Voluntary Sector Participation Research Articles

Voluntary sector participation and individual health and welfare: Does it matter where?

AbstractObjectiveScholars have presented compelling evidence that participation in voluntary sector organizations (VSOs)—which is primarily motivated by the desire to help society—also benefits volunteers. The objective of this article is to determine whether and how these positive impacts vary across the type of VSO where individuals volunteer.MethodsWe examine European Value Survey and World Value Survey data from 18 advanced industrial democracies using multilevel regression models to establish the link between VSO participation and three individual health and welfare (IHW) outcomes: an individual's self‐reported health status, financial satisfaction, and overall life satisfaction.ResultsOur findings indicate (1) that the relationship between voluntary sector participation and positive IHW outcomes depends on the type of VSO where individuals volunteer and (2) that heterogeneous VSO exposure is also positively related to IHW.ConclusionWe emphasize that voluntary sector participation has heterogeneous impacts that variously determine outcomes depending on the type of VSO where an individual chooses to participate.

Voluntary Sector Participation and Support for Redistribution: Evidence From 18 Advanced Industrial Democracies (1990–2013)

The governments of the advanced industrial democracies have long provided public policies that redistribute income, and public support for such redistribution has varied across countries and over time. “Who is likely to support these egalitarian policies?” is a perennial question. This article investigates individuals’ participation in voluntary sector organizations (VSO) to understand the relationship between VSO participation and support for public policies aimed at reducing inequalities. We use five waves of the World Values Survey across 18 advanced industrial democracies to examine this relationship. Our findings suggest that, in aggregate, the impact of VSO participation negatively influences support for redistribution. This pattern of support changes significantly, however, when we consider the type of VSO, suggesting that VSO participation is not homogeneous. Individuals’ support for redistribution is conditioned by where their VSO participation happens.

Partnership or insanity: why do health partnerships do the same thing over and over again and expect a different result?

Objectives The paper reports on an empirical study of Health and Wellbeing Boards (HWBs) in England. Established by the Health and Social Care Act 2012, HWBs act as place-based hubs for leaders in health, social care, local government and other sectors to come together to address health improvement and the wider determinants of health. Methods We conducted a three-year study of HWBs (2015–2017) in five localities across England. This involved collecting qualitative data from semi-structured interviews with key actors in the HWBs at strategic and operational levels, and focus group sessions with voluntary-sector participants at each HWB. Results HWBs have largely followed the path of previous partnerships in terms of a lack of clear aims and objectives, lack of ownership and accountability by partners, and an absence of any significant impact on health outcomes. Conclusions Many of the features of unsuccessful partnership working were largely displayed by HWBs. Boards require more executive power and ownership from the bottom up if they are to have any real impact.

Are Our Assumptions About Diaspora and Immigrant Philanthropy Generalizable? Exploring the Relevance to High-Income Countries of Origin

We examine the relevance of suggestive findings and assumptions about immigrant philanthropy to a diaspora from a high-income country of origin, whose members are generally highly educated and professionally employed: the Lithuanian diaspora. We investigate whether this immigrant group’s voluntary sector participation, despite these differences, may evolve similar to that of other immigrant groups studied. The study casts doubt on the generalizability of the current claims from the literature—which is largely derived from cases of immigrants migrating from the South to the North—to immigrant and diaspora groups who are highly skilled and originating from relatively more industrialized countries (North–North migration). The findings highlight the need to examine the voluntary sector participation of a greater variety of diasporas and to recognize that not all groups will behave similarly. Some of the differentiated behavior may stem from demographic characteristics specific to North–North migration.

Alice in Wonderland: Voluntary sector organisations’ experiences of Transforming Rehabilitation

This article explores the experience of voluntary sector organisations (VSOs) in the Transforming Rehabilitation (TR) experiment. It identifies the motivations, expectations, rationalities and experiences of voluntary sector participants, drawing on interviews conducted with charity directors and community rehabilitation company executives between 2015 and 2017. It concludes by reflecting on the losses and gains that accrued to different parts of the voluntary sector, as well as critically examining the conditions by which ‘winning’ and ‘losing’ were structured within the TR framework.

Collaborating across sector boundaries: a story of tensions and dilemmas

This article explores collaboration between voluntary and public sectors through the lens of theories that surface the tensions of inter-organisational collaboration. These theories identify the tensions that actors experience, the inherent tensions that underlie these experiences, and the ways in which actors manage these tensions. Drawing on a study of children's services in the United Kingdom, the article identifies three inter-related tensions experienced by voluntary sector participants – tensions between agency and dependency, values and pragmatism, and distinctiveness and incorporation. While these can be seen to relate to the inherent unity/diversity tension identified in the literature (Ospina and Saz-Carranza, 2010), the article argues that they also relate to inter-organisational context, and more specifically, to the power asymmetry between sectors.

Partnership or Presence? Exploring the Complexity of Community Planning

Partnership working between the public, private and third sectors is a defining feature of the contemporary local public policy landscape in the UK. Community Planning Partnerships (CPPs) in Scotland involve representatives from different sectors working in partnership, led by the relevant local authority. CPPs resemble local governance reforms elsewhere in the UK and encounter similar problems, among which are difficulties in successfully integrating voluntary sector organisations. This article draws upon research which explored the influence of voluntary sector participants in relation to community planning processes at the strategic, managerial and operational levels. It examines the suspicion that voluntary sector representatives have a ‘mere presence rather than a voice’ in local policy-making (Cameron, S. & Davoudi, S. (1998) Combating social exclusion – looking in or looking out?, in: G. Madaanipour et al. (Eds) Social Exclusion in European Cities, pp. 250 (London: Jessica Kingsley), and explores the potential contribution of complexity theory to interpret the relationships involved in local partnerships. It is concluded that voluntary sector participants are junior partners in CP and have to adapt how to operate and convince the leading public sector partners that they are business-like in order to exert influence.

The Perpetual Education Fund: Providing higher education loans in the voluntary sector

Abstract Although many strategies are proposed to reduce the opportunity gap in higher education between and within countries, student loans with cost recovery measures are often preferred during times of fiscal constraint. This study briefly reviews the benefits and challenges of student loans over other forms of financial aid and presents the case for voluntary sector involvement in contexts where government and market failures constrain effective solutions. It describes an innovative program that has emerged to meet this challenge—the Perpetual Education Fund. This program utilizes public–private partnerships, a large financial corpus, pre-existing administrative structures, personal relationships, local vocational schooling, and intergroup solidarity to administer loans and recover costs. Because voluntary sector participation in loan financing and administration is relatively new, the experiences and innovative survival strategies of this program have valuable implications for other emerging programs.

Partnership working: a policy with promise for mental healthcare

This article describes the literature specific to partnership working across the National Health Service, social services and voluntary and community sector in order to summarise the potential advantages and challenges of partnerships. We explore the meaning of partnership working and review the policy developments and investment initiatives underpinning the Government's emphasis on partnership working between statutory services and the voluntary and community sector. A number of barriers hinder effective partnership working and we examine some possible solutions to overcome these. We then address the key issues influencing the approach to increasing the voluntary sector's participation in partnership activities within mental health services and provide brief examples of good practice. Finally, we discuss practical issues relevant to planning partnerships and the role consultant psychiatrists can play in initiating and developing partnership working between the voluntary sector and statutory mental health services.

The impact of health policy gaps on low vision services in Canada

This study was a demonstration project of the Canadian government's VOICE in Health Policy initiative, funded through the Sectoral Involvement in Departmental Policy Development (SIDPD) component of the Voluntary Sector Initiative (VSI). VSI was launched in 2000 to strengthen the voluntary sector's participation in policy development. The CNIB's project was selected as one of six VOICE demonstration projects. Based on the findings of the literature review and policy scan, a pilot study was undertaken to explore the issues from the perspectives of seniors and vision service providers including ophthalmologists, optometrists, opticians and vision rehabilitation practitioners. It was hoped that the study could create a foundation for future research in order to much more extensively explore and document the issues in this area.

We hate it here, please let us stay! Irish social partnership and the community/voluntary sector’s conflicted experiences of recognition

This article critically assesses the outcomes of community and voluntary sector participation in the partnership processes that have dominated the Irish social policy scene for the last decade. As community organizations have embraced the state sponsored corporatist project in both its local and national manifestations, they have been given official recognition by government as de facto representatives of the socially excluded. State policy discourses have celebrated this development as evidence of its own enablement of civil society and as reflective of participatory democracy in action. However, because the state has taken such an instrumental role in the initiation, funding and direction of community organizations at the local level, the actual autonomy and independence of the community sector has been grievously undermined. At a national level, community and voluntary organizations have found that because they lack economic clout - the basis of political influence in Ireland’s neo-liberal climate - they have been granted only a marginal influence over the substance of policy decisions. The article concludes by urging that community organizations begin to cultivate alternative alliances outside the state controlled sphere of social partnership, in order to challenge neo-liberalism’s hegemony and to promote the political interests of those they claim to represent.

Perceptions of partnership. A documentary analysis of Health Improvement Programmes

Health Improvement Programmes [HImPs] are at the heart of the UK government's partnership agenda for the National Health Service [NHS]. This paper assesses the nature of HImP partnerships in England by analysing 50/99 first-round HImP strategies [randomly selected]. The documentary analysis quantifies the structures and mechanisms of partnership, the degree of inter-sectoral participation and the extent of voluntary sector involvement. Three-quarters of responding health authorities [37/50] appear to have set up formal partnership structures to produce the HImP, or are planning to do so. After health authorities, local authorities [47/50] appear to be most involved in contributing to the HImP, particularly social services departments. Within the NHS ‘family', acute and community trusts [43/50] appear to be the most involved, with Primary Care Groups [PCGs] contributing less [39/40]. Community Health Councils [CHCs] appear to be similarly involved [40/50]. The voluntary sector appear to be involved in all but four HImPs, mainly through umbrella organisations represented on strategic partnership boards [34/50]. User and carer and community groups appear to participate far less. Lack of endorsement of HImPs by partner organisations, poor delineation of responsibilities and absence of transparency in resource allocation suggest that ownership of, and commitment to HImPs may be weak. HImPs appear to have focused on creating structures rather than developing aspects of partnership process. If levels of inter-sectoral involvement and voluntary sector participation are to be maintained or increased in future, Primary Care Trusts [PCTs] will need to develop a strategic approach to partnership.

Social partnership - is it 'the only game in town'?

This article attempts to analyse some of the experiences of the Irish community and voluntary sector's participation in social partnership. The article explores the politics of social partnership and discusses the implications of participation in social partnership for the potential strategies and choices for the community and voluntary sector. It looks at the outcomes of that participation from the perspective of both its impact on income and other inequalities and its impact on the community and voluntary sector and its relationship with the state, other actors and internal relationships within the sector. Alternatives to social partnership are explored and the article concludes that, while limited, there are specific gains and reasons to ‘stay inside’. At the same time, we should be firmly focused on the ‘outside’ and on alternative alliances, tactics, visions and ideologies.

Conflict and convergence: managing pluralism in planning and provision

There has been much research focusing on contracting and its effect on individual voluntary sector organisation, and some mapping of the extent of voluntary sector participation in joint community care planning. Each of these is a new and formal relationship with the statutory sector, and in many cases the tasks are fulfilled by the same voluntary sector worker (usually the senior paid officer of the agency). But the impact that these two new relationships have on the voluntary organisation’s perception of its dependence and inter‐dependence has received less attention. The paper will draw on structured interviews in three local authorities, with voluntary sector participants in contracts for social care, and with participants in joint community care planning groups, as well as on documentary research. It will explore the impact of the evolving roles for those seeking to operate effectively in the pluralist provision of public services. It will analyse experiences within joint community care planning structures, and will analyse experiences of contractual relationships. The paper will seek to identify the elements present in each research site which influence the culture of joint working within the two statutory/ voluntary relationships.