Our services
At Vaere Social, we specialise in social sustainability and resilience—helping governments, developers, and organisations shape communities that are adaptive, inclusive, and built for long-term wellbeing.
Our services bring together evidence-based research, inclusive planning, and strategic advisory to make the social dimension of place more visible, valued, and enduring.
We combine a deep understanding of people and place with systems thinking and sustainability principles. Grounded in academic rigour and the latest research, we get to the heart of what communities need to thrive.
Every engagement is tailored. We deliver high-quality, customised analysis that supports real-world decisions—anchored in policy, planning, and a clear-eyed commitment to creating places where people can live well now and into the future.
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Social impact isn’t a box to tick—it’s a lever for better places. We help clients go beyond compliance to embed long-term social value into every stage of a project. Whether through strategic planning, community insights or inclusive design advice, we ensure places are socially functional, future-proofed, and fit for real lives.
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We bring a social lens to resilience planning—ensuring people, not just systems, are ready for change. From policy and precinct design to infrastructure delivery, we help embed long-term resilience into the DNA of projects. Grounded in wellbeing frameworks and social sustainability principles, our work supports communities to thrive under pressure, adapt with dignity, and recover without losing cohesion.
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Understanding people is the foundation of good planning. Our demographic and social analysis goes beyond the numbers to reveal how people live, what they need, and where systems are falling short. We help clients interpret complex population trends—across age, ability, identity and place—to design better services and stronger communities.
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Good policy and advice starts with understanding people. We bring deep research and strategic thinking to social policy development—from ageing well and inclusive housing to place-based planning. Our advice helps clients turn evidence into impact, shaping policies that are aligned, adaptive, and genuinely fit for purpose.
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Inclusion starts with understanding how different minds navigate the world. We specialise in neurodiversity-informed planning and engagement—helping you create spaces, policies and participation processes that work for a wider range of people. Our advice is grounded in research and lived experience, and tailored to your project’s needs.
Resilient communities
Resilience is the capacity to adapt, endure, and evolve in the face of change. We work with governments, developers, and infrastructure providers to embed social resilience across projects, policies, and places.
Our approach goes beyond traditional risk assessments to understand the social foundations of resilience—what supports people to stay connected, access resources, and maintain wellbeing during disruption. We apply systems thinking to map vulnerabilities, identify strengths, and shape interventions that are locally grounded and future-ready.
With deep expertise in social sustainability, climate adaptation, and inclusive engagement, we help clients design communities that can withstand shocks, reduce compounding disadvantage, and thrive over time. We align our work with wellbeing frameworks, climate policy, and on-the-ground community insights to ensure resilience is not just aspirational—but achievable.
Our services include:
Community resilience strategies and action plans
Social dimensions of climate adaptation and urban resilience
Place-based risk, vulnerability, and cohesion assessments
Integration of resilience into precinct and infrastructure planning
Wellbeing frameworks and resilience indicators
Inclusive engagement for disaster recovery, adaptation, and resilience building
Cross-sector facilitation and policy advice on climate, equity, and social resilience
People & place insights
We translate social data into strategic insight—illuminating how people interact with place, and how planning can better respond to real-world needs.
From demographic trends to lived experience research, our work reveals the deeper patterns shaping community life, service demand, and place function. We help governments, councils, and private sector clients understand the social landscape they’re working within—so decisions are grounded in evidence, equity, and context.
Our insights go beyond the surface to explore who is being served, who is being left out, and what interventions will create more inclusive, adaptive, and thriving communities. We draw on both quantitative and qualitative methods, and we’re skilled at presenting complex findings in ways that inform planning, funding, design, and policy.
Our services include:
Demographic and service gap analysis
Community needs assessments
Lived experience research and journey mapping
Social trend analysis and population forecasting
Social infrastructure planning inputs
Survey design, data interpretation, and reporting
Inclusive engagement with underrepresented and priority populations
Social policy & advisory
We help clients shape policy and strategy that’s informed, equitable, and built to last. Our advice connects evidence with real-world outcomes—grounding decisions in both data and lived experience.
We work across government, infrastructure, health, housing, education, and care sectors to provide independent, cross-disciplinary advice on social policy and strategy. Our work supports new policy development, options analysis, evaluation frameworks, and strategic direction-setting for programs, services, and investment logic.
From policy reform to program design, we bring clarity to complexity—working across systems and sectors to identify leverage points, risks, and opportunities for impact. Our advice is always rooted in social value and long-term public good.
We’re also a trusted partner for embedding social outcomes into place-based initiatives, including infrastructure planning, regional development, and precinct strategies.
Our services include:
Policy development and review
Options analysis and strategy framing
Social outcomes and investment logic modelling
Cross-sector collaboration and stakeholder alignment
Government submissions, position papers and briefing materials
Implementation advice for inclusive and equitable policy delivery
Advisory on policy and planning alignment for social infrastructure and place-based initiatives
Inclusive place & processes
We work with clients to design places and shape processes that are inclusive by design—not by retrofit.
Our work draws on lived experience, social research, and human-centred design to embed accessibility, dignity, and inclusion into every stage of planning and development. We specialise in supporting neurodivergent, ageing, and otherwise underrepresented communities—ensuring their needs are reflected in both the spaces we build and the systems we use to engage.
Whether you’re creating a precinct, designing a public facility, running a consultation, or reforming policy—we offer practical, strategic guidance to ensure your work is inclusive, future-ready, and socially responsive. We help clients move beyond performative inclusion to create environments that truly serve a wider range of people.
Our services include:
Inclusive design reviews for planning, policy, and built environments
Neurodivergent-informed advice for public spaces, workplaces, and infrastructure
Engagement process reviews and inclusive participation strategies
Accessibility audits with a focus on cognitive and sensory needs
Design and delivery of engagement processes tailored to diverse communication styles
Capability building for teams working on inclusion, equity, and access
Social impact & value
Social impact isn’t just a report—it’s the ripple effect of every decision we make. We help clients understand, measure, and amplify that impact across policy, planning, and development.
Our work goes beyond compliance. We help clients explore the deeper social consequences of projects—intended and unintended—so that decisions are informed, inclusive, and aligned with long-term community wellbeing. Whether shaping a new precinct, advising on strategy, or preparing a formal assessment, we bring both systems thinking and practical insight to ensure social value is embedded from the outset.
We support early-stage planning, investment logic, regulatory approvals, and long-term outcomes measurement, helping clients define and defend their social licence to operate.
Our services include:
Social Impact Assessments (SIA)
Social value frameworks and measurement strategies
Precinct-scale social impact mapping and planning
Community wellbeing and quality of life indicators
Social infrastructure needs analysis
Strategic advice on social outcomes for grants, tenders, or public value cases
Expert witness services