The aim of this project is to make it possible for community groups, local agencies and organisations to gather credible, good quality information about their communities and publish it.

This information could be used to help to identify the strengths and weaknesses facing communities - an important step if the community, NGOs and agencies are to work with a community’s strengths and address local issues. 

The collection and publication of this information would also ensure that the community, government agencies and NGOs all had access to the same information.

The following report is written is based on work with the Northcote Child and Youth Project

This guide does not make a Community Profile `easy’ to write nor has it sorted out all the data issues they encountered.  In many cases the processes have been clarified and streamlined, however there are still a wide range of challenges which have not yet been able to be sorted.  For this reason, the collection of local data is still largely dependent on goodwill and the relationships those collecting the data have with local groups, NGOs, and government agencies and with those working in the community.

It is, however hoped, that this guide and the work they have done to date will begin to make it easier to collect robust and reliable community information.