1. Data: Shaping the narrative and building consensus
Amy Brown
City of Greater Bendigo
Start by introducing self
Since working at the City of Greater Bendigo, I have held roles in:
Healthy Together Bendigo, part of Active and Healthy Communities Unit
Now also work in our Strategy Unit as a Social Planner
Today I’ll be talking about:
using data to build consensus and
how to use that consensus and highly localised data to inform and drive strategic objectives, and maximise community benefits
My background is in Health and the social sciences so I will focus on health-related data in this talk, but I hope you can apply the messages to any area

2. Population forecasts:
Greater Bendigo
Population forecasts:
2016 population: 112, 853
Growth of 1.72% per year
2036 population: 156,151
Urban Bendigo
This is just to give you some context about GREATER BENDIGO
It’s a central Victorian local government area, with more than 110,000 residents, around 75% of whom live in urban Bendigo.
Greater Bendigo’s anticipated growth brings opportunities and challenges.
Population and household forecasts, 2011 to 2036, prepared by .id, August 2015

3. Greater Bendigo has a growing population with…
The 3rd most obese population in Victoria
Heart Attack +33%
Angina +50%
The highest rates of depression and anxiety in Victoria
Data we all receive from sources like DHHS, VicHealth and the Heart Foundation show some of the health related challenges facing the Greater Bendigo community
You’d all know the broad ranging impacts of unhealthy populations.
And with some projections of up to 200,000 residents by 2050, we really need to start turning these trends around now
+50% more angina than we should have, based on current age structure
+33% more heart attacks that we should have, based on current age structure.
These health issues are lifestyle related and preventable

4. Data, well communicated by a range of credible sources, can help build consensus and coordinated action
In this case, public awareness of the data around Greater Bendigo obesity rates and the associated costs of “the obesity epidemic”, helped build consensus among the community and in the council about the importance of health and wellbeing to our local community.

5. The council vision strongly reflects a desire to improve the health of the community, with liveability encompassing population health characteristics.
Data has helped us to
decide on our strategic objectives to achieve the council vision
and helped Council to prioritise the health and wellbeing of residents, now explicit in the Council Plan
This consensus and commitment strengthens things like the Municipal Public Health and Wellbeing Plan, which further enhances coordination of actions among actors in the community

6. This prioritisation of health and wellbeing is now also being reflected in important strategies, such as our Integrated Transport and Land Use Strategy

7. Healthy Bendigo is one of 5 themes in ITLUS
As well as well communicated data, this is down to leaders who understand the complexity of relationships between, among many things, population health, land use, urban design and transport planning and culture

8. And so we have people across the organisation, from Transport Planners to Engineers to Health Promotion Officers, as well as a range of external stakeholders, all working to design and promote a city and a culture that supports active travel and a healthy community.
Essentially all working to get people moving, to curb obesity rates, improve mental health, and reduce heart disease, diabetes and other lifestyle related diseases.
Of course, not everybody’s 100% there yet, but the data is a compelling tool in developing a shared agenda.

9. So that’s an example of how we’ve been using readily available data, within the organisation and with community and stakeholders, to:
build an understanding of the seriousness of the health issues facing the community,
build consensus around action to improve health, and
drive prioritisation and coordination of health efforts in council and across the community
However often data isn’t available or doesn’t give us a detailed enough view to prioritise health promoting actions within the municipality, especially one as populous as Greater Bendigo.
Most data we have, especially when it comes to things like health and recreation, is only broken down to the LGA level.
Our organisation wanted really fined grained data that could be used to prioritise and justify actions that would maximise how effectively and efficiently we tackled such health issues.
And so we undertook the Active Living Census
We were only able to invest in this because that consensus had been built and the value of good quality data had been demonstrated

10. 17,437 completed surveys PURPOSE METHOD
Active Living Census Purpose & Method
PURPOSE
To measure current physical activity, recreation and health behaviours and trends
To better understand infrastructure needs
To enable evidence based planning and provision of services
To help prioritise allocation of council funding
To provide the community with high quality data to support their efforts.
METHOD
Hard copy surveys sent to all residential households. Online version also available.
Promoted through an advertising campaign.
Responses received from 28 April to 23 May, 2014.
The ALC aimed to get an incredibly fine grained picture of the health and recreational status and needs of the municipality.
Project funded through :
Vic Health - Be Active
DHHS - Healthy Together Bendigo
By timing our survey to coincide with established community consensus around the importance of health and wellbeing, and undertaking a huge advertising campaign to promote completion, we received an amazing response rate of almost 20% of the population. The largest response to any survey ever conducted by CoGB
17,437 completed surveys

11. SELF-REPORTED HEALTH STATUS LEVELS OF EXERCISE FRUIT & VEG CONSUMPTION
Active Living Census Topics of investigation
HEALTH MEASURES:
SELF-REPORTED HEALTH STATUS
LEVELS OF EXERCISE
FRUIT & VEG CONSUMPTION
BARRIERS TO HEALTHY EATING
SMOKING RATE
ALCOHOL CONSUMPTION
PHYSICAL RECREATION ACTIVITIES:
ACTIVITIES PARTICIPATED IN
LOCATION OF PARTICIPATION
FREQUENCY OF PARTICIPATION
ORGANISED / NON-ORGANISED
MOTIVATION TO INCREASE PARTICIPATION
BARRIERS TO PARTICIPATION
This slide shows a range of things we investigated.
We have all this information broken down by age and by location.
So we have developed profiles for adults, children and seniors.
Today I just wanted to show how this fine grained local data is driving prioritisation of actions that come from ITLUS, in particular around active travel investment.
REASONS FOR USING:
OFF-ROAD TRACKS
OPEN SPACES
FACILITIES:
USAGE LEVELS
RATINGS OF QUALITY AND ACCESSIBILITY
SUGGESTED IMPROVEMENTS

12. FRUIT: 46.8% meet fruit dietary guidelines
Active Living Census Summary Findings – Adults’ Health
SELF-RATED HEALTH STATUS: 18% of adults report “poor” or “fair” health status
EXERCISE: Less than 50% achieve the weekly recommended 150 minutes High levels of inactivity
FRUIT: 46.8% meet fruit dietary guidelines
VEGETABLES: 9.5% meet vegetable dietary guidelines
ALCOHOL: 15.9% report usually drinking more than 4 standard drinks per occasion (levels that put them at short-term risk of alcohol-related harm)
SMOKING: 12.8% smoking rate
So we know that less than 50% of our adult population are undertaking the recommended levels of exercise and that there are high levels of inactivity...
But within the population there is a great deal of variation...

13. Data: Active Living Census, 2015
Physical Inactivity
Data: Active Living Census, 2015
This shows the variation in terms of physical activity across the municipality
The darker colours represent areas with higher proportions of people who reported not doing any physical activities
Note the relatively high levels of inactivity among this central urban corridor, the most densely populated part of the city and also containing some of the most disadvantaged suburbs

14. 58.3% are motivated to do more exercise Barriers to participation:
Active Living Census Summary Findings (all residents)
Physical Activity
58.3% are motivated to do more exercise
Barriers to participation:
The stats about rates of exercise are not great
But we do know that a lot of residents are motivated to do more, especially adults who most need to increase activity.
And we also have an idea about what is getting in their way.
Barriers to participation:
Time
Personal issues (i.e. poor health, feel embarrassed, low motivation)
Cost
Social support (i.e. no encouragement, no-one to go with)
But again, the story is so much richer when you see the variation within the population on these measures...

15. Barrier to Participation: Cost
Data: Active Living Census, 2015
This shows where cost was identified by the highest rates of people as a barrier to participation in physical activities
Again, note the central corridor where a large proportion of the population resides

16. Reasons for using… Open Spaces Off-road walking and cycling tracks
Active Living Census 2014 Summary Findings – Facility usage
Active Living Census Summary Findings (all residents)
Reasons for using…
Open Spaces
Off-road walking
and cycling tracks
People have a variety of reasons for using our open spaces, and their most common suggestions for improvements to open spaces were walking tracks (#1) and bike tracks (#3).
93% of people said they used off road walking and cycling tracks for health and recreation.
That’s very localised data, you’re unlikely to get things like that from other sources – This data has been useful in attracting investment in our tracks.
We also showed that Walking was the most popular form of physical activity, with cycling coming in 3rd or 4th.
It helped many people really see the value in this infrastructure
and so we wanted to see how our track network stacked up against our local health stats, how do they relate...
Most common suggestions for improvements to open space:
1. Walking tracks
3. Bike tracks

17. Off-road walking and cycling track network
Data: City of Greater Bendigo
California Gully
Long Gully
Bendigo
O’Keefe Trail
to Heathcote
Here’s our off road track network.
You can see we’ve invested heavily in it, but it’s fairly disjointed and unconnected.
There’s also virtually nothing in the CBD
Flora Hill
La Trobe University
Kangaroo Flat
Spring Gully

18. Off-road walking and cycling track network - strategic connections
Data: City of Greater Bendigo
California Gully
__ Existing strategic network
__ Missing links in network
Long Gully
Bendigo
O’Keefe Trail
to Heathcote
Focussing on the urban area where people are most likely to use tracks for commuting...
we have some high density corridors that support the bulk of the urban population, however there are some important strategic connections missing from the network
Flora Hill
La Trobe University
Kangaroo Flat
Spring Gully

19. Use of off-road walking and cycling track network
Data: Active Living Census, 2015
__ Existing strategic network
__ Missing links in network
And even though there are a whole lot of bits of track in all those areas, the areas with the missing strategic links are also the areas with lowest rates of track usage, showing the importance of the strategic connections

20. Data: Active Living Census, 2015
Physical Inactivity
Data: Active Living Census, 2015
__ Existing strategic network
__ Missing links in network
They’re also the urban areas with the highest rates of inactivity...

21. Barrier to Participation: Cost
Data: Active Living Census, 2015
__ Existing strategic network
__ Missing links in network
And they’re also the areas that could seemingly benefit most from access to high quality free physical activity infrastructure
So we’re using this visual data to drive prioritisation of the strategic links to the north and through the CBD.
There can be stronger and louder voices in the more socioeconomically advantaged area of the municipality, so having the data represented like this makes it easier to make decisions that will benefit the greatest number of residents and build a fairer community.

22. www.bendigo.vic.gov.au/ALC FULL REPORT SELECTED FINDINGS FACTSHEETS
Active Living Census Accessing the data
FULL REPORT SELECTED FINDINGS FACTSHEETS
Detailed report addressing all findings. Includes data tables and detailed analysis.
Designed to be highly accessible. Findings collated according to age, location and activity type.
Children and seniors
Suburbs and towns
This level of detail is rare in a population survey and is unique to Greater Bendigo.
Details about suburbs/towns within a municipality is highly valuable, but not often available.
We have been using the data to
Inform planning, prioritisation and investment
Support advocacy and applications for funding
Track performance against goals and targets
We also really wanted the community and stakeholders to be able to use the data to advance their efforts
So we created easy to understand summary findings and fact sheets and have made them available on our website. I often take calls from community groups asking for advice on how to best present the data in grant applications.
Top 20 most popular activities

23. Download the Active Living Census
Key points:
Data, well communicated and well timed, can help shape the narrative, build consensus and prioritise and coordinate actions
Good quality, highly local data can be especially powerful when visually represented with GIS data overlayed
Download the Active Living Census
In summary
I wanted to use the examples of health broadly and the active living census specifically to show how
Data, well communicated, can help build consensus and prioritise and coordinate actions
Good quality, highly local data can be especially powerful when visually represented with GIS info overlayed