The role of small voluntary sector organisations in tackling complex social challenges: lessons from a charity serving asylum seekers and refugees

Abstract

There is a growing body of research on small Voluntary Sector Organisations’ (VSOs) contribution to tackling complex social challenges. It focuses on how small VSOs work to address these challenges, as opposed to what the measurable impact of that work is. This article adds to that body of work by providing a new analytical account of how a small VSO works; in this case what shapes that work is the extent to which it is collaborative, responsive and collective, and voluntarily driven in nature. This article also takes the research to a new setting; that of small VSOs working to better the welfare of Asylum Seekers and Refugees (ASRs).