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Welcome to the Community Data Program!

Thank you for making your organization part of the CDP. We look forward to supporting your evidence-based work.

After we have entered your organization's contact information into our database, the next step is for you to register an individual user account. All individuals from your organization who wish to access the program must register an account whether they intend to download data or not. Having accounts for all users on file helps program administration and ensures that all of our users have read and accepted the Terms and Conditions of Use. If you leave your organization, please contact us to let us know the name of the new CDP representative. 

It is important that you (your organization) inform us when any of your  registered users leave your organization so that we can close their account. Please register one account per user and do not share accounts, as we cannot prevent ex-employees from downloading files using an active shared account. Registering an account also requires that users agree to the Terms and Conditions of Use of CDP Data

If your organization is working with a consultant, the CDP can provide them with a temporary account once you have given your written permission (via email) for them to access the CDP for a specific project and indicated the length of their contract. Member organizations are required to inform consultants that they are only to download data relevant to their contract and that all copies of the files should be deleted upon completion of the project.

Resources available through the CDP

The Resources pages contain a great deal of valuable information, including some program basics and instructions for using some of the data sets. If you do not have it already, you and other members from your organization will need to download the program Beyond 20/20 in order to open many of the data files (identified by the extension .IVT). The Tools for Using the Data page also contains a document outlining  how to use Beyond 20/20, as well as links to instructional videos.

Registration with the Community Data Program

Individual users must register at https://communitydata.ca/user/register. User registration is free, and there are no limits to the number of people within your organization who can register, or the number of tables each user can download. Registered individuals will be granted full access to the data within one or two business days after registering. A member of the CDP team will have to verify the identity of anyone who registers with an email address that does not correspond to their organization (e.g. @gmail.com). Please notify us of this request by email prior to requesting an account.

Acknowledging the Community Data Program in your work

We ask that member organizations acknowledge the Community Data Program as the source of data in work that they publish. For example, "Data for this project were accessed through the Canadian Community Economic Development Network's Community Data Program."

Tell us what you're doing with the data!

We want to know what you're doing with the data. If you have work that you would like to share or promote, tell us about it in a Community Snapshot. Community Snapshots are a way for CDP members to share how community data are being used. All material provided to us will be used to showcase (1) the varied uses of data by CDP members, (2) the people/organizations engaged in this work, and (3) its impact on communities. We encourage every community to share their work with the membership. We will post the information on the Community Snapshots page of the Community Data Program website. A Community Snapshot template can be downloaded here. An archive of the Community Snapshots is available here.

We're excited to have you as part of the Community Data Program. Feel free to contact us if you have any questions.

Start a new Data Consortium in your Community

If there's no Consortium in your community, we encourage you to start one! It's a great way to access small-area data, bring together local groups, and join the Canada-wide CDP network. Check the list of existing data consortia to confirm whether your community is already represented by a consortium.

The annual Consortium Fee is based on your community's underlying population and can be shared among an unlimited number of Member Organizations. Each Member Organization is also required to pay a $150 Program Membership Fee per year.

Each Consortium has a Lead Organization, usually the largest member municipality, although a community sector organization may also be a Lead. To create a Consortium, the Lead Organization enters into an agreement with the CCEDNet.

The Community Analytics Service

The CDP offers customized community data analysis, research and communication products to organizations and governments with national or province-wide mandates.

Learn more about CDP’s Community Analytics Service.