Working with voluntary and community groups

If you want to work with voluntary organisations, community groups, social enterprises or community interest companies for any reason, York CVS can help you. People working within these kinds of organisations, either paid staff, volunteers or trustees, usually have very close relationships with the people they work with and for, and can offer valuable insights about their needs and aspirations.

York CVS has a Partnerships Department with 3 members of staff who work with a wide variety of organisations in the voluntary sector.  Some organisations work across the City of York, some have wider boundaries and some work in small neighbourhoods.  Some work carried out is thematic, for example working with older people, disabled people and/or people from black and minority ethnic groups. 

As the title 'Partnerships' suggests, our role is to support people in the voluntary sector to build and sustain positive relationships with people in statutory organisations and private organisations.

Our work with statutory organisations includes ensuring that the voluntary sector is represented at decision-making board meetings - many are part of York's local strategic partnership structure: WithOut Walls. 

For example: York CVS supports a number of voluntary sector forums, themed around older and/or disabled people, people with mental health problems, children and young people, and people with learning disabilities.  The forums consist of a variety of voluntary organisations working with people around these themes.  Each forum elects representatives, who then attend regular meetings of the relevant sub-committees attached to the WithOut Walls partnership.  Each forum briefs their representatives on the issues they want to bring to the attention of the sub-committee.  In this way, the representatives speak on behalf of the voluntary sector in that forum, not just about their own organisation's work.  However, they are people with expertise in their particular theme.

If you would like support in working with voluntary organisations in any way, please get in touch.