People

We are delighted that Jane Harris has joined us as IVAR’s first Deputy Director. Prior to that, Jane was Managing Director of Cordis Bright. She has more than twenty years’ experience of working in and around the third sector. Her responsibilities at IVAR include financial management, programme management and the development of our marketing and publications.

Projects

We have recently completed a ground-breaking study on the advocacy role of community anchor organisations for bassac, in association with the Improvement and Development Agency (I&DeA). The research was launched by Ben Cairns at the bassac Annual Conference on 29th February. This work builds on our earlier study (Servants of the Community or Agents of Government).

The report and summary bulletin on our joint project with the Institute for Volunteering Research on The impact of public policy on volunteering in community based organisations is now available.

IVAR is one of the core partners of the new Collaboration National Support Service, funded by Capacity Builders.

We have just been commissioned by the I&DeA to carry out a study on models of third sector representation.

For further details on Action Research and Capacity Building projects, check our Projects page.

Birkbeck - IVAR Partnership

The second Birkbeck - IVAR seminar series, Community Organisations: Research, Policy and Practice was successfully completed in June.

The third seminar series entitled 'New Thinking about the Third Sector' commences in December.

Details of future seminars and the past seminars are available at Events.

Conferences

In June, Margaret Harris took part in the 'Bridging' social capital' seminar series organised by NCVO and the Carnegie UK Inquiry into the Future of Civil Society withe a seminar 'Building bridges'.
This seminar explored how civil society organisations can successfully build bridges between different communities.

Seminar report and presentation are available from NCVO.

We presented two papers at the recent ARNOVA conference in Atlanta:

Servants of the Community or Agents of Government? The impact and implications of UK public policy on community-based organizations
Building Bridges at the Grassroots between Diverse Communities of Faith and Ethnicity: Findings from an Exploratory Study

(available on request from Kulwinder Thind kulwinder@ivar.org.uk)

Last updated: 23 September 2008