Supporting Oxfordshire’s Voluntary Sector

A single, up to date, accessible hub for community and voluntary support and action across Oxfordshire.

Out of date websites? Inconsistent and often innaccessible information needlessly scattered across numerous locations? Duplication without justification? Communication channels of varying quality and accessibility? We believe that community and voluntary action in Oxfordshire deserves better, and that these issues are possible to solve now.

We need a hub that can at once be (1) a voice for the voluntary sector while knowing when to stand back and promote the voice of others, (2) a place to find support, join in, and connect, and, (3) open itself to be held truly accountable to people and communities. This will require being active, forward thinking, having a clear direction, and being capable of showing true leadership.

More diversity and meaningful representation for marginalised groups.

There is a lack of diversity in the way that individuals and communities have a voice within and with the voluntary sector. Across all groups, it is often those that we don't hear at all that need to be heard most.

A lack of diversity at board and senior management team level in the voluntary sector is also a well-researched and understood issue, as in many other areas.

More accountability and openness.

The voluntary sector needs to be more accountable to the individuals and communities we exist to serve. In particular, the work and decisions of our trustee boards and senior leadership teams should be more transparent, and actively welcome challenges to the status quo.

We need to openly publish regularly and in detail on our successes, failures and what we are learning along the way, in ways that are accessible to the general public as well as our colleagues and partners. This includes publishing more open data about our activities to inform and support others with the same strategic goals.

A more effective, more joined up voluntary sector.

Countless partnership meetings, greatly overlapping memberships, endless conversations and minutes, and then little in the way of practical action? There are of course excellent partnerships and forums doing outstanding work, and yet the above probably sounds familiar to everyone in the sector. We know that community organisations and public bodies in particular want better ways to connect with each other. We believe that this means fewer but more effective partnerships/forums that are themselves more diverse, representative, open, and share best practice with each other.

It also means stronger groups of organisations within and across these partnerships working effectively in a truly collaborative way. Organisations will have to work much more deeply with each other than we do currently, sharing resources, learning, and strategic goals. Some of this work will be done in effective partnerships and consortiums, but there will undoubtedly also be opportunities for organisations to merge for the greater good.

Where the above opportunities exist they must be grasped by boards of trustees ready to act in the wider interests of the sector. There is an opportunity for all organisations to show that true leadership means putting aside our vested interests and acheiving a greater impact, even if that means transforming the work of our organisations, or merging with each other.

Funding and commissioning that works in the best interests of people and communities.

We need collectively to re-imagine the way that funding is commissioned, so that the whole process contains dialogue, shared goal setting, and a focus on outcomes rather than activities.

Individual community organisations need to have a shared, stronger voice in influencing trusts, foundations and individuals donors.

Leaders need to be able to focus more of their time working outside of their narrow organisational remit, and be able to proudly tell funders about the impact of this work.

Last but not least, we need more widespread use of innovative forms of funding such as participatory grant making that puts more money in the hands of residents and neighbourhoods.

True leadership in the best interests of people and communities.

This requires leadership at all levels, and particularly in our trustee boards and senior management teams. We have to hold ourselves more accountable to communities, be brave, open, and honest with our ideas even where they might invite criticism, and put our vested interests to one side.