Community program

Learn about the work of the Community Data Liaison Officers

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Community Data Liaison Officers

As part of the Life Course Data Initiative (LCDI), two Community Data Liaison Officers (CDLOs) are working with communities, community organisations, and place-based initiatives across Australia. The LCDI community program is helping communities find and access data and build capability in using and interpreting data for local decision making. The program is also gathering community insights to inform future statistical outputs to better meet community needs. 

Community engagement cycle

Image of a flow chart showing community engagement cycle

The ABS community engagement cycle is as follows: Listen to community, Understand the community's story, Work together to understand data needs, Help community find access and use data. At the centre of all these steps we listen, understand, co-design, test and revise to improve outcomes for communities.

The CDLOs help communities to: 

  1. Find relevant data
    • identify available data to address community priorities
    • access data including potential new data sources.
  2. Use data
    • build skills in using data through training
    • build confidence in understanding data.
  3. Contribute to new LCDI data outputs
    • provide input on data accessibility and presentation
    • provide feedback to inform new data outputs as part of the LCDI.
  4. Community context
    • provide local context for data. 

 

Examples of LCDI community program

Example 1:

A place-based initiative wanted a better understanding of the number and characteristics of children who are enrolled in childcare in their local area. 

A Community Data Liaison Officer (CDLO) spoke with the community organisation about their data needs. The CDLO arranged for publicly available de-identified childcare data to be provided, together with data on the population of children aged 0-5 years. These data will be used by the community to better understand the proportion of local children enrolled in early childhood education.

Example 2: 

A community organisation wanted to understand how far residents travel to access health-related services in their area.

A Community Data Liaison Officer sought details on this data need. This feedback is now part of intelligence gathered from communities that could inform future statistical developments.  

Example 3:  

A community organisation wanted to understand the number of families with dependent children where a member of the family has a chronic health condition.  

The Community Data Liaison Officer provided data from ABS TableBuilder, together with resources to help the community obtain data from TableBuilder in future. The data are being used to explore possible education and support sessions for families.  

Supporting Governance of Indigenous Data

The LCDI community program supports the Australian Public Service Framework for Governance of Indigenous Data. Community Data Liaison Officers are exploring opportunities to collaborate with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.

Contacting the LCDI community program team

The LCDI community team can be contacted by emailing lcdi.community@abs.gov.au.