The Service Hub Concept in Human Services Planning

This monograph examines how the concept of a "service hub" could assist in the delivery of human services. This concept emphasises and builds upon the networks that exist between human service clients and the facilities designed to help them and concludes by co-location of facilities relative to groups in need, a more effective service delivery is achieved. The problematic of human services focuses on the notion of service hubs, but also incorporates four other elements: assessing and assigning needy clients to appropriate treatment settings; facilitating the actual and potential social networks of clients; addressing the relationship between the service facility and its host community; and determining the socio-spatial goals of the service delivery system. The principles of the service hub concept involve the co-location of a set of relatively small-scale, community-based facilities in such close physical proximity that interaction between them is feasible to the extent that the set of facilities functions as an integrated unit.
Service hub interaction depends on the effectiveness of the assignment and referral process, as well as the hub's ability to capitalise on client-coping networks. Two case-studies of service hubs in Los Angeles underscore the significance of geography in service hub structure and in the lives of homeless people. A third case study demonstrates how service hubs are constructed by adding-on carefully selected existing community networks. As any plan for the construction of a region-wide system of service hubs is likely to run into community opposition at the local level, such a plan should also include a community outreach program as part of its overall strategy. "Fair-share" principles in regional human service systems are also considered, and the fundamental issue of overcoming stigma and discrimination based on disability and difference is highlighted in a future research agenda. AUDIENCE For those interested in the planning and delivery of community facilities.
 
This monograph examines how the concept of a "service hub" could assist in the delivery of human services. This concept emphasises and builds upon the networks that exist between human service clients and the facilities designed to help them and concludes by co-location of facilities relative to groups in need, a more effective service delivery is achieved. The problematic of human services focuses on the notion of service hubs, but also incorporates four other elements: assessing and assigning needy clients to appropriate treatment settings; facilitating the actual and potential social networks of clients; addressing the relationship between the service facility and its host community; and determining the socio-spatial goals of the service delivery system. The principles of the service hub concept involve the co-location of a set of relatively small-scale, community-based facilities in such close physical proximity that interaction between them is feasible to the extent that the set of facilities functions as an integrated unit.
Service hub interaction depends on the effectiveness of the assignment and referral process, as well as the hub's ability to capitalise on client-coping networks. Two case-studies of service hubs in Los Angeles underscore the significance of geography in service hub structure and in the lives of homeless people. A third case study demonstrates how service hubs are constructed by adding-on carefully selected existing community networks. As any plan for the construction of a region-wide system of service hubs is likely to run into community opposition at the local level, such a plan should also include a community outreach program as part of its overall strategy. "Fair-share" principles in regional human service systems are also considered, and the fundamental issue of overcoming stigma and discrimination based on disability and difference is highlighted in a future research agenda. AUDIENCE For those interested in the planning and delivery of community facilities.