By Ryan Leverenz, Principal Consultant, Leverenz & Associates
Many of the organizations we work with today are centering community as a core measure of success and a defining part of their mission, regardless of industry or service.
At the HCNW Spring Networking Breakfast in May, I found myself listening for how communicators are being asked to help their organizations create connection in ways that feel far more intentional than even a few years ago. More than any time in my career, I’m seeing our role as the connective tissue — inviting people in, informing them honestly, and creating the conditions for participation and community.
There is little doubt that this shift is, in part, a response to the pandemic, which took an outsized toll on healthcare workers, while accelerating society-wide isolation through remote work. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention now describes loneliness and social isolation as widespread public-health concerns, noting that social connection is shaped by the places where we live, work, learn, worship, and gather.
While many of healthcare’s most important moments are still one-to-one, we see a yearning to identify ways in which participation and trust – in a community setting – allows healthcare companies to put their core values into action.
Third Spaces and the Healthcare Environment
Increasingly, the idea of the “third space” — environments distinct from home and work — has migrated from urban-planning vocabulary into mainstream culture.
The term is now used to describe everything from member clubs and houses of worship to fitness studios and professional networks: places where people gather not simply to transact, but to connect, recover, and process the day together.
We are seeing this shift influence the design of physical environments as well. Architects are reimagining shared amenities in office buildings and multifamily housing as gathering spaces that intentionally blur traditional boundaries between tenants, neighbors, and visitors. Across industries, organizations are beginning to think more carefully about the role space itself plays in fostering connection.
That shift is also influencing healthcare.
In hospitals, spaces that once felt purely functional are increasingly being reconsidered as part of the care environment itself. Hospital cafés, staff dining areas, and gathering spaces are being designed not simply for efficiency, but to support wellness, recovery, and resilience among healthcare workers and visitors alike.
A recent report from Sodexo described thoughtfully designed healthcare dining spaces as environments that support “wellness, performance, connection and resilience.” In that framing, cafés and markets become extensions of care themselves — places where clinicians briefly recover, visitors recharge, and moments of connection happen organically.
As communicators, how can we identify and facilitate the ways our organizations already function as gathering spaces for community and trust?
Creating Together
In many organizations, communicators are uniquely positioned to gather people together — not only through messaging, but through the experiences, conversations, and shared moments they help facilitate.
A few weeks ago in New York City, I met with the team behind The Longest Table. In 2022, its founders tested what they described as “a deceptively simple theory,”: if you place a long table in a public space, fill it with neighbors, and share a meal together, something meaningful happens.
They now receive hundreds of requests from communities around the world hoping to recreate the experience in their own cities.
Participation matters as much as the final product. That distinction feels increasingly important in healthcare communications, where trust is being built on messaging combined with involvement, visibility, and shared experience.
Hillsboro Medical Center’s Family Zone debuted at the new Hillsboro Hops stadium with the 2026 season. It includes a playground and affordable berm seating so families can enjoy a mix of activities, including a baseball game.
Healthcare is increasingly challenged by the availability of space, limits on time, staff shortages, and operational pressures. The Family Zone is a way for HMC to be present alongside an existing community activity nearby the hospital.
As communicators, are we connecting our organizations’ values to the moments where community is already forming? Or are there opportunities for us to intentionally create those moments ourselves?
Moments of Crisis
At the HCNW Spring Networking Breakfast, I heard several examples of communicators acting less like campaign managers and more like conveners — bringing people together in moments where information, trust, and community all mattered simultaneously.
Instead of immediately launching an internal campaign, one local health insurer organized a listening tour for employees facing major questions about the organization’s future. The communications and engagement teams prepared the President & CEO and Chief Administrative Officer to participate directly in the sessions, answering urgent questions transparently.
They committed to following up where answers were still evolving, and the CEO made it clear that he was open to further conversation on Teams, in a 1:1 meeting, or by inviting employees into a team meeting. He offered to show up and be with employees. Not new, but increasingly rare.
No brand assets needed.
Just conversation and coming together as a community, and a better understanding for the communications and engagement teams of the best next steps to support employees during this time of change.
Another attendee described a hospital all-staff meeting held in a visible corner of the hospital entryway. Visitors and patients could see the conversation as staff gathered together for the moment. The organization trusted the transparency of the interaction itself, and, in doing so, communicated something larger: we come together as a community when we need to.
The Communicator Challenge
The need for community has only intensified since the pandemic, but the expectations placed on communicators have changed as well.
Increasingly, communicators are not simply responsible for shaping messages. We are responsible for helping gather people together — inviting participation, informing with clarity, and facilitating the moments where trust and belonging can emerge.
Sometimes that looks like storytelling. Sometimes it looks like convening difficult conversations, creating space for transparency, or helping organizations visibly come together in moments that matter.
Community building is not just about broadcasting. It is about facilitating dialogue, trust, and participation.
When communication feels authentic and collective, it becomes the connective tissue that turns audiences into communities.
And increasingly, that may be one of the most important responsibilities our profession carries forward.