In the community, for the community
NCVA exists to enable the community, voluntary organisations and charities to develop and succeed. To do so we provide expert advice, training and information. We provide a voice for the voluntary sector and help to build partnerships.
Working with people in Northumberland to improve lives, we:
- Promote volunteering and community activity
- Champion the voluntary sector, giving a voice to and highlighting the efforts of people working in their communities
- Help people find volunteering opportunities and help organisations find volunteers
- Enable people to develop skills, become more employable and find jobs
- Run voluntary programmes to help older people retain their independence
- Empower people organising voluntary groups and charities in the community
- Assist voluntary groups, organisations and charities to operate legally and effectively, and to find trustees
- Guide voluntary groups and local charities to find funding for their work
- Organise networks and bring community organisations into partnerships that amplify their reach and enable them learn from each other
- Provide practical services available to community groups and local charities that small organisations cannot have ‘in house’.
Northumberland’s VCSE infrastructure organisation
NCVA is what is these days referred to as an ‘infrastructure organisation’ serving Northumberland.
An ‘infrastructure organisation’ enables organisations that directly offer services to people and communities do so more effectively. In this case NCVA serves voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) organisations. Our members are those organisations, rather than individuals.
The services NCVA provides are known as ‘infrastructure services’. This includes helping organisations here in Northumberland to win funding, to build capacity, supporting their development, sharing knowledge, experiences and best practice and the co-ordination of partnerships and networks that deliver more than an organisation can alone. As an infrastructure organisation we also offer support and mentoring, help develop skills and spread knowledge. NCVA promotes volunteering and community action and is a voice advocating for VCSE organisations throughout Northumberland.
But it’s not just about providing services. Voluntary organisations, community groups and social enterprises are shaped by the community needs that they were created to serve. They are flexible and fluid, changing with those needs and responding to new challenges as they arise. This is one reason partnerships involving VCSE bodies offer more than the sum of their parts and why infrastructure organisations like NCVA work to provide the conditions and support that enable them to flourish.