Overlooking a major arterial road and Broadmeadows Station on the Craigieburn line, the venue sits in the centre of Hume—one of Victoria’s fastest‑growing and most culturally diverse municipalities. In Hume, transport, mobility and access are ever‑present factors shaping young people’s pathways into education, training and employment.
Located in Melbourne’s outer north, Hume is home to a large number of young people, many from migrant and refugee backgrounds, and includes communities experiencing systemic inequities, alongside rapid population growth and redevelopment.
As one of the foundational CICs—now celebrating its 10th year—the group has long recognised the importance of quality local data.
The Compass presented an opportunity to bring together local demographic and labour market data into a single, accessible platform. More importantly, it provided an opportunity to talk about when and how we use data and what data we don’t have.
Committee members reflected on what they’d learnt through the co-design process, as well as the experience itself:
Strong engagement and enthusiasm across the entire CIC, with everyone choosing to participate rather than forming a smaller working group.
Rich conversations about data, including shared definitions, understanding gaps, and exploring how data can validate lived experience and frontline insights.
- The value of local expertise, which will play a critical role in the next phase through the Compass’ Local Knowledge component.
Compass Demonstration
Everyone sat with a laptop ready to explore the new tool as Sarah from BSL’s Employment, Education and Training team led a walkthrough of the Compass’s features, including:
- Demographic, education and labour market data sourced from publicly available datasets.
- Interactive visualisations across SA2 and SA3 regions, with filters by location, gender and other key indicators.
- The ability to explore themes such as transport, school attainment, VET completions and industry trends for young people.
Participants were invited to test the tool on their own devices, with support available during the session.
Looking Ahead
Following the launch, the Hume CIC will enter Phase 4 of the Compass Project: embedding the tool into local work. This phase will focus on integrating local knowledge to deepen and contextualise the quantitative data. This will support more informed decision making as the CIC continues to shape its priorities and advocate for young people in Hume.
Questions raised during the session—including data gaps around migrant and refugee backgrounds, and mental health and disability of people within data sets, as well as data from higher education providers—will help inform future Compass enhancements and guide broader advocacy to improve data availability at local levels. The lack of data pertaining to migrant and refugee communities is a major focus for Hume. Identifying this gap shows that data without contextualisation can misrepresent communities and illustrates the need for local collaboration to contextualise the data.
