Research undertaken by NICVA

With all the research going on into the organisations which provide support services (see to the right of this page) the needs of those voluntary and community organisations also need to be taken into account. Therefore, NICVA will be conducting a number of detailed case studies with voluntary and community organisations which access advice, information and other services from support organisations.

The case studies will examine the following issues:

• How do voluntary and community organisations view where they get support from? Is there a hierarchy organisations will go through in terms of accessing support? For example, do organisations differentiate between support service providers?
• What is the dynamic like between the organisations and the support services provider? For example, is it a one way street or is there a more defined relationship?
• Does it matter where organisations get information and support from as long as they get some help?
• Are there gaps in provision and how might current provision could be refined to fill these gaps?

The intention of this exercise is to get a flavour of how support is accessed and the processes organisations go through when deciding where to get support from. It must be stated this is not an exercise in evaluating a particular support service provider and no organisations will be individually identified. It is purely an attempt to look at what happens at an organisational level in terms of accessing support. We will also be publishing an online survey in the coming weeks so that we can capture some wider thoughts on this important relationship between service providers and the voluntary and community sector at large.

If your organisation is interested in participating in this research or you just want to find out more about it, please contact Gordon McCullough on gordon.mccullough@nicva.org.