Recent Research

For all those interested in community governance and neighbourhood governance, NCVO has just launched a new report 'A Broader Parish: Working Together, Improving Local Communities’.

Research Surveys

Volunteering in Organisations - Fill in the Volunteer Development Agency online survey about how your organisation engages with volunteers and win a £800 bursary towards assessment against the Investing in Volunteers award.

What do you mean, you don’t need a laptop?Tell us what NICVA can do for your organisation and you could win a laptop computer.

Have there been any ‘positive steps’? Take a couple of minutes to complete this very short survey on what you believe the impact of Positive Steps has been.

Research event

Who's Creating Knowledge? The challenge of non-university researchers. Is the university the primary site for the creation and authorising of knowledge? That is commonly the conventional view. Why not participate in this debate and attend the seminar to be held in QUB on the 14 March 2007.

Publish your own research online

Would you like to make your research more accessible? Have you got a research publication to plug or some research news to share? Now is the time to publish your research online. Publish it on www.communityni.org free of charge.

Recent Research

'A Broader Parish: Working Together, Improving Local Communities’.

The report draws on the experience of three parishes in Devon that have pursued projects with the involvement of both voluntary and community groups and parish councils.

Community governance is high on the political agenda and parish councils are in the spotlight. As the government considers how decisions can be made at a community level it is important to examine and learn from existing structures and relationships.

The voluntary and community sector has long had a role in bridging the gap between citizens, communities and government. In addition to providing services, advice and information to communities, voluntary and community organisations (VCOs) also enable the voice of particular communities to be heard and influence decision making.

The report A Broader Parish examines the relationships between parish councils, VCOs and the individuals involved in their activities. The research focussed on three projects in rural Devon and highlighted the particular dynamics of the relationships between parish councils and other community groups in the area. The report demonstrates that:

·Most people are attracted to short-term action based roles rather than sustained participation in neighbourhood governance structures.

·Both parish councils and VCOs contribute to community governance and at different times take on a community leadership role. There can often be a blurring of boundaries between their respective roles.

·The relationships between parish councils and VCOs vary over time as circumstances change. However they can have a lot to offer one another as partners especially when trying to influence other tiers of governance.

·By undertaking activities and also by advocating on behalf of their community, together parish councils and VCOs can improve the lives of residents.

For further information on this report contact Claire Steel or to download the report free of charge visit the NCVO http://www.ncvo-vol.org.uk/abroaderparish

Volunteering

Fill in the Volunteer Development Agency online survey about how your organisation engages with volunteers and win a £800 bursary towards assessment against Investing in Volunteers award.

Volunteering underpins the work of the voluntary and community sector and the value of the contribution that individuals make cannot be underestimated. By completing our online survey you have the chance to help the development of volunteering in Northern Ireland and get the chance to win an £800 bursary towards assessment against the Investing in Volunteers award.

In 2001 the Volunteer Development Agency conducted two pieces of research, Volunteering in Northern Ireland and for the first time, Volunteering in Organisations. As a legacy for the Year of the Volunteer 2005 the Department for Social Development (DSD) has initiated development of a Volunteering Strategy for Northern Ireland 2007 -2012.

As part of the underpinning information for this strategy the Volunteer Development Agency, on behalf of DSD, is undertaking both pieces of research once again. It is for this reason that NICVA (Northern Ireland Council for Voluntary Action) has been commissioned by the Volunteer Development Agency to undertake this Volunteering in Organisations research.

The Volunteer Development Agency can do none of this without your help so we would ask you to complete the short survey online. It should take no longer than 10 minutes to complete.

If you require any additional information about this survey or the wider research project please contact Andrea Burke at NICVA using one of the following methods:

028 9087 7777

andrea.burke@nicva.org

NICVA Membership

What do you mean, you don't need a laptop?

Tell us what NICVA can do for your organisation and you could win a laptop computer. All completed membership surveys will be entered into a prize draw to win a laptop, a year’s free subscription to Grant Tracker or a year’s free NICVA membership. So if your survey questionnaire is hiding under a pile of papers, it’s time to dig it out and fill it in …

We have kept the survey as short as possible and this year the focus is on what you as a member of NICVA may need over the coming months and years in terms of support and advice. So, for example, would a basic signposting service be most appropriate for your organisation or do you feel that one to one advice would be more beneficial?

If you have any questions relating to the questionnaire, please contact Gordon McCullough on 028 9087 7777 or gordon.mccullough@nicva.org.

Positive Steps

Have there been any ‘positive steps’?

Positive Steps was launched in March 2005 to an expectant voluntary and community sector. Many in the voluntary and community sector and government believed that this publication, coming on the back of the deliberations by the Task Force, marked a watershed in the development of the relations between both parties.

But two years on, has the relationship between the sector and government changed as a consequence of the recommendations made in Positive Steps? NICVA has been monitoring the impact of these recommendations on the sector and we would ask you to take a couple of minutes to complete this very short survey on what you believe the impact of Positive Steps has been.

Check out the survey online at www.communityni.org/index.cfm/section/news/key/possteps_survey.

Research Event

Who's Creating Knowledge? The challenge of non-university researchers

The British Academy in partnership with Queen's University Belfast

This event has been organised as part of the Economic and Social Research Council's Festival of Social Science 2007

A panel discussion with Ronald Barnett, Institute of Education, University of London, Mike Heyworth, Director, British Council for Archaeology, and Dorothy Noyes, College of Humanities, Ohio State University

Chairman: Ruth Finnegan, FBA, Open University

This event will take place at Great Hall, Lanyon Building, Queen's University, University Road, Belfast BT7,6pm to 7.30pm, Wednesday, 14 March 2007

Is the university the primary site for the creation and authorising of knowledge? That is commonly the conventional view. But in practice a vast amount of research is also conducted not only in the corporate sector but also - a particular focus here - by the large numbers of independent researchers enthusiastically engaged in the production and establishment of knowledge outside university walls. The panel will discuss in particular the issues raised by the work of these often 'invisible' creators of knowledge, operating as they do across a wide diversity of fields of research, from family history to ornithology, astronomy to biography, philosophy to archaeology - and much else. Do such researchers between them present a challenge to the still often-assumed monopoly of the university over the production and validation of knowledge? Despite the obstacles they face are they perhaps following a more open route to knowledge production than in the increasingly constrained setting of university research today? Do we need to rethink the central role of the university in the establishment of knowledge? And may important new processes of knowledge-creation be emerging through the interactive potential of the internet for bypassing established university controls and evading the traditional gatekeepers to the publication and dissemination of knowledge?

Location:
Great Hall, Queen's University is situated in the Lanyon Building, which is the main university building on University Road, Belfast BT7. The entrance to the Great Hall will be signposted on the evening. Car parking is available in the general area of Queen's, and it may be possible to accommodate some limited parking on the main campus.

For further information about this event, please contact Barbara Groves, Queen's University Belfast ( b.groves@qub.ac.uk), or 028 9097 5340.

Publish your own research online

Would you like to make research more accessible? Have you got a research publication to plug or some research news to share? Now is the time to publish your research online. Publish it on Community NI, free of charge. Follow the simple online form at:

http://www.communityni.org/index.cfm

What is Community NI?

Community NI has been developed by the Northern Ireland Council for Voluntary Action (NICVA) to promote the voluntary and community sector in Northern Ireland.

Publish your information

The principle behind the site is that every voluntary and community organisation will be signposted and will have the opportunity to publish information, whether that be a newsletter, press release, job advertisement or event. Community NI aims to be the first central online source of information about the voluntary and community sector in Northern Ireland. It gives voluntary and community organisations the chance to promote themselves on the internet and to share their resources and expertise.

Thanks to everyone who sent information that has been included in NICVA Research Update 52. Please remember to send information about research that you have undertaken and requests for information that you would like included in the next update. Also remember to let others know about NICVA Research Updates. To register send an email entitled ‘NICVA Research Updates’ to andrea.burke@nicva.org

Andrea Burke

Research Assistant

NICVA

61 Duncairn Gardens

BELFAST BT15 2GB

028 9087 7777

028 9087 7799

andrea.burke@nicva.org

www.nicva.org and www.communityni.org