The neighbourhoods in which children and families live impact upon their health and wellbeing. Accordingly, area-based – or ‘place-based’ – initiatives, such as ‘Communities for Children’ in Australia and ‘Sure Start’ in the United Kingdom, often have a whole-of-community focus. This Practice Sheet summarises issues in evaluating community-wide impacts, in a way that reflects the realities of working in a community-based agency environment. It examines different methods of data collection, including surveying a representative community sample, interviews and focus groups with key informants, and using secondary source data, and discusses measurement of community-wide outcomes, such as being a child-friendly community, community empowerment, and social capital.