Infrastructure
One lesson of our lockdown voluntarism is that as a nation, the UK does not lack volunteers or community spirit; it lacks the infrastructure to harness their potential for public benefit at a time of continuing need.
A colourful history of social action is reflected in the work of 166,000 charities across the UK, mostly micro and small organisations that are people-rich but money-poor. Research by Lloyds Bank Foundation suggests that these operate on average with around three volunteers for every five thousand pounds of income.
Everyone knows that a flourishing community will have a flourishing voluntary sector. But, with the exception of historic programmes such as CapacityBuilders and ChangeUp, the idea that a flourishing voluntary sector needs a nurturing infrastructure has evaporated. Over the last twenty years, to talk of local voluntary sector infrastructure has been seen as code for funding requests to support a web of network of agencies, sometimes overlapping, sometimes competing.
The case for infrastructure was lost over the austerity years. Good things happened; the best of those network bodies adapted and new infrastructure organisations emerged - including Pilotlight. Even so, with grant funding withdrawn, the overall result was a far weaker voluntary sector, anaemic in the context of growing need. Despite a welcome turn to place-based programmes, the conclusion of the 2015 Change for Good commission on local infrastructure remains true today, that “the most under-resourced areas tend to be those with high social need”.
by Ed Mayo, CEO
Published by Civil Society. Read the full article here.