Community Engagement Resources

The Community Engagement Framework outlines best practice principles for community engagement when building social housing. Developed by Village Well, the Framework contains practical tools to help community housing staff implement the principles and drive a more consistent approach to community engagement.

The Messaging Guide outlines key messages and messaging principles to tailor messaging to your projects and guidance on how to build political support for community housing at a local government level. Developed through focus groups, stakeholder research and message testing by RedBridge, the Guide helps community housing organisations talk about projects in a way that engages and builds support for these projects. 

A suite of Canva templates and assets, and guidance on how to use them. These include: 

• Social medial tile templates – such as case studies, announcements, infographics and key facts 

• Banner templates for Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and newsletters 

• Explainer series social media tiles such as what is community housing, and how much rent do community housing renters pay 

• Topical social media post examples such as International Day of World’s Indigenous Peoples, AFL grand final and anti-poverty week

A series of digital communications training and workshops were held in 2024 on the following topics: 

• Canva and content ideation – a tour of the Canva templates and assets and how you can use these in Canva 

• Platform moderation – building on the moderation guide for social media, this session outlined what is needed to maintain a positive and respectful online environment, and strategies for dealing with challenging situations. 

• Content Ideation – the session outlined some of the tools and processes that can be used to develop and plan social media content, followed by a workshop to generate ideas. 

• Paid advertising – an overview of setting up and planning paid advertising, with a focus on meta platforms (Facebook and Instagram).  

• Paid advertising and campaign recap – the session included a re-cap of CHIA Vic’s community housing campaign (up to November 2024) and training for paid advertising campaigns on LinkedIn.  

Please email Steph (Stephanie.Ng@chiavic.com.au) if you would like to access any of the recordings. 

A list of statistics that can be used in digital communications such as housing need; where community housing is located; and private rental affordability. The list includes links to primary sources.  

A series of short videos showing how to do a ranges of digital communications activities including how to use the Canva templates; and moderation tools for Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Twitter. 

CHIA Vic’s social media moderation guide which CHOs may use as guidance to develop their own. The guide covers challenges; example comments and responses; and technical tools that can help with moderation.  

A strategy and implementation plan for CHOs to participate in CHIA Vic’s 2024 community housing campaign. CHOs may like to use these as guidance to develop their own. 

CHIA Vic’s community guidelines for social media. CHOS may like to use this as guidance to develop their own.