News

VSSN’s next session for new researchers will be an opportunity to connect with each other and to raise a glass (or cuppa) as we reflect on the year and think about how we will look after ourselves over the holiday season. This is the 6th online session we have hosted – it will be helpful to hear what has worked for people and what might be useful as we look to 2021.

This will be an open forum for new researchers in the field of voluntary studies and voluntary action hosted by Vita Terry, Jon Dean and Jane Cullingworth from VSSN’s steering group. All are welcome, regardless of whether or not you have participated in any previous sessions.

Please note, you do not need to be a member of VSSN – however, we do encourage you to join VSSN. VSSN is a membership driven organisation that relies on its members for support. Membership offers a number of benefits and is on a sliding scale; you can find out more here: https://www.vssn.org.uk/members/

Zoom link: https://uofglasgow.zoom.us/j/92359286587

Please contact Jane Cullingworth at janecullingworthvssn@gmail.com for more information.

Please be assured that the VSSN office will still continue to operate as normal during the second lockdown of this year. Both Steering Group members and the executive officer will remain available for support (and to continue receiving membership renewals). We hope you all stay safe and well and continue with the amazing attempts to document and research voluntary sector responses to our strange times and the impact of those events on the sector.

Voluntary Sector and Volunteering Research e-Conference 2020

For two days over 7^th-8^th September the annual Voluntary Sector and Volunteering Research (VSVR) Conference was held online. For more than 20 years the National Council of Voluntary Organisations (NCVO) has partnered with the Voluntary Sector Studies Network (VSSN) to run this conference and this year the Birmingham Voluntary Sector Centre for Voluntary Action (BVSC) also joined this collaborative effort.

The theme of this first e-conference was ‘‘Times like these’: Researching civil society responses to and recovery from COVID-19’ and we were really pleased at the response from practitioners and academics presenting up-to-date research on the current situation and recovery from the pandemic. The programme comprised two plenaries and two sessions on each of four themes, a session with the Editors of Voluntary Sector Review and two book launches.

Professor Tracey Coule and Associate Professor Chris Dayso launched the conference by considering theoretical frames to consider civil society’s responses to Covid-19. Themes that emerged included the way we frame civil society-government relationships and mutual aid groups, which indeed became recurring themes throughout the conference. These themes, as well as how civil society organisations have reformed and changed their practice, were also carried forward to the plenary on Day 2 with presentations by Karl Wilding (NCVO)   Anna Fowlie (Scottish Council of Voluntary Organisations) Brian Carr (BVSC) & Affan Cheema (Islamic Relief Worldwide). Carolyn Cordery who chaired the session ably assisted by Jon Dean.

A focus on volunteer mobilisation to respond to the Covid-19 pandemic brought papers from England, Scotland, Wales and British Columbia. And, while much mobilisation depends on organisations, the pandemic has seen returns to neighbourly volunteering and the geography of voluntary action being disrupted. The second volunteering session focused more on the experience of volunteering during the pandemic, from volunteer and organisational perspectives .

Philanthropy, fundraising and funding issues were the topic of session 1a and to some extent the cross-cutting issues in Session 3b. The research presented in these sessions was very varied, considering issues such as financial vulnerability and good grant making, the effects of furloughing on fundraisers, as well as governance, the role of local infrastructure and how social services data can help researchers understand Covid-19 responses.

As Covid-19 has had such a huge impact on society, it was unsurprising that two sessions discussed research taking ‘micro, meso and macro perspectives’ on voluntary organisations and Covid-19. Again with papers from England and Scotland, these sessions considered responses from local and national organisations working with homelessness, criminal justice, poverty and community businesses, as well as highlighting the lived experience of people.

Picking up the theme of mutual aid, two sessions considered both the conceptual insights and those from the frontline. These focussed on such issues as democratic participation, the influence of international responses on local mutual aid groups, neighbourhoods and umbrella organisations.

While we missed being able to chat to each other and presenters physically, as we would have done in a physical conference, the e-conference was a great experience and opportunity to share cutting edge research with a wider range of people than would otherwise have been possible, both engaging people who are physically distant from the UK and through social media. The sessions were recorded and can be found at: https://www.vssn.org.uk/2020-vsvr-online-conference-session-videos/. The next VSVR Conference is scheduled for 6^th-7^th September 2021 in Birmingham. We hope to see you there!

Volunteering in Health and Social Care in the context of COVID-19: making a difference in a complex landscape of rising demand.

VSSN’s next day conference will take place on 20th November 2020, hosted by the Institute for Volunteering Research at University of East Anglia in Norwich. We will explore volunteering in health and social care in the context of COVID-19, considering the opportunities and challenges encountered in a complex landscape of rising demand and the difference volunteering makes.

Pressures are growing on volunteer-involving organisations, locally based community organisations and social enterprises to respond to increasing and diverse demands for volunteers to provide health and social care services in the context of COVID-19. These range from national campaigns to recruit large numbers of new volunteers for a variety of new tasks and settings, to the need for social prescribing and increased community involvement.

This day conference specifically aims to explore:

• the current context of volunteering in health and social care,
• the current policy drivers
• new and innovative approaches now being promoted to deal with demand,
• what difference volunteering makes to health and social care, volunteers, volunteer involving organisations and wider society.

THE EVENT

Programme:

12:15 – 12:45 Annual General Meeting

Volunteering in Health and Social Care in the context of COVID-19:
making a difference in a complex landscape of rising demand

12:45 – 13:00 Participants log in

13:00 – 13:10 Welcome and Introduction (Ali Body)

13:10 – 14:00 What is it like to volunteer in health and social care under COVID-19?

What is it like to volunteer?
A Phenomenological insight, investigating the relationship between volunteers and their organisations.
Carol Hebden & Dr Paul McDonald, Newman University.

The view from my window.
Practice insights from ‘Come singing’ and ‘Music Mirrors’ of volunteering under COVID-19.
Heather Edwards

14:00 – 14:30 Break

14:30 – 15:20 The link between volunteering and health inequalities under COVID-19?

Disconnected discourses about Patient and Public Involvement and Volunteer Involvement in English health and social care.
Professor Fiona Poland, University of East Anglia

Move at the speed of trust:
Mobilisation of volunteering in the context of health inequalities and need.
Professor Jane South, Leeds Beckett University

15:20 – 15:30 Short Break

15:30 – 15:50 Speaker Panel with questions from chat room

15:50 – 16:00 Closing and Thank you. (Jurgen Grotz)

Bookings are still open.

Attending the event

VSSN aims to promote an understanding of the UK voluntary sector through research. The event is aimed at researchers, academics, doctoral students and practitioners in voluntary organisations or foundations interested in the UK voluntary sector. We also welcome policymakers and practitioners engaged in relevant fields. We are always pleased to meet and receive contributions from colleagues in similar settings in other countries. The working language is English.

Opportunities to become more involved with the Voluntary Sector Studies Network and Voluntary Sector Review 

Would you like to support the work of VSSN more actively? Do you have ideas about how you’d like to see the network develop?

If so, please consider nominating yourself for a place on either or both of:

• the VSSN Steering Group
• the Editorial Management Board of Voluntary Sector Review, the journal produced by VSSN with Policy Press.

VSSN is a volunteer-led organisation and its success relies very much on the commitment, time and energy of members of these two groups. 

VSSN Steering Group (SG)

This year there are three vacancies on the Steering Group.

The term of office is normally three years in the first instance. The maximum term allowed by the constitution is six consecutive years. Being a member of the Steering Group means also becoming a trustee of the VSSN.

Specific roles on the Steering Group are allocated by agreement after the election. Roles include Chair, Treasurer, Secretary and leading on, for example, membership and marketing, day seminars and the annual conference.

What are we looking for in a member of the SG? Commitment to VSSN and its continued success is the most important quality, but this year we are also keen to encourage self-nominations from members with skills/experience in accountancy/ numeric analysis, event organization and membership development.    We also want to improve the diversity of the Steering Group and would welcome interest from under represented groups who can bring lived experience which may be of value to our Network.

Details of existing Steering Group members and their roles can be found at https://www.vssn.org.uk/about-us/people/ VSR Editorial Management Board (EMB)

This year there are two vacancies for the VSR Editorial Management Board (EMB). The term of office is three years in the first instance, with an opportunity to stand for another three-year term.

The role of the EMB is to:

• support the editorial team (currently Daiga Kamerade, Carl Milofsky and James Rees)
• ensure that high editorial standards are maintained
• represent VSSN in working with the publisher, Policy Press
• ensure the journal is produced in accordance with the Publisher’s Agreement.

Additional roles

If you would like to be more involved but don’t want to join the Steering Group or Editorial Management Board, there are other voluntary roles which are equally valuable and help us develop our networks and activities. For example, we are currently looking for:

• people to join our ‘small grants committee’
• people to join a new team we are setting up to help shortlist the best paper award at next year’s Voluntary Sector and Volunteering Research Conference
• a volunteer to moderate the VSSN email discussion list – an important role but not an onerous one which would only take a few minutes of your time each week and full training will be available if required.

If you are interested in finding out more about any of these roles please contact Jane Cullingworth on janecullingworthvssn@gmail.com. You must be a current member of VSSN.

If you have any questions about the self-nomination process or would like a copy of a nomination form, you can find the forms here (please complete the forms by pasting into a word document and sending by email) or please contact us by email via execofficer@vssn.org.uk. We look forward to receiving your nomination forms soon. Nominations close on Friday 23rd October.

Emotion and Feelings in Voluntary Sector Work

(supported by a VSSN development grant)

Seminar 1: 10.15am – 3.30pm, 22nd October 2020

Speakers with discussion and questions in each session

Free at the point of delivery! For students, researchers, practitioners, activists

To receive Zoom details please register your interest on: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/emotions-and-feelings-in-voluntary-sector-work-tickets-108981157576

As part of VSSN’s goal to help maximise the visibility and impact of Voluntary Sector focussed research, we are collating research projects which focus on VCS and volunteering responses to, recovery from and implications of the COVID-19 pandemic. We have had a great response, and there are 18 studies to explore on this page.

If you would like your project to be visible on the VSSN website, please fill in the form here. It would be great to hear about projects in development as well as those in progress, as this should help to reduce any risk of duplication and open up possibilities of collaboration.

Read more and submit your research project here.

Call for Research Notes

COVID-19 and voluntary sector

Voluntary Sector Review (VSR) invites original research notes on COVID-19 and voluntary sector for a rapid publication in early 2021.

The COVID-19 pandemic has profoundly altered many aspects of voluntary sector: disruption to normal life, social distancing and lockdown measures, furlough, job losses and economic crisis have profoundly affected how voluntary sector organisations operate and individuals’ volunteering and donating behavior both in short- and long-term. There is an unprecedented and immediate need for up to date evidence and new theoretical understanding of the current situation, yet the scientific research and publication of findings as a full paper can take a long time. To address this need, Voluntary Sector Review is experimenting with research notes as a new format of publication. We invite scholars from across the globe to submit short research notes on their ongoing research related to COVID-19 and voluntary sector. We are looking for research notes with promising empirical research findings as well as theoretical discussions that help to understand the potential consequences of the current COVID-19 pandemic for voluntary sector. We seek research notes that make a clear and original contribution.

The research notes can include research outputs that cannot be considered as full research or methodology articles. For example, but not exclusively, they can present intriguing initial and/or time-sensitive results and observations,  advance a new idea, theoretical perspective or methodological approach, describe new data available for other scholars or publish a brief summary of a study that is usually difficult to publish (e.g. with non-significant results).

Submission deadline is October 30^th, 2020. We invite research notes of short to medium length (2,000 to 4,000 words). Research notes may follow a less strict paper structure than full papers but still need to make a valuable contribution to the study of voluntary sector.  They must have an abstract and must use referencing and follow VSR manuscript formatting guidelines. Please type ‘Research Note’ at the top of your manuscript, then submit it through Editorial Manager, as a ‘Research article’.  All research notes will undergo a fast track peer-review. A selection of 3-5 notes will be published in March 2021 issue and the rest scheduled for publication in next issues.

For pre-submission queries, prospective contributors are encouraged to contact the corresponding editor Dr. Daiga Kamerāde: d.kamerade-hanta@salford.ac.uk

Online forum for new researchers – How to disseminate your research findings

Thursday, September 24 from 1-2pm   

Our next session for new researchers will focus on ways to disseminate research findings beyond journal and book publication – this will include social media, blogs, posters, videos and building networks.  This will be an open forum for new researchers in the field of voluntary studies and voluntary action hosted by Vita Terry, Jon Dean and Jane Cullingworth from VSSN’s steering group.  We have two fabulous speakers:

• Emily Dyson, Head of Communications at IVAR– IVAR on Twitter
• Nic Dickson, PhD student at the University of Glasgow – Nic on Twitter

Please note, you do not need to be a member of VSSN to participate – however, we do encourage you to join VSSN.  VSSN is a membership driven organisation that relies on its members for support.  Membership offers a number of benefits and is on a sliding scale; you can find out more here.

Zoom link: https://uofglasgow.zoom.us/j/97885273954

Please contact Jane Cullingworth at janecullingworthvssn@gmail.com for more information.

—