrive.”

— THE

BRITISH ACADEMY

We took stock of a wide range of definitions in literature, interviews, and global learning journeys.

SOURCES

Extensive literature review

Interviews with nearly 20 leaders across U.S. sectors & geographies

Three global learning journeys

“What people are doing to care for each other and their communities is the foundation of social infrastructure.”

“Social infrastructure is another word for what keeps us going.”

—

JESSE LAITINEN, STREETSCAPES, CAPE TOWN

Not a one-off place or program, but an intentional, connected, well-resourced system that adapts over time

What this looks like depends on context! It could be parks, community centers, barber shops, markets, and more

Social infrastructure is the network of physical and social structures that build relationships and foster thriving communities.

More than just place — it’s the ecosystem of programs and organizations that bring places to life and people together Important to a range of community outcomes — from health to climate resilience to economic opportunity

Best understood and activated at the neighborhood or cross-neighborhood scale for sustained local impact

Bonding and bridging within and across lines of difference — in service of social cohesion and civic trust

But what does social infrastructure look like in action?

Whether we know it or not, we interact with different types of social infrastructure in our everyday lives.

It might be a community garden… …a local park… …or maybe a public library!

Characterized by strong, intra-group ties

Havens are spaces for people to gather around shared identity.

Havens build bonds within groups that need a safe, communal space — such as people from historically marginalized backgrounds who have lacked spaces to gather. However, havens should not be so exclusive that they prevent connections across difference.

“I got to know a lot of people here. I got connected to my ‘neighbors’ in a different setting and my ecosystem changed.”

— RUDI

The Institute for New Black Memory in Rio de Janeiro is a place to learn about and celebrate Afro-Brazilian culture.

Wildflower Alley in Belfast brings together neighbors in a shared oasis that celebrates their community.

Characterized by loose, inter-group ties

Hubs are spaces for people to connect across different backgrounds.

Hubs encourage contact across diverse groups that may not otherwise interact –such as people of different races, ages or neighborhoods. In order to bring people together around shared interests, hubs can't be so general, flexible, or multipurpose that they lack specific appeal.

Lotus Park Neighbourhood Center, a VPUU project in Cape Town, clusters services for neighbors of all ages to enjoy in one place.

CEU Parque de Carmo in São Paulo blends dedicated space for early childhood education and play …

Girdwood Community Hub saw a 20% jump in neighbors reporting they engaged with people across the peace line after project opening.

… with multi-generational spaces to gather through recreation and culture.

Girdwood Community Hub in Belfast was designed to bring two divided neighborhoods together through a mix of programs.

Spatial Building Blocks

Characterized by inclusive public life

Hangouts are spaces for people of all backgrounds to to just be.

Hangouts work well when they are oriented near attractions — such as havens and hubs — and when they stitch together different communities or parts of a community.

“People did not understand that it could be used for leisure because São Paulo had not yet had this experience in other places.”

— ENRICA DUNCAN, NOSSAS

Avenida Paulista is a weekly open invitation to

Greenway links long-divided areas in North and West Belfast.

Green Point Urban Park is a destination green space for people across the City of Cape Town.

Together, havens, hubs, and hangouts form a complete social infrastructure network.

Public life is a shared experience of place.

Hangout

Bonding within a defined group

Bonding and bridging together advance social equity

Bridging across different groups

To deliver these outcomes, social infrastructure needs to overcome barriers in the way we’ve designed our cities.

Exclusion

Three symptoms of exclusionary planning and design practices in our cities that have served to divide, discriminate, and disinvest rather than bring people together:

Isolation

HAVEN

Sometimes a haven is nonexistent — if you’re in the minority, you may not have spaces to gather with people like you.

Disconnection

HANGOUT

Sometimes a hangout is too far away and challenging to access — it’s only for the benefit of people on ‘that side of town.’

Segregation HUB

Sometimes a hub is located in such a segregated area that there’s no opportunity to bridge across differences.

Nesting different forms of social infrastructure can amplify their impact.

Many learning journey sites clustered multiple uses for people to feel welcome. For example, if people from marginalized groups feel excluded from hub or hangout spaces, nesting a haven may make them feel more invited.

with space for free play and sunbathing!

SESC Pompéia, São Paulo

Streetscapes, Cape Town

Girdwood Community Hub, Belfast

Spatial Building Blocks

Private spaces can also play a role in the wider web of social infrastructure.

Social infrastructure should be public first and foremost, but private spaces can also serve supportive roles, such as:

➔ Providing space and equipment for hosting community-led events

➔ Providing essential goods and services

➔ Training or educating on their mission or specialty

In

Cape Town, small shops, businesses, and street vendors invigorate Harare Library as a public hub in the middle of it all.

The Museum of Art of Rio offers meeting and event space to community groups.

Who brings these spaces to life?

Champions at all levels have a role to play in shaping and sustaining social infrastructure.

Good troublemakers within major institutions that help scale and sustain

Savvy intermediaries connect communities with resources and power and vice versa

Dedicated organizers who understand local needs and build power to meet them

Bottom-up actors are the ‘dedicated organizers.’

These people are highly effective mobilizers and organizers who can listen to, understand and translate community needs into improved social infrastructure. They often lead formal or informal community groups, deliver essential services, and build local power to boost visibility to middle-out and top-down actors. Bottom-up actors are especially key to the success of havens, which require strong, authentic local leaders. Social Building Blocks

“We rolled up our sleeves and mobilized people to be a part of this initiative.”

— XOLILE NDZOYI

Bríd Ruddy mobilized neighbors to transform their back alleyway into an intimate gathering space.

Marcos Diniz and Suellen Guariento translate local needs in Rio de Janeiro’s Maré favela to a range of social services and spaces.

Middle-out actors are the ‘savvy intermediaries.’

These people know how the system works and advocate for community needs among the decision-makers who make policy or manage funds. They keep a close ear to needs on the ground — collecting data and engaging community members — and use that information to secure resources. Middle-out actors are often central to hubs, which require diverse, consistent programming and operations.

“We responded to local community feedback and then began advocating to the public sector.”

— MARIANA ALMEIDA

Jesse Laitinen navigates layered bureaucracy to serve people who are chronically unhoused.

Rowan Davidson is shepherding the adaptive reuse of a historic building with local and global artists.

Top-down

actors are the ‘good troublemakers.’

Champions within major institutions connect people and organizations with access to the hard-to-reach departments and resources needed to sustain social infrastructure. These people often sit within government, but could also be within major private or public-private organizations that shape community development. Top-down actors are often central to hangouts, which require major funding and support.

“Not

long ago, there would have been a lot more security around the construction site.”

— ESTHER

WAUGH

Washington Fajardo elevated historical Afro-Brazilian sites while serving as Rio de Janeiro’s head of historic preservation.

Belfast City Council’s Esther Waugh, right, has been an ally and point of contact for the women’s groups that have shaped the forthcoming Shankill Women’s Centre on a charged site at the seam of two communities.

They, too, need to avoid common pitfalls that come with shaping social infrastructure.

May be out of touch – not proximate enough to the communities their policies and programs serve

May have tunnel vision over-investing in their organization’s longevity at the expense of sustained, systemic change

May be stuck working in isolation or at too small of a scale to effect sustained change for their communities

Coordination across these social structures is especially important in sustaining social infrastructure over time.

Note – the largest image is the lead actor.

+ Middle-Out

+ Top-Down

Jesse, along with representatives from other NGOs, meet with the mayor monthly

Bottom-Up + Middle-Out

The Department of Education defers to a community-based organization to activate the space in a locally relevant way.

+

, Regional Director of CEU education centers Top-Down

with CEU sites to understand and respond to their program and design needs.

Rudi, former client & current peer mentor for Streetscapes

Jesse Streetscapes founder & director

CEU Parque do Carmo, São Paulo

Marcia

Global cases of social infrastructure benefited from distinct approaches

knowing the

actors

in your community is key.

Hangout

Top-Down

* Based on our limited observation of social infrastructure sites. Refer to appendix for a detailed breakdown of observed site-actor dynamics.

Patterns* in the connections between people and space:

In hangouts, ensure leadership of top-down actors who can sustain these spaces on a large scale.

Bottom-Up

In hubs, leverage top-down funding, but build middle-out capacity to operate and animate them with community-centric programming.

In havens, consider centering bottom-up actors with middle-out support to bridge to top-down funding sources to upgrade or scale the program.

Hub

Haven

Social building blocks

Spatial building blocks

Call to Action

In many communities, social infrastructure exists already, but in fragments.

Social infrastructure may exist under the banner of different departments, organizations, programs, and places. Whether a park or an arts program or an early childhood development center, these different nodes in are not building on one another in a networked way.

So, what will it take to support and sustain social infrastructure in a more holistic way?

This work is intended to support city leaders in understanding their social infrastructure footprints — no matter the organizations or agencies that lead each node — so that they can fill gaps to catalyze more relationship building and community outcomes.

Calls to Action

1/6

Invest in inclusive social infrastructure as a public good

Sites of social infrastructure need to be open and accessible to all. That means ensuring places are designed, activated, and operated with inclusivity in mind — transparent facades, responsive programming, and local staff and stewardship. The inherent publicness of social infrastructure — civic places that are designed to support people over profit — is what makes it powerful as a form of connective tissue in thriving communities.

2/6

Address the discriminatory legacy of U.S. planning & design

Social infrastructure won’t be effective unless investment is right-sized and prioritized to address the scale and legacy of disinvestment in Black, brown, and low-income communities so they can better connect to one another, to other neighborhoods, and to opportunities. This requires a thoughtful approach to acknowledge charged histories of a place and to active work to repair any harm done through the design and program of the place being built.

3/6

Focus on the why instead

of the what

Discussion of social infrastructure too often focuses on narrowing down what social infrastructure is, rather than what it does. Instead of debating definitions, focus on outcomes. Where are social and community connections taking place – within social groups (havens), across social groups (hubs), and in support of public life (hangouts) – and how can these places and programs be amplified? Where do new places and programs need to fill gaps? Who needs to work together to make that happen?

4/6

Raise the bar!

We need more high quality public and civic assets — not just more square feet of public space.

We can have nice things, and design and program should create a dignified and joyful environment for people of all backgrounds. That means paying close attention to locally relevant design details, diverse programming, and sustained maintenance funding needed to keep a space alive with activity.

5/6

Focus on the network, not just the nodes

Understand social infrastructure as a network of many nodes with different purposes. Identify whether there is a mix of places that support bonding within groups (connecting people of shared interests and backgrounds to one another), bridging across groups (connecting people of different backgrounds to each other), and being out in public – a network of places connecting people within and across neighborhoods. Consider how to cluster and co-locate social infrastructure spaces and programs based on where people are or are not connecting.

6/6

Get all hands on deck

Social infrastructure is an opportunity for government, non-profits, and community organizers alike to advance thriving communities. For social infrastructure to be effective in a community and at scale, there needs to be ample coordination across all areas of leadership, governance, and expertise.

Supporting Social Infrastructure

Whether you are a grassroots organizer, community leader, public space manager, parks department official, or sitting in your mayor’s office, here are recommendations to support improved access to and social connection within now or existing hub, haven, and hangout spaces in your community.

Understand the places, actors, & network that support different types of social connection

2

4 Monitor progress toward key outcomes related to social connection & community health. Assess

Assess gaps in access to places, actors, or networks that support social connection

Understand Support Monitor

3 Support improved access to and social connection within existing spaces or shape new ones that fill gaps

Create a shared understanding of the context

At the scale of your neighborhood, community, or city, create a community asset map centering existing strengths and resources to better understand the footprint and condition of local social infrastructure.

Types of Social Infrastructure Havens support social bonding.

Spatial mapping Where do people connect with those whom they share identities with?

Hubs support social bridging. Hangouts support public life – just being.

Where do people connect with people with different backgrounds than their own? Where do people connect just by sharing space and hanging out?

Social mapping Which top-down / middle-out / bottom-up actors or organizations shape these spaces?

Uncover the gaps

Assess how the existing social infrastructure footprint that you mapped matches the population and needs of your community. Before you start, gather baseline information about your community(ies), like: demographic makeup; socioeconomic status; availability of open public space; cultural histories and context, etc.

Assessing the network

Assessing its parts

PHYSICAL GAPS SOCIAL GAPS

Are there enough hubs, havens, and hangouts? There is no right amount – this will depend on your community's histories and current needs.

Where are there gaps in coordination and collaboration across actors? Which actors could better engaged to support a social infrastructure network of havens, hubs, and hangouts?

Do havens exist where members of distinct identity or interest groups can gather with people like them?

Are hubs accessible to members of different social groups so that there is an opportunity to bridge across differences?

Do all community members have a high-quality, accessible public place to hang out?

Do top-down actors within major institutions have insight and understanding to help scale and sustain the social infrastructure network?

Are the right middle-out actors in place to facilitate connections between communities and institutions?

Do the bottom-actors actors who understand local needs have ways to connect to resources and power structures?

Get tactical to amplify impact

Consider strategies suited to your local context to support improved design, program, and operations in existing or new havens, hubs, and hangouts.

Program Operate Cluster programming for multiple user groups.

Embrace spaces of enclosure that feel intimate and safe, with some porosity for others to join.

See appendix for some considerations — inspired by global examples — for designing, programing, and operating hubs, havens, and hangouts.

Partner with local organizations & collectives to land operations in a context-sensitive way.

Wildflower Alley is an urban oasis with gates that open to the public during “open days” each week.

Girdwood Community Hub has a youth space across the hall from a workforce development hub, facilitating early exposure to career opportunities.

Avenida Paulista open streets program partners with vendors, artists, and cultural groups to activate the space with diverse invitations.

Monitor progress

Monitoring progress toward social connections and larger community outcomes helps make the case for further investment in social infrastructure. Indicators should be co-defined with the communities one is working with. While some indicators may be universal, the majority should be tied to the goals of the place or program.

Guiding question

Is social infrastructure in place and creating social connections in communities?

Overall indicators

→ Frequency and duration of visits to social infrastructure spaces or programs

→ Share of residents who report interacting with people in their communities at least once a week

Indicators by type Havens Hubs Hangouts

→ Representation in project leadership/staff /visitorship of the community(ies) being centered

→ Sense of ownership among visitors to steward the space & drive programming

→ Sense of belonging among visitors

→ Depth of relationships among visitors

→ Number of close ties or trusted confidants

→ Diversity of residents visiting the space or attending programs

→ Regularity of participation in programming by people of different background

→ Share of visitors who report building relationships with people from different backgrounds than their own

→ Frequency & diversity of programming invitations

→ Diversity of residents visiting the space or attending programs

→ Regularity of participation in programming by people of different backgrounds

→ Share of visitors who report building relationships with people from different backgrounds than their own

Champions at all levels have a role to play in shaping and sustaining social infrastructure –what

role will you play?

Research

Sources cited

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11. The U.S. Surgeon General’s Advisory on the Healing Effects of Social Connection and Community, 2023. Link.

12. Pettigrew, Thomas F., and Linda R. Tropp. "A meta-analytic test of intergroup contact theory." Journal of personality and social psychology 90, no. 5 (2006): 751. Link.

13. Villalonga-Olives, Ester, and Ichiro Kawachi. "The dark side of social capital: A systematic review of the negative health effects of social capital." Social science & medicine 194 (2017): 105-127. Link.

14. Klinenberg, Eric. Heat wave: A social autopsy of disaster in Chicago. University of Chicago press, 2015. Link.

15. Community Urban Gardening. VPUU, June 10, 2022.

16. Shu, Shi, Christina Batteate, Brian Cole, John Froines, and Yifang Zhu. Air quality impacts of a CicLAvia event in Downtown Los Angeles, CA. Environmental pollution 208 (2016): 170-176. Link.

17. Streetscapes, Khulisa Social Solutions. Tackling the issue of homelessness. 2022. Link.

18. Sesc: quality of life and well-being throughout Brazil. Link.

19. My Health My Community. Social Connection and Health. 2018. Link.

20. Wood, Carly J., Jo L. Barton, and Claire L. Wicks. The Impact of Therapeutic Community Gardening on the Wellbeing, Loneliness, and Life Satisfaction of Individuals with Mental Illness. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 2022. Link.

21. Hart, Deborah M. Political manipulation of urban space: the razing of District Six, Cape Town. Urban Geography 9, no. 6 (1988): 603-628. Link.

22. A Memphis Riverfront Park Turns the Page on Its Fraught Past. Surface. 2023. Link.

23. Near Westside Peacemaking Project. Designing Justice + Designing Spaces. Link.

24. Stern, Mark J., and Susan C. Seifert. The social wellbeing of New York City's neighborhoods: The contribution of culture and the arts. 2017. Link.

25. Trust for Public Land. The Common Ground Framework: building community power through park and green space engagement. 2023. Link.

Considerations Designing, Programming, & Operating Social Infrastructure

+ Case Study Streetscapes, Cape Town

Considerations

Designing, Programming, & Operating Social Infrastructure

Actors

In havens, consider centering bottom-up actors with middle-out support to bridge to top-down funding sources.

Support bonding through design

1. Site havens in places where people of specific backgrounds have been historically underrepresented in public space or infrastructure

→ Shankill Women’s Center is located at the seam of historically Protestant and Catholic neighborhoods and gives women a space to gather across the divide. It is also a former Unionist bonfire site — historically a male-dominated space.

2. Embrace spaces of enclosure that feel intimate and safe, with some porosity for others to join

→ Wildflower Alley in Belfast is an urban oasis with gates that open to the public during “open days” each week.

→ A produce and plant stand that serve functional needs and an open gateway invite Cape Towners to experience the serenity of Streetscapes urban farm during operating hours.

3. Celebrate legacy sites that have historic importance to a specific community(ies)

→ The Institute for New Black Memory is located in the historic Afro-Brazilian port of Rio de Janeiro on the site of a mass grave for enslaved Afro-Brazilians.

4. Dignify the community being centered through bespoke, high-quality design

→ Streetscapes in Cape Town is a beautiful space for unhoused people to rehabilitate their lives through farming, counseling, and everyday skill-building — lush, verdant, and full of essential amenities like laundry, showers, and counseling rooms.

medium for communities to

→ A vibrant timeline installation along the iThemba Walkway tells a story of struggle and resistance of Gugulethu residents for social justice during the apartheid era and beyond, with spaces for community members to memorialize their own past and future milestones.

Shankill Women’s Center

5. Using public art to relate local histories in Gugulethu

Actors

In havens, consider centering bottom-up actors with middle-out support to bridge to top-down funding sources.

Support bonding through program

1. Center collective joy

→ Redes de Maré’s cultural center is a space for dance, music, and the arts — providing an outlet and a refuge for local residents.

→ Circo de Crescer e Vivir brings people together first and foremost to learn about and enjoy the circus arts.

→ Streetscapes and Wildflower Alley bring neighbors together to garden together and take joy in stewarding the land.

4. Streetscapes is building a 14-unit workforce housing facility adjacent to one of its urban farms in Cape Town.

2. Enable collaboration around shared interests

→ The Institute for New Black Memory gathers people interested in Afro-Brazilian history, culture, and archaeology in an interactive gallery, performance, archaeological, and classroom space.

3. Tailor services provided to the needs of the community being served

→ Shankill Women’s Centre will include childcare, play spaces, and health / well-being services / education –programs that women in both Unionist and Nationalist communities called for.

4. Allow the community or interest being centered to evolve over time

→ Circo de Crescer e Vivir started as an organization devoted to circus arts and has evolved to be a holistic community development organization focused on access to health and social services.

→ Streetscapes started by centering farming as a tool for rehabilitation, community building, and workforce development. While the organization’s farms remain in operation, Streetscapes is doubling down on building workforce housing and other more sustainable workforce development programs.

1, 4. Centering the joy of circus arts to empower communities in Rio de Janeiro

CIRCO DE CRESCER E VIVIR

Actors

In havens, consider centering bottom-up actors with middle-out support to bridge to top-down funding sources.

Support bonding through operations

1. Let the grassroots rule

→ Redes da Maré cultural center in Rio de Janeiro is deeply embedded in its neighborhood, in large part, thanks to its embrace and support of community-led programming (e.g., dance lessons, art installations, etc.).

2. Build power by organizing for more resources

→ Bríd Ruddy banded together with neighbors to advocate for more sustained Belfast City funding to remediate the pavers in Wildflower Alley — an organizing effort that laid the groundwork for public art funding and other alley remediation in the Holylands neighborhood.

1. Community groups use the Redes da Maré cultural center as a platform to engage and operate programs

3. Create a governance structure that can endure beyond the moment of peak organizing

→ The Guardiãs of the Jardim Lapena neighborhood in São Paulo, where Galpão ZL is located, came together during the COVID-19 pandemic to distribute supplies to neighbors in need. Today, the network of multi-generational women has expanded from 20 to over 100 members volunteering to provide programs like adult literacy classes and knitting sessions.

4. Encourage each person to give their gifts in whatever form they take

→ As Bríd Ruddy from Wildflower Alley says, “the key to success is keeping it informal, so you can dip into it when you want to … I have one woman who loves to brush, I salt, Jim plants. Everyone has their role.”

5. Create paths for participants to transition into leadership / stewardship roles

→ Rudi was living on the streets and struggling with a substance abuse disorder before he found refuge in Streetscapes urban farm where he began working full time and rehabilitating his life. With Streetscapes’ support, Rudi became a certified peer support service provider, mentoring incoming clients and helping to grow the program.

5. After going through Streetscapes’ program, Rudi transitioned into a leadership role within the organization.

Actors

In hubs, leverage top-down funding, but build middle-out capacity to operate and animate them with community-centric programming.

Support bridging through design

1. Locate hubs in existing crossroads of activity with optimal multi-modal transit access

→ Redes de Maré’s cultural center is a space for dance, music, and the arts — providing an outlet and a refuge for local residents.

→ Lotus Park Neighborhood Center in Gugulethu, Cape Town is located next to a train station that connects the outlying township to the city center — an area frequented by neighborhood residents and activated by clusters of street vendors.

2. Site hubs on seams or historic divides between communities in order to welcome a diversity of people and restitch lost connections

→ Girdwood Community Hub is located on the site of a former barracks that divided two historically Protestant and Catholic neighborhoods. The multi-use community center and recreational facility is accessible to both as a result.

3. Ease the indoor-outdoor transition by designing porous edges and using design cues to signal the transition from outdoor public realm to indoor public realm

→ SESC 24 de Maio in the heart of São Paulo is a multi-story community center with minimal ground floor doors – a lobby-level “indoor living room” for people to hang out and find their way around functioning as an extension of the adjacent streetscape.

→ Harare Library in Monwabisi Park, Cape Town is designed with the same brick used in the adjacent public plaza, visually and materially connecting the two spaces as a coherent public network.

4. Create flexible common and transitional spaces in between purpose-built rooms that encourage people to encounter each other and interact across differences

→ SESC 24 de Maio and SESC Pompeía both have “main streets” within their facilities that stitch together different program-specific and flexible spaces.

→ Flexible spaces at CEU Parque de Carmo host elder aerobics and youth play alike — creating opportunities for intergenerational connection.

3. An open invitation from a Downtown street into SESC 24 de Maio.

1. Lotus Park Neighborhood Center is located at a crossroads of activity

1. Public, indoor play space – a basic and universal need –provided at SESC Pompeia.

Actors

In hubs, leverage top-down funding, but build middle-out capacity to operate and animate them with community-centric programming.

Support bridging through program

1. Provide for universal needs

→ The SESC network of community centers provides a mix of learning, healthcare, cultural, and civic engagement services that anyone and everyone might need to access — rendering them essential places in visitors’ everyday lives.

→ ‘Fun Days’ at Girdwood Community Hub are targeted toward youth with parent attendance encouraged. Family-friendly programming creates a platform for parents of different backgrounds to connect with one another on common ground and build trust.

2. Offer professional growth opportunities through skill-building

→ Lotus Park Neighborhood Center includes a range of educational and workforce development opportunities: employment of local residents to collect data on area waste management and run its sanitation center; early childhood education; and gardening spaces for elders.

2. Local resident are employed to support the neighborhood composting program

3.

Program for a diversity of interests

→ CEU sites operate as early childhood education centers first and foremost, but offer wider community services. Alongside their core educational function, CEUs like CEU Parque do Carmo offer adult fitness classes, informal recreational spaces (e.g., basketball courts), and cultural programming. Just over a year into operations, CEU Parque do Carmo gets 513,000 visits a week from about 80,000 users.

4. Cluster programming for multiple user groups

→ Within Girdwood Community Hub, a youth learning and social hub is located across the hall from a workforce development hub, facilitating early learning for youth about skill-building and career development opportunities.

→ CEU Parque do Carmo — an early childhood education center with broader community appeal — is intentionally located next to a public high school to enable siblings to travel to and from school with one another, and encourage intergenerational mixing more broadly.

4. The play space is woven in with a mix of amenities catering to different users.

In hubs, leverage top-down funding, but build middle-out capacity to operate and animate them with community-centric programming.

“A private, nonprofit entity whose role is enshrined in the national Constitution, [SESC] derives its budget from a 1.5% payroll tax imposed on and collected by Brazilian companies… as the workforce expands, so does the organization’s budget.”

— NYT, link

Support bridging through operations

1. Ensure a steady stream of funding for diverse service provision / programming

→ SESC facilities benefit from a constitutionally enshrined corporate tax as their funding source. This powers its diverse range of programming — from music events to ceramics studios to a cafeteria to auditoriums for civic dialogues and events.

2. Let community-based organizations lead on program, and governments lead on funding.

→ The third generation of CEU early childhood educational spaces has adopted a community partnership model, in which the Department of Education defers to community-based organizations to lead day-to-day programming. The community-based organization behind CEU Parque do Carmo, for example, has become so successful in activating the space it is the go-to organization responsible for 12 locations in the CEU network.

1. The SESC funding model leverages a strong local economy to benefit the public.

Day-to-day programming

Department of Education

Hangouts

Key Actors

In hangouts, ensure leadership of top-down actors who can sustain these spaces on a large scale.

Support hangouts through design

1. Re-stitch once-divisive infrastructure as space to gather and explore

→ Avenida Paulista in São Paulo transforms every Sunday into a vibrant open street, supporting a culture shift away from car-dominated streets to ones that foster human connection.

→ Forth Meadow Community Greenway in Belfast stitches together once-divided neighborhoods, encouraging residents to meander and encounter previously ‘off-limits’ parts of the city.

2. Let nature be a source of common ground and shared experience

→ Green Point Urban Park is an expansive green space teeming with native plants that educates on and celebrates South Africa’s Western Cape ecology — connecting people based on the shared experience of the environment.

3. Encourage people to make the space their own without interference or regulation

→ The beaches of Rio de Janeiro are a blank, open-ended canvas for public life. With no commercial edges, they feel unapologetically public — encouraging people to claim small nooks and large areas on the beachfront and adjacent promenade — for everything from sunbathing to fitness to dance to picnics.

4. Embed unifying installations that acknowledge past harm, celebrate histories, and/or symbolize community togetherness

→ Forth Meadow Greenway connects once-divided Belfast neighborhoods to one another and includes a major public art installation that was directly informed by the artist’s engagement with community members, especially youth. The sculpture symbolizes unity, vision, and future plans.

5. Design with comfort in mind and arrange seating and activity areas to enable light, informal social interaction

→ The ‘chatty benches’ program in the U.K. — established in response to rising social isolation during the Covid-19 pandemic — funds seating designed to prompt conversation. A bright, L-shaped installation in Belfast’s Holylands neighborhood allows neighbors to sit peacefully side-by-side or strike up a chat.

2. Celebrating shared ecological heritage at Green Point Urban Park 1, 4. A focal commitment to unity in Belfast

In hangouts, ensure leadership of top-down actors who can sustain these spaces on a large scale.

Support hangouts through program

1. Let leisure define the activities supported in hangouts

→ Among other features, immersive gardens, interactive public art, a sprawling playground complete with water play features, winding gravel trails, and vast lawns for lounging all make Green Point Urban Park central Cape Town’s go-to leisure time destination.

3. iThemba Walkway is regularly host to community-organized events where neighbors make the space their own

2. Let people make it into their own

→ Rio de Janeiro’s beachfront is a natural wonder and a blank, sandy canvas for public life — with people sunbathing, picnicking, working out, dancing, playing, and participating in cultural / spiritual activities.

3. Create celebratory rituals for public life

→ Avenida Paulista has historically been a car-centric thoroughfare in the heart of São Paulo — the weekly open streets event on Sundays has transformed locals’ relationship to the street over the years, with an average of 43 cultural activities taking place each Sunday, and 950 people recorded walking and another 70 recorded biking by every five minutes.

→ For Heritage Day, a public holiday in South Africa celebrating cultural diversity, neighbors brought out chairs and donned traditional attire to watch a dance

c. Create celebratory rituals for public life performance by students from a nearby school. The Walkway is regularly a backdrop for both planned and impromptu community gatherings.

. Biodiversity gardens for ecolearning at Green Point Urban Park

Hangouts

Key Actors

In hangouts, ensure leadership of top-down actors who can sustain these spaces on a large scale.

Support hangouts through operations

1. Secure long-term government or public-private funding models

→ Over 7 miles long, the Forth Meadow Community Greenway is a £6.2million European Union (EU) PEACE IV-funded project. The major EU funding commitment for capital costs was paired with a year’s worth of multicultural programming funding to activate the site, introduce it to residents, and invite shared use across community lines. Now funded and maintained by Belfast City Council, the greenway was designed with native, wild landscaping to minimize upkeep costs.

2. Program in light ways, occasionally — the space itself should create an everyday rhythm

→ Green Point Urban Park includes a mix of spaces that generate interest in a sustained way — such as a cascading water feature that the kids love, a picnic area, a biodiversity gym, and an immersive, educational biodiversity garden. The park hosts a range of events and festivals throughout the year, including music concerts, food festivals, and outdoor movie screenings.

1. Committing to supporting the Forth Meadow Community Greenway for the long term

3. Partner with local organizations and collectives to land operations in a context-sensitive way

→ Avenida Paulista’s open streets program partners with a wide range of vendors, artists, and cultural groups to activate the space and provide an invitation for a diverse range of people and interests.

. Community-led music at Avenida Paulista

BELFAST CITY COUNCIL

Case Study Streetscapes, Cape Town

Rudi was living on the streets of Cape Town’s city centre, disconnected from City amenities and resources. What should have been a place to gather became a place of isolation, dehumanization, and criminalization.

RudifoundrefugeinStreetscapesurban garden—anurbanfarmco-locatedwith counselingrooms,showers,toilets,and laundryfacilities.

Byworkingfull-timeatStreetscape,hegotto connectwithhisunhousedneighborsina peacefulsetting—bondingovershared experienceinadignifyingenvironment.

Overtime,hebecameanexpertinurban gardening,evenwhilesleepingonthe streetsatnight.Mostimportantly,he developedtheagencyandlifeskillsneededto navigatehishousingandsubstanceabuse challenges.

Rudisethisowntimelineforre-entering housing—whenhewasready,hesecureda homewiththeStreetscapeshousing program.Hestilllivestheretoday,8years later.

Today,RudiisapeermentoratStreetscapes urbanfarm,managingnewclientsasthey entertheworkforceandservingasaguide andsoundingboardastheynavigatetheir ownjourneyoffthestreets,intothefarm, andintohousing.

How?

Itstartedwithaplaceforconnection–a dignifyingoasisandurbanfarmwhereall peoplearemetandacceptedashumans–aplacetojustbe...

Racist displacement of families and demolition of houses in Cape Town’s District Six neighborhood

Underneaththisoasisisaplacetoform bondsandrecover,onethatJesse,the programʼsfounder,envisionedtodelivera morehumanmodelofcaretounhoused peopleinCapeTownlikeRudi.

…inaneighborhoodwherejustbeing wasnʼtalwaysprotected.Between1966and 1982,some60,000residentsofcolorwere forciblyremovedfromthisneighborhood whentheapartheidgovernmentdeclared itawhitearea.1

Jesseidentifiedandconvertedavacantlot intotheurbanfarmandsecuredastipend for600employeesthroughSouthAfricaʼs PublicEmploymentFund.2

Hangout

Repairing Past Harm

Meet Jesse Laitinen

Savvy Intermediary

Haven

Centering harm reduction

Recognizingherdistancefromthelived experienceofpeopleonCapeTownʼs streets,Jesseco-designedatreatment programalongsideclients–onecentered onharmreductionandimprovementover sobriety.

Rudi,oneoftheprogramʼsfirstclients, foundrefugeandcommunityattheurban farmandbeganworkingforStreetscapes full-time.

helpingtosustainandgrowtheprogram.

Bottom-Up Action

Rudi

✔ 84% daily attendance 1

✔ 87% of Streetscapes’ clients participate in a substance recovery program 1

Full-timeworkattheurbanfarmprovides thestability,structure,andpositive environmenttoempowerclientsto rehabilitatetheirlives.

Clientscompletequarterlyreflections, includingself-reporteduselevels,that allowStreetscapestotrackprogressand advocatefortheircommunity-based treatmentmodel. Data Collection

✔ 79% move off the streets in 6 months 1

Oncetheyaresettledintofull-timework andconnectedtoasupportivecommunity, clientscanapplytoliveatoneof Streetscapesʼworkforceresidences –high-qualityaccommodationswithgreen featuresthatminimizeresidentutilitycosts.

1.

Source: Tackling the Issue of Homelessness, Khulisa.org

2. Streetscapes partnered with Natural Homes to build off-grid, carbon negative apartments in central Cape Town..

Tocoordinateeffortsacrossthecity,Jesse helpedsetupataskforceofNGOsthathas monthlyfacetimewiththemayor,creating adirectpipelinefromcommunity memberstothecityʼshighestseatof powertostreamlineandscaleimpact.

Withtheadditionofmorepeersupport serviceproviders,thehuman-centered careprogramcontinuestoadaptand evolvetobestserveclientneeds.

Streetscapesʼfoururbanfarmsare neighborhoodamenitiesanddignified spacesforrecoveryandempowerment; theyaresafeandinvitingplacesof exchangewithpeoplelivingonthestreet, inacitywithveryfewsuchplaces.

Hangout + Haven

Savvy Intermediary

Mayor of Cape Town

The Streetscapes Team