Building a community hub: From concept plan to implementation
YWCA Hamilton recently opened the doors of the Putman Family YWCA, a renewal of their location at 51 Ottawa Street North in Hamilton. The new facility is a dynamic community hub combining affordable housing, economic development infrastructure, and state-of the-art green building technology. As is the case with many successful projects, planning was key right from the beginning. The challenge with this project was understanding the local context in order to facilitate the development of a community hub from concept to implementation.
YWCA Hamilton commissioned Civicplan to develop a concept plan for the community hub and was guided by three important themes:
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- Who would it serve? Understand the needs of the local community and stakeholders through engagement to establish a vision for the community hub.
- How will it integrate with the neighbourhood? Understand how the physical building is situated within an existing and transforming neighbourhood and business district, as well as how it fit within existing and future municipal plans and policies.
- How will it advance important social and economic development goals? Identify opportunities for partnerships and funding to make the plan a reality.
What emerged from this work were two clear directions: first to create flexible space for core services, such as supporting seniors and childcare; and second, to develop a centre of innovation supporting women’s entrepreneurship, employment, and training. The centre was proposed as key for building future partnerships with surrounding businesses and community leaders in education and industry, as well as being a draw for women in the Hamilton/Halton regions, more generally.
Click here to read the full article from Y Magazine of the Ontario Professional Planners Institute