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NCVO has just published the NRS best paper blog.

Emily Lau, winner of the New Researchers Prize at this year’s Voluntary Sector and Volunteering Research Conference organised by VSSN and NCVO, is a lecturer at the Faculty of Education, Canterbury Christ Church University. She is completing her PhD in Education looking at young people and their experiences of social action. At the VSVR conference in September, she presented her paper which looks at how universities have a vital role to play in creating spaces where young people can actively explore their own role in civil society.

Young volunteers and social action: The task for universities, the voluntary sector and communities

During Volunteers Week, the Voluntary Sector Studies Network, the Association of Volunteer Managers, and the National Network of Volunteer-Involving Agencies organised an event focused on bringing university-based volunteering researchers and sector practitioners together. Hosted at NCVO, the five-hour workshop sought to build bridges between these two groups, who, frankly, should have a better connection. Around a dozen presenters, from universities and voluntary organisations, delivered short challenges to the 40 attendees, followed by lots of intense discussion.

Helen Timbrell, Executive Director of People and Organisational Development at the Samaritans, perhaps said it best when she directly addressed the need for us all to be a little less comfortable. Charities need to engage with research even if it shows they could be doing their work better, and researchers need to recognise that if their work isn’t made use of, what purpose does it serve?

Academic researchers are well-aware that our writing is often obtuse and our findings are hidden away in journals no right-thinking person would ever want to engage with; and charities frequently want a ‘quick win’ in research terms to showcase impact to a funder, rather than completing long-term and thorough investigations. Being honest about these different priorities is vital, especially at a time when both groups are seeing less available resource to devote to research.

As a member of the VSSN’s Steering Group, and a researcher focused on charity issues at Sheffield Hallam University, I will be the first to admit that I don’t personally do enough to make any research I do useful for sector practitioners. A lot of it is not always applicable in the day-to-day functioning of charities, focused perhaps on sociological trends rather than specific problem-solving, but talking to practitioners at this event showed a yearning for insight into the challenges the sector will face over the next decade, with the growth of digital and the retirement of the baby boomers the most frequently discussed issues.

What was invigorating to see at the end of the event was a commitment to be a bit better in the future. The different priorities will always exist, and they are unavoidable, but many individuals from a variety of organisations left the workshop promising to make some specific changes, such as a promise to invest resources in examining the sector’s failure to embrace greater diversity and what we can do about it, to a commitment to approaching universities for research opportunities. I myself will certainly commit to producing and promoting freely accessible, more practitioner-centred research in future (alongside the dusty journals).

The good news is we already know a huge amount about the voluntary sector: around what works and doesn’t work in fundraising; around the motivations behind and benefits of volunteering; and around charity leadership. Rather than re-inventing the wheel and doing the same research again, what events like this one reaffirmed was the need to get that knowledge into the right hands, and the fact that the opportunities to do it already exist. Through social media feeds, discussion lists, direct emails, and more engaged face to face events and conferences like this one, if everyone’s willing to be a little less comfortable, the rewards may well be worth it.

A report on the recent VSSN day conference on May 9th in York has been posted, written by steering group member Linda Milbourne.

DEADLINE EXTENDED: Following a number of requests, the deadline for abstracts for 2018 @VSSN_UK & @NCVO Voluntary Sector and Volunteering Research Conference is now May 9th.

So you have the bank holiday weekend to finish your abstract!

Submissions welcome on all topics, particularly around trust, transparency and accountability.

Trust, Transparency and Accountability of Charities and Voluntary Organisations: Challenges for Policy, Practice and Research

Public trust in charities, voluntary organisations and wider civil society is under threat from a perceived lack of transparency and accountability surrounding its work. From the Oxfam scandal, to the failure of Kids Company, and ongoing concerns about fundraising practices, the media gaze and political spotlight is increasingly falling on organisations’ work. This raises some important questions for research on the voluntary sector and volunteering:

• How is the sector, and civil society more generally, affected by and responding to media and political challenges to become more transparent and accountable?
• How is public trust holding-up in light of recent events, for individual organisations and the sector as a whole?

Alongside this intensified public attention, the voluntary sector and wider civil society continues to deal with a complex series of challenges associated with rising inequality, material hardship, and multiple disadvantage, whilst campaigning and advocating on behalf of some of society’s most seldom heard voices. This broader context presents, inevitably, opportunities and challenges for the voluntary sector and volunteering, and high quality research and analysis are needed more than ever to help understand these.

The Voluntary Sector and Volunteering Research Conference – organised by NCVO and the Voluntary Sector Studies Network (VSSN) – provides a unique opportunity for academics, policy makers and practitioners from the UK and further afield to come together to share and discuss research that addresses the conference theme and the broader issues facing the voluntary sector and volunteering at this time.

Conference details

Location: NCVO Conference Suite, London

How to submit your proposal

All delegates at the conference must pay the conference rates in order to participate, including those presenting a paper.

See the full guidelines and submit your proposal

You don’t need to present a paper to attend. Bookings are not yet open for the 2018 conference but you can register your interest here.

Aims and themes

The conference aims to:

• Contribute to evidence and theory-building in the field
• Develop emerging research ideas
• Inform and be informed by the work of practitioners
• Inform and influence policy

We welcome submissions for individual papers, panel sessions and workshops. Given the conference theme, we are particularly keen to receive proposals that address issues associated with trust, accountability and transparency, but we do also welcome papers that address a range of issues relevant to volunteering and the voluntary sector. As such, submissions should be also aligned to the following streams:

1. Civil society, democracy and grassroots voluntary action
2. Volunteering, participation and social action
3. Advances in theory and methods
4. Resourcing the sector: funding, fundraising, philanthropy and social investment
5. Organisational management and governance, including law and regulation
6. Historical perspectives on the voluntary sector and voluntary action
7. Sectoral boundaries: private-voluntary-public sector relations
8. Understanding, measuring and valuing outcomes and impact

When submitting abstracts, authors will be asked which streams they feel their paper will fit best within. We welcome contributions from a variety of disciplines, including sociology, social policy, politics, psychology, geography, economics, business studies, social anthropology, philosophy and ethics.

Campbell Adamson Memorial Prize

Presenters who submit a full paper prior to the start of the conference will automatically be in with a chance of winning the Campbell Adamson Memorial prize for best paper, which includes a £500 prize.

New researchers

The Conference is an ideal opportunity for new or early career researcher looking to meet, discuss and present their research with other new researchers in a supportive setting. A special series of parallel sessions will be run as part of the conference for ‘new’ researchers. Attendance at this part of the conference is subsidised, and is intended for all early career researchers in the field of voluntary sector studies, whether postgraduate students or working/volunteering in the voluntary sector.

A call for papers for the New Researchers Sessions is also open – details here.

Want to find out more?

Should you have any queries on the 2018 Voluntary Sector and Volunteering Research conference please email us.