Community Indicators Victoria (CIV)

Community Indicators Victoria (CIV), hosted by the McCaughey Centre, is a collaborative project involving academics, government, and community groups, and support from the Australian Bureau of Statistics. The purpose of CIV is the development and use of local community wellbeing indicators as the basis for informed, engaged and integrated community planning and policy making. The project was established as a result of the Victorian Community Indicators Project, which developed a framework of agreed community wellbeing indicators to assist in local government planning.

CIV is a data resource and reporting tool based on an integrated set of local community wellbeing indicators.  These indicators provide measures of wellbeing within a community, and cover a range of broad areas including social, economic, environmental, cultural and governance issues. The CIV wellbeing indicators have been developed as a resource to support informed engaged and integrated community planning and policy making.  

The CIV wellbeing indicators are:

• A democratic tool for engaging citizens and communities in informed discussions about shared goals and priorities;
• A policy tool, guiding evidence-based planning and action to address the issues identified as important by communities;
• A reporting tool, tracking and communicating progress towards agreed goals and outcomes.

CIV data will be publicly accessible through the new CIV website, due for launch in July 2007.  This will allow individuals, community groups, local government and policy makers to obtain a unique snapshot of how their communities are travelling.  CIV data will also support community discussions on the priorities for future action.

CIV Data sources

CIV data sources include existing administrative data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics and Victorian Government and the new Community Indicators Victoria 2007 Survey.  24,000 Victorians have responded to the new survey, which sampled 300 residents in all 79 Local Government Areas across Victoria.  This survey was specifically developed to build on existing administrative data sources and meet the need for new local government level measures of community wellbeing.

Please contact Dr Melanie Davern with queries regarding the CIV website and CIV data.
Please contact Sue West with queries regarding CIV and community engagement.

Available now: new CIV website

The Community Indicators Victoria website has undergone a major upgrade, and was launched in conjunction with the McCaughey Centre's official launch on the 16th July 2007. Visitors to the new CIV website can generate automated Wellbeing Reports for each local government area in Victoria. These reports contain a select number of community wellbeing indicators to highlight important trends and issues in your community.

The website also provides the additional options of Live Reports and My Reports for members to create and save their own reports. Visitors to the site can log on for free membership of Community Indicators Victoria, enabling the user to generate customised wellbeing reports. These Live Reports ask users to choose their indicators and Local Government Areas of interest before immediately presenting the results live on the screen.

The website also includes:

• An online tutorial to guide users through the website;
• Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ's);
• Links to other indicators sets and links to Australian, International and Global initiatives related to community sustainability, community wellbeing and quality of life; and
• Opportunities for users to request research consultancy services.

Visit the new Community Indicators Victoria website and become a member today!

CIV Information for Local Governments and Community Organisations

To coincide with the official launch of the McCaughey Centre, and the launch of the new Community Indicators Victoria website, the team has compiled a number of fact sheets and a CIV resource guide to provide further background information on the McCaughey Centre, and to provide CIV users with information about the data and the website tool.

Introducing the McCaughey Centre
Background to the life and work of Davis and Jean McCaughey
Introducing Community Indicators Victoria
How to use the Community Indicators Victoria website
How community wellbeing indicators will be used locally
Community Indicators Victoria - interesting findings
Community Indicators Victoria Resource Guide (15 pages)