Friday, 12 July 2013

Unity in diversity

Unity in diversityThis time last week I was in Birmingham for a community sector celebratory get-together, hosted by the Third Sector Research Centre. The purpose was to acknowledge the achievement of five years of work on small community groups, under the ‘Below the radar’ banner; and the near-promise of further funding to continue this valuable work.

Being the community sector of course, we had to do a fair bit of agonising before we dared to share a few glasses of wine, especially in the context of austerity. And this kind of gathering wouldn’t be complete without at least a cursory discussion of the broad tensions in themes like mutuality, volunteering, independence vs united voice, government funding and influence, philanthropic models vs disempowerment; attempts at it’s political manipulation; and of course the terminology.  

But it was also a chance to hear about and discuss the centre’s major recent report on the future of the third sector, Unity in diversity. This is the result of their ‘futures dialogue’, a keen, informed and well-distilled analysis that has made smart use of the centre’s and other research, combined with the experience of a bunch of knowledgeable people. I’ve run and served on working parties and future visioning task groups and I know how hard it can be – this is an important piece of work given the ‘significant shifts in policy towards the sector.’

 

12 Jul 2013 16:42:32

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Kevin Harris

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