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Voluntary/Community Sector Infrastructure

Infrastructure can be defined as the physical facilities, structures, systems, relationships, people, knowledge and skills that exist to support and develop, co-ordinate, represent and promote front-line organisations thus enabling them to deliver their missions more effectively.

There are many voluntary/community organisations, sometimes called umbrella or intermediary organisations, whose primary role is to provide infrastructure functions (support and development, co-ordination, representation and promotion) to frontline VCOs. RAISE is a regional infrastructure organisation. A large part of RAISE's work relates to infrastructure, either through Government policy initiatives or as part of our role to support the sector, for example through toolkits.

The Government has publicly declared its support for the voluntary/community sector (VCS) and acknowledged the huge contribution that the sector makes to society. As a result the Government has developed various policies which have a direct or indirect impact on VCS infrastructure.

The Compact, published in 1998, is a framework for partnership working between Government and the VCS which aims to be mutually beneficial.

ChangeUp, published in 2004, is a framework to build capacity and improve infrastructure for the VCS. The programme had a significant budget which has been devolved to the regions and should be spent at a local level through Infrastructure Development Plans. Originally developed by the Home Office, this ten year programme is now managed by Capacitybuilders and is supported by the Cabinet Office.

RAISE has significant involvement in both The Compact and ChangeUp to enable the VCS to engage with these massive policy initiatives and gain maximum benefit from them.