The Network of National Volunteer-Involving Agencies (NNVIA) is a national forum for national organisations that involve volunteers: NNVIA currently has 56 member organisations. Many NNVIA members also belong to the England Volunteering Development Council (EVDC) and this Wednesday, for the first time, EDVC and NNVIA held a joint meeting, at Birkbeck College in London. The joint meeting succeeded in attracting considerable more people than the combined total attending the last separate EVDC and NNVIA meetings. It focussed on two main topics, looking at innovation, technology and digital inclusion in relation to volunteering in the morning, followed by a discussion of employer-supported volunteering after lunch. We had three fascinating speakers – Annie Dare from Race Online 2012, Philip Colligan from the NESTA Innovation in Giving Fund and the Head of Corporate Social Responsibility at KPMG, Michael Kelly. Having a large group of people in the room made it possible to run effective open space discussions on the two topics. It was a really interesting day and I think showed the potential for similar joint meetings of the two networks. I was particularly fascinated by some of the discussion around innovation: Philip Colligan explained that the NESTA Innovation in Giving Fund is promoting reciprocity and making use of idling capacity. I loved the statistic that the average use of a drill in its lifetime is 12 minutes! “Why buy a drill when you need a hole?”
Robin Simpson.
Filed under: meetings | Tags: Europe, ncvo, OTS, politics, UK, volarts, volunteering
On Friday afternoon I attended an Office for Civil Society Strategic Partners event, ‘European Years: What do they mean for us?’ at Europe House in London. Connecting the European Year of Volunteering 2011 with the European Year of Active Aging 2012 and the European Year of Citizenship 2013; this event involved the European Commission and key government departments coming together in dialogue with a range of civil society organisations. As the European Year of Active Aging 2012 begins, we shared learning from previous European Years as part of the last gathering of our European Year of Volunteering 2011 steering group. The general consensus seemed to be that the European Year of Volunteering had been very successful across Europe but only partly successful in England. The challenge was exemplified by one participant in a European Year of Volunteering event in Manchester who had memorably said “what on earth has Europe got to do with Oldham?!” There was some very sensible discussion about the need for a greater handover period between European Years – maybe three months at the end of each year in which the connections between the two themes are explored in more detail.
Robin Simpson.
On Wednesday afternoon Laraine and I were at Arts Council England in London to meet Meli Hatzihrysidis and Kate Parkin (by video link from Newcastle) to discuss our ACE-funded Volunteering in the Arts project. Laraine updated us on the three elements of the project – volunteering audits of five arts organisations in the North East of England, the development of a Volunteering in the Arts toolkit with Volunteering England and Monday’s Volunteering in the Arts Forum meeting in Newcastle. It was reassuring to hear that the main conclusions we can now draw from the project reinforce the assumptions made at the original Volunteering and the Arts discussion which I chaired at ACE in November 2010 – that arts organisations make extensive use of volunteers but generally have little or no connection to mainstream volunteering best practice, advice and support, such as that provided by Volunteering England, the Office for Civil Society at the Cabinet Office and the network of local volunteer centres. Laraine confirmed that the audit visits we undertook suggested that arts organisations don’t seem to have problems recruiting volunteers but that those managing volunteers need more support and advice to ensure that volunteers are managed effectively. On Wednesday we discussed possible next steps, beyond the end of this pilot project, to develop better connections between arts organisations and volunteering agencies and best practice.
Robin Simpson.
On Monday I was in Newcastle to chair our Volunteering in the Arts Forum meeting at Arts Council England. This was the culmination of our pilot Volunteering in the Arts project, funded by ACE. The intention of the project was to explore the needs of arts organisations who use volunteers and to encourage them to make better use of the mainstream volunteering agencies. We have been looking both at voluntary arts groups and at professional arts organisations who use volunteers. On Monday representatives of around 30 arts organisations joined us to hear a summary of our findings to date from Laraine Winning. Dan Sumners from Volunteering England gave us an overview of the national picture of volunteering and Victoria Potts from Volunteer Centre, Newcastle, gave us the local view and explained what support is available from volunteer centres. There were then group discussions on general volunteering issues and a workshop on the draft Volunteering in the Arts toolkit we have been developing with Volunteering England. It was an interesting and enthusiastic meeting which reinforced the need for greater support for volunteering within arts organisations. Congratulations to Laraine and Sarah for all their work on the Volunteering in the Arts project.
Robin Simpson.
Filed under: meetings | Tags: England, OTS, politics, vcs, volarts, volunteering
On Tuesday I was in London for a meeting of the England Volunteering Development Council at which we welcomed the new EVDC Chair, Baroness Scott of Needham Market. Jess Steele from Locality gave a presentation on the Government’s Community Organisers scheme – one of the main Big Society initiatives. Locality is recruiting and training 500 paid community organisers over 3 years who will then be charged with finding 4,500 more volunteer community organisers. Jess stressed that the organisers will be facilitators, not leaders. Their job is to listen to people and encourage dialogue: the Government does not intend the organisers to bring any particular message and is not seeking any specific outcomes from the scheme. Jess had just visited New York, Detroit and Chicago to learn from the experience of community organisers in the USA. She explained the plan to create a legacy company that will continue to support the scheme after the end of the Government funding in 2015. Toby Blume from Urban Forum then delivered an entertaining and challenging presentation titled ‘There’s No Going Back to Normal: Normal Was the Problem’. Toby looked at the reality of The Big Society, localism, public sector reform, open government and spending cuts. He suggested that there is still a lot of money in this country: the state’s spending levels are still the same as in 2004/5. He talked about new forms of delivery, new ways of working and creative collaboration and gave examples of Urban Forum members engaged on ‘co-production and community resilience’ and ‘community rights made real’. It was an inspiring presentation which left us with the message “the future is ours to shape”.
Robin Simpson.
On Thursday afternoon I made a first visit to the HM Treasury building on Horse Guards Road. We actually walked right past the door to George Osborne’s office – though I’m not sure whether he was inside! I was there for a meeting of the Office for Civil Society’s European Year of Volunteering 2011 working group. As we approach the end of the European Year of Volunteering, we were joined by Gwen Wolf from the Department for Work and Pensions who is working on the preparations for the UK involvement in the European Year of Active Aging 2012. Gwen updated us on the Government’s plans for 2012 and we discussed possible links between the two years. We also heard from Roisin Murphy from KPMG about their EYV11 work to promote and develop Employer Supported Volunteering and the prospect of developing long-term sustainable partnerships between the voluntary and private sectors.
Robin Simpson.
Filed under: meetings | Tags: England, Europe, politics, volarts, volunteering
On Thursday afternoon I was in the grand surroundings of the Treasury and HM Revenue and Customs building on Parliament Street in London – the new home of the Cabinet Office – for a meeting of the European Year of Volunteering 2011 working group. As well as a general update on the progress of European Year of Volunteering activities, we heard presentations from Volunteering England and Volunteer Centre Warrington on the specific strands of work focussing on employer-supported volunteering and volunteer management. We also discussed the details of the European Year of Volunteering Tour event which will take place at the Coin Street Community Centre, just off the South Bank in London, from 28 October until 3 November.
Robin Simpson.
Filed under: meetings | Tags: politics, vcs, volarts, volunteering, Wales
I was in Newport on Monday to take part in a seminar called ‘Building the Big Society in Wales’. When Aled and I met David Jones, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Wales, in May, the Minister told us he was planning this seminar. Given the difficulty of trying to progress the UK Government’s Big Society agenda in Wales, where the Welsh Assembly Government is of a different political hue, David Jones had done a very good job of gathering together a substantial range of representatives of civil society in Wales. The event was jointly presented by the Wales Office and the Cabinet Office and the Minister for Civil Society, Nick Hurd, was present to speak about the Government’s vision of the Big Society. David Jones opened the seminar by stressing that Big Society is nothing new. He said “Big Society is something that has been going on for a long time, particularly in Wales. The Government isn’t claiming credit for inventing the Big Society: the Government wants more of it and to help organisations like yours to expand, to grown and to do more”. Nick Hurd added that “two very small words have triggered a hell of a debate”. He said suggestions that Big Society was cover for cuts or empty rhetoric are myths: “It’s a debate that really matters. It’s a debate about responsibility and how communities work, how public services could and should be delivered. And it is even more important in the light of the riots that shocked us all.” Nick Hurd argued that “successive governments have transferred too much power and responsibility to the state and have lost something in terms of community vitality: is that what we really want?” He said “of course there are good examples all over the country: there is nothing new about Big Society. We’re not inventing something here: we are shining a spotlight on activities we want to encourage.” Nick Hurd stressed “this is about much more than just volunteering: it is a big transfer of power to communities. Don’t underestimate the potential for change.” He said the role of charities and social enterprises was very important to this project. There are three main opportunities:
- to do more in relation to public services
- to give voice to people who would otherwise struggle to be heard
- to provide opportunities for more people to volunteer
But Nick Hurd admitted this is a difficult time for the sector with much less money around.
As well as hearing from the two Ministers, the seminar included presentations by Nick O’Donohoe, the Chief Executive of Big Society Capital (a social investment bank funded from dormant bank accounts and the four major UK banks) and the winner of Welsh Social Enterprise Leader 2011, Sharon Jones, the Director of the inspiring Crest Co-operative in North Wales.
At the end of the seminar David Jones concluded that the groups around the room seemed generally well-disposed towards the Big Society concept, if not the Big Society brand or name. He announced plans to establish a Big Society Advisory Group for Wales and invited those present to suggest potential members for this group.
Robin Simpson.
