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What is it?

The Community Data Program (CDP) supports federal and provincial government departments and agencies, national non-profit organisations requiring assistance in analysing complex data sets to get the evidence they need for sound decision making in their social innovation initiatives.

It’s called Community Analytics.

Today more than ever, effective program development and evaluation need to be supported by research that generates evidence ensuring the best possible use of resources – financial and otherwise.

The CDP pools three of its key resources to offer clients the research and custom products they need: extensive data holdings, a network of over 400 member organizations across Canada, and research experience and expertise.

What is offered?

To ensure custom and cost-effective service, clients may choose from:

  • Custom community data analysis: for clients interested in acquiring custom data products and data analysis at any geographic scale designed to meet their unique needs and specifications
  • Mapping & data visualisation: for clients interested in creating customized maps, integrating web-based data visualisations, and enabling geo spatial analysis of small area data
  • Research & evaluation: for clients wishing to bring evidence into policy, program or project design and development

What services are available?

  • Custom data analysis and research
  • Data visualization
  • Web-based mapping and community atlases
  • Benchmarking and comparative analysis
  • Neighbourhood profiles and report cards
  • Indicator development and data dashboards
  • Research reports, fact sheets, web briefs, policy analysis, and literature reviews
  • Project development, project management, communications and community engagement

Why choose Community Analytics?

The unique focus – and value – of Community Analytics is accessing and generating a unique diversity of information about Canadian cities and neighbourhoods, towns and villages.

Clients can also order analysis that compares the social and economic trends within their own communities to those of other communities in their town or city – or other communities across the country. In this way, Community Analytics research can offer a comparative perspective that enhances community understanding. The team works closely with the Community Data Program in generating the custom products for Community Analytics clients.

Cost?

Community Analytics is a fee-for-service program delivered by a team of professionals with specialised expertise in the areas of social and economic research, program and policy development, demographic analysis, geo-spatial analysis and modelling, web-based data visualisation, web development and project management. Contact us to discuss your needs.

Past Projects

Develop an interactive community profile that captures Social Determinants of Health indicators at the municipal level for the Children’s Treatment Network, 2024
Toronto, Canada

The Community Analytics team developed an community profile tool using Power BI presenting indicators of 16 Social Determinants of Health at the municipal level for the Region of York and Simcoe County in a dashboard format. The Children's Treatment Network (CTN) is a provincial government funded not-for profit organizations. The SDOH community profile supported CTN’s wider goal of analyzing its own internal data alongside external data from Simcoe County and York Region to offer a comprehensive description of the needs and resources of the population in the regions and communities served by CTN.

Develop a Neighbourhood Hate Crime Mapping and Dashboard Tool for the Riverdale Immigrant Women's Centre, 2024 
Toronto, Canada

The Community Analytics Team developed a neighbourhood mapping and dashboard tool to track the correlation between Muslim populations and hate crime incidences within the city of Toronto.  The Riverdale Immigrant Women’s Centre is a community-based registered charity founded in 1982 with a mission to empower racialized, immigrant and refugee women and their families.  The Community Analytics project supports an RIWC program that offers live support for women and youth who have experienced a hate crime incident and want to learn more about how to report a hate crime or find out more about resources in the community.

Develop and Maintain an Interactive Community Map and Dashboard for the Amazon Future Engineers Program, 2020-2023  
Canada

Amazon Future Engineer (AFE) is a comprehensive childhood-to-career program aimed at increasing access to computer science education for children and young adults from underserved and underrepresented communities. The Community Analytics team developed and maintained an interactive map and dashboard to help achieve the AFE program’s goal. Socio-economic indicators linked to school catchment areas covering the entire country enable tracking which communities are being reached by the program and identify under-served communities that could be better reached.

Update and expand a Community Mapping Tool for Pathways to Education Canada, 2022-2023  
Toronto, Ontario

As part of an ongoing relationship dating to 2012, the Community Analytics Team assembled data for 50 indicators used to populate Pathway Canada's Community Mapping Tool drawing from customized tables from the 2021 Statistics Canada National Census of Population prepared for the CDP. This included updating all existing indicators and working with Pathways Canada to design customized data tables to create a series of new indicators that were added to the mapping tool.

Mapping a Socio-Demographic Profile for West Toronto Community Legal Services "WTCLS", 2021, & 2023   
Toronto, Ontario

Starting in 2021 using customized 2016 census data, the Community Analytics team created and then updated a socio-demographic profile of the WTCLS catchment area in the form of an interactive mapping tool and accompanying data table. The tool and profile were updated in 2023 using customized 2021 census data created for the CDP by Statistics Canada. The Team designed the interactive map in Tableau, displaying poverty and language at the dissemination area across the WTCLS catchment area and prepared and updated a Catchment Area Socio-Demographic Profile.

Ontario Trillium Foundation “OTF”, 2021  
Toronto, Ontario

The Community Analytics Team prepared a data visualization tool that reported on a dozen indicators intended to produce Community Profiles for Ontario.  This tool was designed as an interactive, Tableau-powered map, that allows OTF staff to visualize and analyze municipal (census division and census subdivision) and neighbourhood (census tract) level data for all of Ontario.  The OTF tool will be developed as a series of Tableau Storyboards, visualising and reporting on the data using a combination of maps, dashboards and accompanying text. The Tableau storyboards may be published to Tableau Public and embedded in the OTF website and/or disseminated as a Tableau Workbook Package, opened with a free version of Tableau Reader.

Energy Poverty & Equity Explorer, Canadian Urban Sustainability Practitioners, (CUSP), 2018-2020  
Canada

The Energy Poverty and Equity Explorer is a first-of-its-kind nationwide community energy poverty data access and analytical tool. The tool offers dozens of neighbourhood scale indicators intended to enable municipal decision makers to centre equity in the design of clean energy programs. CUSP is a member-led, nationwide network of sustainability directors from 16 of Canada’s largest leading cities on climate and sustainability. This project was developed through the Community Analytics Service.

Interactive Mapping, Diagnostic Tool & Dashboard, Canada Learning Code (CLC), 2018-2020  
Toronto, Ontario

Through the Community Analytics Service, a Mapping, Diagnostic Tool, and Dashboard was developed to generate community diagnostic reports (community profiles) using 25 indicators and the home postal codes of CLC-hosted workshop participants. The Diagnostic Tool also helps to determine whether the program is reaching communities in greatest need.

Profiling Poverty in New Brunswick using Infographics, New Brunswick Economic and Social Inclusion Corporation, 2019  
New Brunswick

The Community Analytics Services designed and developed a dozen infographics based on key indicators of poverty at a sub-provincial level of geography for New Brunswick. The infographics series, which were prepared in both official languages, relying on the Market Basket Measure (MBM) and are cross-tabulated by topics such as education, age, gender, Indigenous persons, new immigrants, employment, and depth of poverty.

Community Mapping Tool, Pathways to Education Canada, 2012-2018  
Toronto

Between 2012 and 2014, the Community Analytics team created a mapping tool to identify and analyze “educationally at-risk” neighbourhoods in Canada. The Community Mapping Tool is a resource designed to understand the barriers youth face in their communities as a result of poverty. The publicly available tool allows users to compare communities and identifies across key indicators that make up the tremendous diversity of Canada. The tool was updated in 2017 and 2018 using 2016 census data.

Neighbourhood Financial Health Index Mapping and Report, Prosper Canada, 2012-2018  
Canada

The Community Analytics Team led a project on behalf of the CCSD and Prosper Canada, in collaboration with the Community Foundations of Canada, Environics Analytics and TD Economics.  The NFHI is a composite measure of household financial health that includes income, debt, savings and assets measured at a neighbourhood level. In 2012 and 2013, the Community Analytics Team designed a preliminary methodology in consultation with project stakeholders. Phase 2 was launched in June 2014, with the support of the City of Toronto, United Way Toronto, the Calgary Poverty Reduction Initiative and FuseSocial (Wood Buffalo). Phase 2 included validating and refining the proposed NFHI methodology, developing and testing a prototype NFHI mapping and data visualisation tool, and preparing a business plan to support full implementation of the NFHI. Work in 2017 and 2018 included creating an interactive publicly available online mapping tool reporting on the Neighbourhood Financial Health Index (NFHI) and its six indicators in neighbourhoods and municipalities across Canada and providing technical support to the preparation of a report on findings.

Tamarack: An Institute For Community Engagement, 2014-2016  
Waterloo, Ontario  

Tamarack is working with communities across the country, referred to as the Cities Reducing Poverty network, to design a common evaluation framework for poverty reduction. The Cities Reducing Poverty network has collectively adopted a set of change indicators related to poverty reduction. The Community Analytics Team compiled data to support measurement of the framework’s “population” cluster of indicators. In addition, the Community Analytics Team created data tables containing updated data for the same indicators prepared in 2014. The data will permit comparison across members of the Cities Reducing Poverty network.