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Information provision services to the general public have, since their inception in South Africa, been biased towards the white minority in the community. In reaction to the imbalanced position and in an effort to re‐dress inadequacies experienced through the existing public library system, alternative community‐driven information provision services were introduced. In this study, the three existing information provision services currently operating in South Africa, i.e. the public library services, community libraries and resource centres, will be discussed and compared. The strengths and weaknesses of each system will be examined, and suggestions put forward as to possible adaptations that can be made in order to develop information provision services, servicing all inhabitants of the country on an equal basis.

There is a strong tradition of integration in rural community hospitals which has been largely unrecognised in the past. The national strategy for health in England now gives community hospitals a central role in providing integrated health and social care, in a policy referred to as ‘care closer to home’. The evidence emerging from international and national studies is demonstrating the benefit of the community hospital model of care. Public support for community hospitals over their 100‐year history has been strong, with value being placed on accessibility, quality and continuity. There is, however, a tension between the national policy and the current financial pressures to close or reduce services in one in three community hospitals in England. Innovative ways of owning and managing these services are being put forward by communities who are actively seeking to maintain and develop their local hospitals. The challenge is to demonstrate that community hospital services are valued models of person‐centred integrated care, and to demonstrate their contribution to the health and well‐being of their communities.

Persistent and particular health and social care challenges face socially excluded groups and communities in the more deprived areas of the country. Involvement of communities in design and delivery of services, including those whose voices have traditionally not been heard, will help to shape services to meet better their health and well‐being needs. Effective community‐led commissioning can empower individuals and communities by giving them the chance to voice their needs, while local ownership of the process will increase the relevance of services, and improve their uptake and sustainability. For commissioners, the ‘World Class’ commissioning agenda is about connecting development of services with the real requirements of communities, and increasing engagement and satisfaction with services.

The implications of a qualitative research study into community engagement (CE) and public libraries are presented in this chapter. It involved three case studies in England. The research methods employed included 34 semi-structured interviews, 12 direct observations, and document analysis. The viewpoints of both service providers and service users were captured. All data were analyzed using thematic analysis, in an inductive fashion. After summarizing the literature, six practical aspects of CE in relation to library practice were identified which were: public libraries as a community space; partnerships; community involvement in the library service; involvement of volunteers; working around books or information; and engaging in public dialogue and deliberation. The study, based on empirical data, concludes that while the public library as a community space was recognized as a key aspect to foster CE, it is a passive form of CE. A stronger level of partnership and community involvement is required for the promotion of genuine CE, wherein the community-driven approach and the organic nature of the CE process are paramount to engagement. It was observed that little systematic research has been done to examine the CE process in practice in public libraries. Nor have the practical implications of CE for public libraries been addressed. This study provides practical implications of CE for public libraries, as a first step toward systematic research in this area.

This study aims to ascertain the forms of social enterprises created for public services and the dimensions of community-based management of public facilities. It seeks to understand how community-based facilities management (CbFM) can apply to the management of public services created by social enterprises in developing communities.

The study examines research studies on CbFM through a scoping review of papers published between 1997 and 2022.

The scoping review revealed that there are five dimensions of CbFM for developing communities: CbFM, urban facilities management, sustainable CbFM, urban infrastructure management and management of community hubs. It also revealed that social enterprises have been used to manage services, and for social inclusion, and to increase the efficiency of tangible infrastructure in communities.

The scoping review included literature from 1997 to 2022 to understand the development trends in CbFM in developing communities. It is possible that literature from a broader timeframe could have produced more in-depth understanding of the subject investigated.

The paper articulates a framework of CbFM models for public services in developing communities and developed a database of the relevant studies, which can further guide future researchers, stakeholders and policymakers in this area.

The comprehensive review produced a framework for community management of public services. It also identified that there is a paucity of literature on social infrastructure. It highlighted the need for skillsets to support community-based enterprises. There are limited studies that touch on the development of performance indicators for developing communities.

Examines the relationship between the library service and the local community in Northern Ireland, using Portadown as a case study. A review of the literature explores complex links between the concepts of social disadvantage and political division and violence, as the library service must function within a community where deep divisions exist. Librarians and local groups from both communities were interviewed individually, and in focus groups, to explore their perceptions of the current role and function of the library service in such a deeply divided town. Amongst the findings was the perception by local people that social and political barriers existed, preventing optimum use of the public library service by all sectors of the community. Furthermore, the emphasis on traditional aspects of library service meant that local groups were circumventing the library service and setting up their own community information provision. Thus, unless the library service could become more fully integrated into the whole community, it would become increasingly marginalised within such a community.

Clients often report reluctance in attending publicly funded mental health services, particularly when those services are provided at segregated and stand‐alone locations well known to the wider community. One way to address this stigma‐driven reluctance to attend appointments is to deliver mental health services in combination with employment services, education and training, income support, housing, disability support, legal services, and other health services, as an essential suite of community services. This paper aims to research this possibility.

The paper outlines the early planning and implementation phases of the Huntly Community Link project.

The paper finds that ongoing joint governance and management, clear on‐site leadership, and an evaluation strategy are needed to ensure joint service delivery goals are attained.

Several important practical issues emerge. For instance, differences in organisational culture take time to change towards greater support for the new joint service delivery goals.

Early indicators suggest that the Huntly Community highly values the joint delivery of these essential services from a suitable purpose designed building.

This is an innovative New Zealand program that promises to reduce attendance stigma by nesting the delivery of publicly‐funded mental health services among a broad mix of other essential community services.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the role of service flexibility in addressing consumer vulnerability for chronically-traumatized consumers within the funerary context.

Using phenomenological philosophy and a grounded approach, data was collected and analyzed through 12 depth interviews with funeral service providers, coupled with observations and photographs of three second-line funeral processionals.

Study results include the following three primary roles of service providers in supporting chronically-traumatized consumers: the role of service fluidity in addressing trauma, mitigating vulnerability via service providers as community members and alleviating suffering through compassionate service. Service flexibility and value co-creation efforts were executed through an expansive service ecosystem of vendors.

When consumers experience vulnerability that demands reliance upon service industries, service providers can intentionally implement fluidity and agility in service design, adopt understanding and altruistic practices, and operate with empathy and compassion to orchestrate mutually-beneficial service outcomes.

Rooted in transformative service research, providers are advised to consider modifying services to improve well-being and mitigate vulnerability for chronically-traumatized consumers via fluidity, community and compassion.

This study contributes originality to the body of service marketing literature by illustrating how service providers alleviate vulnerability for chronically-traumatized consumers through three adaptive service strategies.

The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of consumer and community engagement in health service planning, quality improvement and programme evaluation in Australia, and key components and importance of a strong suite of tools for achieving effective outcomes.

This paper is a non-systematic review of Australian national, state and territory websites in relation to policy commitment to consumer engagement, best practice framework for consumer engagement and recent project example.

Consumer engagement is a recognised component of the Australian health system. It is reflected in the national and state health policy and is a mandatory requirement of hospital accreditation. The application of co-design principles is gaining increasing popularity in health service planning and programme evaluation. Co-design is an important enabler of patient/community-centred service planning and evaluation; however, on its own it may lead to poorer outcomes. Co-design must occur within a broader systemic framework.

The research identifies a conceptual framework, approaches and tools of value to health service management and planners.

Consumer and community engagements are critical to the development of consumer-centric services. However, this should complement and add value to, not divert attention away from established principles of service planning, continuous quality improvement and programme evaluation. To do so may result in poorer quality health and well-being outcomes, reduced efficiency and ultimately reduced consumer and community satisfaction with services. This paper examines consumer and community engagement within the broader planning and quality improvement framework and practical implications for keeping planning, research and evaluation on track.

This paper aims to explore service learning with its insights in empowering corporate responsibility awareness. Attempts to build corporate responsibility widely in incorporating into the sustainability engagement could be demonstrated in fostering the transformative experiential learning with extensive evaluation and reconfiguration of existing programs. The focus on enhancing the learning experience in emphasizing the community engagement would be applied with strengthening the actual performance in encompassing the ability raising awareness about the environmental issues.

The approach used in this paper refers to develop the conceptual framework about the service learning with various strategies to give insight on corporate social responsibility (CSR). Incorporating the approach of conceptualizing the basis of service learning, key consideration was generated into particular enhancement of service learning in contributing to the CSR.

The finding reveals that getting benefit to serving into the community engagement may take beneficial outcomes with its valuable insight to assist in the progress of program designed with associating to enhance corporate responsibility and sustainability awareness. The advancement of the social control among the companies would be deployed within empowering service learning for CSR where sustainability awareness-based community service as embodiment of CSR should be enhanced through nurturing corporate responsibility-based transformative experiential learning. Moreover, this initiative refers to an attempt to strengthen the basis of corporate responsibility and sustainability awareness-based experiential learning, which could enlarge creative thinking with envisioning sustainability and corporate responsibility.

This study is expected to contribute to the experiential learning to enhance the sustainability within the learning setting engaged in achieving what to contribute to the environmental concern. In creating the situation where the balance between serving and learning can be achieved, attempts to encourage them in joining the service learning program should be collaborated with orienting both personal and social community oriented comprehensively in underlying the responsibility awareness, the sustainability-based moral values. These aim to enhance the understanding stage about the care for protecting the environmental concern within learning experience with the goal to produce responsible awareness especially by economic agents such as shareholders, managers, regulators and active participants to promote sustainable benefits.