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Community Profile

What is a community profile?

A community profile is a full description of a group of people who think of themselves as a community, carried out with the active involvement of members of the community. It includes description of the people and the resources available to them, their cultural, geographic, economic and political context. A community profile can be used to identify community health and development needs, and as a basis for planning action improve the health and quality of life of the community.

In NSW most local councils produce a community profile each year, and many are published and available free from Municipal and Shire Council offices. Many Aboriginal community based organisations have been building community self-profiles since the 1980s, drawing on a range of official reports, statistical data and local knowledge. These local profiles are not standardised, are usually unpublished, and reflect local priorities.

Community profiling can be dominated by the demands of rational administration, scientific knowledge and professional practices. On the other hand, the community profiling textbooks (eg Hawtin, Hughes and Percy-Smith 1994) provide guidelines for community profiling in which community members participate in all stages of the process, so that indigenous knowledge and local cultures are respected.

An important reason for community profiling is the need for health workers to know their target community. A health or community worker's knowledge of the community she or he is working with is an essential tool. A community profile is a collection information about a community, their services, resources and problems. It’s purpose is to provide a basis for planning action by to improve community health and develop the community. The community profile will provide a basis for planning and decision making. The decision may be to initiate action, or to undertake a more detailed and analytic community study.

Writing a community profile is a basic technique of community development. No project should be started without an adequate community profile. The range and depth of information you will need will vary, but you will need to know:

• what is the community you are working with; who belongs and who doesn't;
• what organisations and services exist;
• which groups and services are active in the area;
• what the community needs and wants;
• who makes the decisions;
• what resources are available.

Start working towards your community profile straight away by forming a community profile team. Get to know the team members, find out what they already know about the community, where they work, or people they know in the community.

If you can, offer to do the profile with a community organisation, so they can use it in their work. If an organisation already has a profile, offer to update and improve it for their use as well as your own.

& Further reading: Hawtin, Hughes and Percy-Smith 1994,
Community Profiling, Chapter 1