Community engagement
NCVO believes that community engagement and voluntary action are at the heart of civil society.
Our work in this area aims to explore why and how people engage in collective action, and how this can help to strengthen communities.
The relationship that voluntary and community organisations have with local government is a key element of our work in this area.
Civil Society is the space between state, market and family life where people voluntarily come together to make a positive difference to their lives and/or to the lives of others.
An active and independent VCS is a vital and vibrant element of civil society. VCOs, like other civil society organisations such as co-operatives and trade unions, are a catalyst for collective action that can transform people's lives and help to build a better world. And they create space for debate about what that world might look like.
Read more about our Civil Society Framework
For more information about our work on civil society please email the policy team or telephone 020 7520 2473.
The UK Civil Society Almanac
The UK Civil Society Almanac 2010 is the latest edition of NCVO Research's annual Almanac publication.
- Find out more and download the executive summary for free
Faith and Civil Society
We have also examined the contribution of faith based organisations to civil society:
- View: Faith and Voluntary Action: an overview of current evidence and debates
- View: Faith in the community: the contribution of faith-based organisations to rural voluntary action
Latest
November 2011
After the riots: Evidence from the Voluntary and Community Sector on the causes of the 2011 riots
Following a summit we convened in September 2011, which brought together over 100 people from charities, community groups, young people’s services and government to reflect on the causes of the disturbances and the best ways to respond, the report makes a series of recommendations to government, the sector and the media to lessen the risk of events repeating themselves. Some of the recommendations, drawn from feedback from NCVO members, include:
- Government should invest in structured job creation programmes, particularly for young people and apprenticeships, working with employers to fund or match fund placements or offer a range of other incentives including tax breaks as appropriate.
- The voluntary and community sector has an important role to play in speaking out and constructively challenging decisions and practices, including those of government and the wider public sector.
- When reporting on the riots, the media must ensure accuracy and proportionality, and balance negative news stories with reports on what community groups are doing to attempt to alleviate these problems.
Read the full report (PDF 866KB) or see what Sir Stuart Etherington has to say about the report.
Local Government and community engagement
Taking forward Communities in Control (October 2008)
In July, the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) published the Empowerment White Paper, Communities in Control. DCLG have begun to consult on a number of the proposals within the White Paper - a full list of their consultations is available on their website. NCVO has recently responded to the consultation on expanding the membership of DCLGs Third Sector Partnership board, the consultation on the draft prospectus for the new Empowerment Fund and the consultation on Improving local accountability.
NCVO has also responded to the Audit Commission's current consultation on the plans for the Comprehensive Area Assessment and to the Ministry of Justice discussion paper: A National Framework for Citizen Engagement.
Votes and Voices Publication - July 2008
In 2007 NCVO and the Local Government Association committed to closer working, signing a concordat to formalise our relationship. As part of this ongoing work, we have now published a collection of essays: Votes and Voices; the complementary nature of representative and participative democracy.
Votes and Voices brings together a wide range of views and perspectives on local democracy from across local government, the voluntary sector and academia, and examines how participative democracy can help to strengthen representative democracy and accountability.
We will continue to take forward work on the relationship that voluntary and community organisations have with local government, with the shared objective of achieving strong communities and a thriving civil society.
- Download: Votes and Voices; the complementary nature of representative and participative democracy (PDF 334KB)
For further information about our local government work please email the Policy Team or telephone 020 7520 2473.
Research on citizen engagement
Citizen engagement and voluntary action are at the heart of civil society. Our work in this area aims to explore why and how people engage in collective action. The citizen engagement and voluntary action research section has further information on citizen engagement research, including publications and events.
The most recent report (2011) on citizen engagement is NCVO's Participation Almanac. Participation: Trends, facts, figures is aimed at practitioners and policy-makers searching for information on the state of participation in the UK. It examines in more detail a number of specific activities including; membership, giving, volunteering, timebanking, ethical consumerism, political participation, local governance, campaigning and direct action and protest.
The summary report of the NCVO/ESRC seminar series on Engaging Citizens is also available. The publication highlights the key messages, findings and recommendations of each seminar in the series. It also identifies the key issues for policy, practice and research across the series.
For further information about citizen engagement research please email Veronique Jochum or telephone 020 7520 2482.
