Summary
What is it?
This community profile is a quantitative snapshot of your local area designed to identify the unique attributes of your local community ‘at a glance’.
Why use it?
A community profile that harnesses publicly available information is the first, zero-cost step to understanding more about your local area.
Use it to recognise interesting groups of people in your community, to compare your local community to a wider region, and to identify opportunities or challenges you can respond to.
Before you start
Is this tool right for you? To find out more about selecting the best tool, check out Plan your Audience Research Project.
What you'll need
| Time | 1 day to prepare, 2 hours for reflection |
|---|---|
| Budget | No cost |
| Equipment | Computer, internet |
Top tip
Your work doesn’t end when you fill out the template. Find the most interesting challenge or opportunity for your local community and take action!
Linking your organisation to a local issue, such as welcoming migrants or young families to the area, will help strengthen your impact, and could assist you with advocacy with your local council, funders, and other community groups.
Step by step
1. Choose your communities
First, confirm the Local Government Area (LGA) you wish to build a community profile for – a good start is where you or your organisation is located. Decide what ‘other’ area you would like to compare your LGA to. This could be as small or large as you like:
- Greater Melbourne
- Regional Victoria
- Victoria
- Australia
- A wider region that your LGA sits in.
2. Populate the community profile template
Download
Open the community profile template above. Insert your logo and change the colour scheme (if desired).
Follow the prompts in the template to build your community profile tables and charts.
You can use the table below to see where the publicly available information you need comes from. A quick web search will help you find the right page.
| Data | Source/s |
|---|---|
| Population | ABS or Profile ID |
| Median income | ABS or Profile ID |
| Age segments | ABS or Profile ID |
Education – a metric correlated to participation in creative arts | ABS or Profile ID |
| Overseas arrivals | ABS or Profile ID |
| Top 3 languages spoken | ABS or Profile ID |
| Wellbeing indicators | VicHealth Survey |
| Household types | ABS or Profile ID |
| Household density | ABS or Profile ID |
| Suburbs in the LGA | Profile ID or your local council website |
3. Identify your key take outs
Take some time to review each table and chart.
In the tables, where your LGA is higher than your comparison area colour your LGA cell green. Where it’s lower, colour it red.
Fill in your take outs on the right-hand side of the template, and take a moment to reflect on what stands out most:
- E.g. A large proportion of your local community speaks Vietnamese. How accessible is your organisation to this group?
- E.g. Your community are more likely to live in high-density accommodation. What spaces can you make available for greater public use?
- E.g. Does your local community feel much less a part of a tight-knit community than your comparison? If so, there may be an opportunity for you to bring your community together. If you think you already do this for some of your community, consider conducting a short survey of your attendees to compare results to better understand the depth or extent of your impact.