Objectives: To explore the mechanisms that enable older adults who may be at risk of social and physical isolation to engage with community-hub based wellness programs to improve their experience of ageing.

Methods: A qualitative phenomenological design and a realist (context-mechanism-outcomes) approach were used to understand triggers from the context of the older person, community-hub, and national-hub levels. Data were gathered using semi-structured surveys at a community-hub open day, and a recorded telephone interview for a purposive sample of individual, community-hub, and national-hub representatives.

Results: There were n=29 older adults who completed surveys during the Open Day, and n=9 older adults, n=8 community hub facilitators, and n=2 National hub leads who completed a telephone interview. The overarching theme that emerged was the local concern in maintaining resilient intergenerational populations to support individual older adults ageing in their community. The community-hub concierge role was instrumental as a main theme in socially motivating the individual-older adult to engage in person and remotely using online technology, which then triggered capacity building, reciprocity, local collaboration, captured stories, diverse wellness activities, and dynamic social networks.

Conclusion: Sustainable community-hubs feature extended social networks that enabled the individual older and more vulnerable community members to have a positive ageing experience in their own home and community. The study revealed the social investment of community-hubs for intergenerational populations through streamlined health and social services and additional local vocations. Given the benefits, there is an appetite for more community-hubs to proliferate in urban and remote Australian communities.