Seer Data & Analytics, a civic tech start-up committed to making data and insights accessible to help solve social problems, is offering Seer Standard Plan free of charge for the rest of 2020 to assist organisations in planning responses.

As the social and economic impact of COVID-19 continues to escalate, Seer believes it is more critical than ever to empower people working and supporting vulnerable communities with insightful data to help problem solve in the face of tough decisions.

To help with cross-sector planning, Seer users will have access to Financial Vulnerability Maps paired with a Financial Vulnerability Insights Package which can be tailored to local community areas (SA1 and SA2) for situational analysis and response planning.

The insights package includes data related to small businesses, types of employment, vulnerable industries, mortgage and rental stress, household types, Centrelink payments, homelessness incidence, SEIFA, population and demographics, showing the location and scale of the most vulnerable communities around Australia.

Seer has also made available its Similar Communities model to allow communities to identify other towns like theirs both in their state and nationally.

Ongoing support from Seer’s Data Strategy Advisors and regular webinars will be available to ensure that users are able to make best use of these resources.

“Our vision is for all communities to be able to use data for collective decision making and self-determination. Due to the COVID-19 crisis, we are already seeing communities become vulnerable that would not have usually been. Access to data is an essential resource to drive decision making and we want to help organisations and Government agencies build a clear picture of each community so they can take the most appropriate actions on a local level in response to this crisis,” said Kristi Mansfield, Co-Founder and CEO of Seer.

Seer is partnering with Perpetual and Clear Horizon to fast track access to data to support the charity sector.

“We support the call for State and Federal Governments to support the charity sector, its workers, volunteers and the communities they serve. We are also working closely with our philanthropic clients to provide flexibility to all our grantees, get more untied funds into the sector and support capacity initiatives. Seer’s mapping tools help the sector better understand the location of Australians who may need our support the most,” said Caitriona Fay, General Manager, Community and Social Investment, Perpetual.

A more coordinated approach is one of the potential outcomes of this current crisis.

According to Dr Jess Dart, a rapid community led response will enable communities to be more resilient throughout the crisis and recovery. “Access to data for decision making is critical, and the work Seer is doing gives local communities access to analytics that are on par with Government and large corporations at this time, effectively bridging the data divide.”