Community Insights

The words ‘Community Insights’ beside logo made of beside two speech bubbles and a location pin.

Welcome to Community Insights 

The Community Insights study collects information about a range of topics through surveys. These surveys are designed to help us get a better understanding of what is changing over time to ensure our local communities remain a great place to live. Each round of the survey explores different aspects of community life.   

How it works

Receive an invitation

Blue circle with a hand holding a smart phone and touching the screen, and an open red letterbox with mail.If you are chosen from our random selection, you’ll receive an invitation to take part in a digital survey via email or letter with a unique code to your household.

Share your insights

Blue circle with a laptop computer and hands holding and engaging with a tablet. Share your experience by completing our user-friendly digital survey.

Help us improve our community

Blue circle contains diagrams of: people above a data line, four hands holding eachother, an open hand holding a heart. Your input influences community policies, projects and services.

Join our Community Insights contact list

About the study

Contributing to the Community Insights study allows residents to share their experiences of living in the City of Whittlesea. Information gathered informs decisions affecting the community. It ensures we stay responsive to the needs of our residents. Data is collected through the following surveys.

Local Life

This round of the study asks questions about local activities and daily life in the City of Whittlesea.  

Social and Civic Participation

This round of the study asks questions about neighbourhood safety, connections and support within the community. It also seeks to understand residents' involvement in community activities and decision making.  

Health and Wellbeing

This round of the study asks questions about quality of life, sense of place and belonging, disaster preparedness, personal support and knowledge of healthy lifestyle behaviours.

These surveys aren't about specific programs or policies. They're designed to give us a better understanding of the experiences of residents living in the City of Whittlesea.

Economic growth alone cannot guarantee a good quality of life. It is important to assess factors like:

  • how friendly, connected and inclusive the community is
  • what people enjoy about living here
  • how safe people feel
  • whether amenities are accessible to all.

How we use survey data

We use information from the Community Insights study to:  

  • expand our knowledge and understanding of the community
  • measure community outcomes and progress towards our Whittlesea 2040 Vision
  • prioritise and allocate resources where they are most needed
  • identify areas for improvement and modify service delivery as required 
  • understand what has changed for the community over time.

We can't get the type of data collected through Community Insights from other sources. Therefore, we use these surveys to fill in the missing pieces and shed light on how wellbeing, liveability and resilience are changing across our municipality.

Community Insights also gives important information for our planning and reporting. These reports help keep our actions transparent and accountable to the community and other government levels. The data provides meaningful information to achieve the goals in Whittlesea 2040: A place for all.

Frequently asked questions

Who can participate?

Residents are randomly selected from our database and invited to take part in the survey by mail or email. Residents may also receive an SMS notification about the survey.

Each invitation is a unique link to ensure the survey can be completed only once.

Some residents can also participate by clicking through from an online ad.

To take part, respondents must be 15 years or older and a current resident of the City of Whittlesea.

What will I be asked to do?

If you are selected to take part in the study, you will receive a letter or an email with detailed instructions on how to complete the survey. You will be requested to click a link in the email or scan a QR code and enter your unique number to access the digital survey.

If you have seen an ad for the survey, you can simply click through to complete the survey. 

The survey will take you approximately 12 minutes to complete. You will have three to four weeks to respond to the survey. 

What type of questions will I be asked?

Each survey has a different set of questions to help us learn about your experiences living in the City of Whittlesea. We are not looking for specific feedback about programs or polices in these surveys, instead we want to learn more from our community about changing trends over time.

Depending on the survey you receive, you may be asked about:

  • local activities and daily life in the City of Whittlesea
  • neighbourhood safety, connections, support and involvement within the community
  • quality of life
  • sense of belonging
  • disaster preparedness
  • knowledge of healthy lifestyle behaviours. 

The information you provide will be combined with responses from other members of the community to produce statistical data for the City of Whittlesea.

Do I need to take part?

No, participation is voluntary. You can stop at any time without explanation or penalty. You are free to withdraw your responses from the study until data analysis has begun. During the data analysis stage, all responses will be de-identified and we will no longer be able to identify the responses provided by you. 

Why is it important to take part?

Your insights help make the community a better place to live, work and play. It is only through individual contributions that we can track how the community is changing over time. This helps us to know what to focus on now and in the future so that we can remain responsive to the needs of our residents. 

What device should I use?

We recommend you complete the survey using a computer or a tablet. While you can do the survey on a mobile phone, the question layout may be a little more difficult to navigate.  

Do I have to fill out the survey in one go?

No, you don’t need to do the survey all in one go. As you go through the survey, your responses are saved automatically. This means you can come back and complete the survey later from where you left off.

Can I complete the survey in a language other than English?

The survey can be completed in the following languages: Arabic, Chinese - Simplified, Chinese - Traditional, Greek, Hindi, Italian, Macedonian, Malayalam, Persian, Punjabi, Sinhala, Vietnamese and Turkish. At the beginning of the survey, select your preferred language. To use the free interpreter service, call 131 450.

Will I hear about the results of the survey?

We publish a summary of our findings on our website for the community to view. The results will also be published in strategic reports that we are required to deliver to keep information transparent and accountable to the community and other government levels.  

What will happen to the information?

The information you share will be combined with other respondents to produce statistical data for the municipality. During the data collection and reporting period (approximately four months), survey responses are stored on a secure server hosted by Australian Survey Research (ASR). Following this, the survey data is cleaned and de-identified before being moved to a database on the City of Whittlesea’s cloud server. 

You can access the information you provide by contacting us on 03 9217 2170.  You can only do this until it has been de-identified during the data analysis stage. At this time, we will no longer be able to identify the responses provided by you.

Your information is provided in accordance with the principles in the Privacy and Data Protection Act 2014 and our Privacy and Data Protection Policy. Information that identifies individual people or households is never published and your personal information will not be disclosed to any other organisation.

Who can I contact if I need further information?

For more information about the Community Insights study or for assistance in completing the survey, please contact Customer Service on 03 9217 2170 and ask to speak to a member of the Research and Analytics department. If you have a complaint, you may call the same number. All complaints are treated confidentially. 

Join our Community Insights contact list