Voluntary Sector Studies Network

E. K. Sarter and Elizabeth Cookingham Bailey discuss how #Digitalisation in #PublicServices offers potential benefits but is limited by whether services are bound to physical space, requiring tailored strategies for different activities and tasks.

https://ow.ly/MLfc50XkrqZ

The VSSN Small Grants Scheme 2025 is now open!
Deadline: 21 Nov 2025 🗓️

We fund UK-based activities like workshops, podcasts, seminars or creative outputs that advance voluntary sector research and practice.

Open to VSSN members – more info & how to apply:
🔗 www.vssn.org.uk/small-grants/

VSSN friends – can you help us grow the reach of Voluntary Sector Review?

We're keen to connect VSR with wider audiences. LinkedIn is a key space for that.

Support us by:
Following the page
Reacting & commenting
Reposting
Tagging others

www.linkedin.com/company/volu...

@brisunipress.bsky.social

Are you a new researcher in the voluntary sector? We want your views. Help shape the future of our New Researchers Online Sessions by filling out a short survey.

Your input helps us:

Choose the right topics
Get the format right
Offer the support you need

The survey: tinyurl.com/new-research...

📖 New open access research from VSR
@brisunipress.bsky.social

What about the migrants? An exploration of organisational change in an asylum seeker and refugee voluntary sector organisation by Elizabeth Cookingham Bailey and Vita Terry

Read: bristoluniversitypressdigital.com/view/journal...

📖 New open access research from Voluntary Sector Review @brisunipress.bsky.social

Ten years evaluating VCS women-centred support for vulnerable women and girls: what works? by Louise Warwick-Booth, Susan Coan & Ruth Cross

Read: bristoluniversitypressdigital.com/view/journal...

This study explores how leaders moving from public/private sectors into civil society roles may shape the composition of the sector’s elite.

🔍 New open access research from Voluntary Sector Review @brisunipress.bsky.social @bupjournals.bsky.social

Boundary crossing and elite attributes in European civil societies by Malin Arvidson, Jayeon Lee, Roberto Scaramuzzino & Anders Uhlin

Read: bristoluniversitypressdigital.com/view/journal...

Are you a new researcher in the voluntary sector? We want your views. Help shape the future of our New Researchers Online Sessions by filling out a short survey.

Your input helps us:

Choose the right topics
Get the format right
Offer the support you need

The survey: tinyurl.com/new-research...

🎥 Watch the Day 2 #VSVR2025 plenary:
"Staying true while gaining traction: Civil society’s contribution to system change from the edge and the centre"

With Vita Terry, Navinder Kaur, Ken Kanu, Dawn Plimmer and John Everson.

📺 Recording here: echo360.org.uk/media/6082e3...

Missed the opening plenary at #VSVR2025?

Watch: "Working together: Implications of an ecosystemic approach for the third sector" with Prof Stephen Osborne, Arvinda Gohil (Better Way Network), Fiona Longhurst (RVS), Mike Adamson (St Mungo’s).

Recording now available: echo360.org.uk/media/88207f...

🗓️ One week to go until our next New Researchers Online Session!

📚 Join us on Fri 3 Oct, 12:00–13:00 BST for a conversation with VSR editors Lindsay Findlay-King & Oto Potluka on publishing in VSR.

We’ll also reflect on #VSVR2025 and leave time for networking.

🔗 Sign up: tinyurl.com/newresonline

Write for us - Transforming Society One of the key aims of Transforming Society is to make academic research findings available and useful to the interested general reader, in the hope that this will help make steps towards positive…

Are you a social sciences researcher with something to say?

We’re inviting contributions to the Transforming Society blog. Share your insights, start conversations, and amplify your voice. #AcademicVoices #WriteForUs

🖋️

🧑‍💻 Calling all voluntary sector new researchers!

Join us on Fri 3 Oct, 12:00–13:00 BST for our next online session.

Lindsay Findlay-King & Oto Potluka, editors of Voluntary Sector Review, will talk all things publishing 📚

We’ll also reflect on #VSVR2025.

🔗 Sign up: tinyurl.com/newresonline

📝 VSSN member Jenny Raschbauer is researching learning and development in social sector organisations and needs your help!

If you work or volunteer in a charity, CIC or VCSE organisation, share your experience in a short survey.

📲 Scan the QR code in the image to take part (10 mins max)!

A huge thank you to all who joined us: presenters, participants, chairs, discussants, organisers, and supporters.

Until next time! 💬🤝

That’s a wrap on #VSVR2025!

We’re grateful to our conference partners: the Centre for Charity Effectiveness at @bayesbschool.bsky.social, @ncvo.bsky.social and @volactionislington.bsky.social for making it all possible.

We’re closing out #VSVR2025 with our final session, a practical workshop on building cross-sector research collaborations to create change together, led by Ellen Bennett, James Rees, and Carol Jacklin-Jarvis.

A fitting end to two days of learning and collaboration here at @bayesbschool.bsky.social

🎙️ A busy afternoon of parallel sessions is underway at #VSVR2025!

From devolution and place-based work to digital inclusion, advocacy, and third sector-university partnerships.

Great to see such thoughtful research and practice being shared across rooms here at @bayesbschool.bsky.social

Contributions to the plenary from:
🔹 Navinder Kaur (Islington Voluntary Action)
🔹 Ken Kanu (Help on Your Doorstep)
🔹 Dawn Plimmer (Collaborate CIC)
🔹 John Everson (London Borough of Islington)
🔹 Ollie Hilbery (Making Every Adult Matter)

🌅 Good morning from Day 2 of #VSVR2025 at @bayesbschool.bsky.social !

We’re kicking off with a powerful plenary:
“Staying true while gaining traction: Civil society’s contribution to system change from the edge and the centre”

🎤 Chaired by Vita Terry (VSSN).

Let’s dive in!

🏆 Congratulations to Toby Blume, Peter John, Dyana Mason @dyanamason.bsky.social, and Marios Petropoulos - winners of this year’s Voluntary Sector Review Best Article Prize!

📖 Read the award-winning article here: doi.org/10.1332/2040...

@bupjournals.bsky.social

That’s (almost) a wrap on Day 1 of #VSVR2025 at @bayesbschool.bsky.social!

It’s been a full day of keynotes, panels, and discussions across themes of collaboration, resilience and research impact.

Still to come: the Best Paper Prizes 🏆!

@ncvo.bsky.social @volactionislington.bsky.social

A packed afternoon at #VSVR2025 here at @bayesbschool.bsky.social

From funding and infrastructure to AI, data, collaboration, and participatory approaches, today’s sessions sparked discussion and insight across the sector.

Plenty to take away as we round off Day 1 and more to come tomorrow!

We are heading into the first parallel sessions here at #VSVR2025 @bayesbschool.bsky.social ☕📚

Themes include equity and inclusion, volunteer experience, charity leadership, and research-practice collaboration. Plenty of insight ahead!

@ncvo.bsky.social @volactionislington.bsky.social

Kicking off #VSVR2025 with opening plenary:

📣 Prof Stephen Osborne set the scene with reflections on systems thinking in public services and civil society.

A response panel following:

🔹 Arvinda Gohil (Better Way Network)
🔹 Fiona Longhurst (Royal Voluntary Service)
🔹 Mike Adamson (St Mungo’s)

‪Thanks so much, Liz! We're delighted to have you back at #VSVR2025 and pleased you're enjoying the focus on creating change together.

We’re underway at #VSVR2025!

Angela Ellis Paine (Bayes CCE) and Vita Terry (VSSN Co-Chair) opened the conference this morning with a warm welcome and reflections on the theme Creating Change Together.

Great to see the room filling with energy for the two days ahead!

📍 @bayesbschool.bsky.social

☕ Not long now until the main conference begins!

Day 1 of #VSVR2025 kicks off today at @bayesbschool.bsky.social. We’ll be exploring the theme Creating Change Together with a packed programme of keynotes, parallel sessions, and panel discussions.

Watch this space for updates throughout the day!

That’s a wrap on New Researchers Day #VSVR2025

A full day of discussions from enhancing engagement at conferences to sharing research across volunteering, democracy, and community change.

Thanks to all who joined us today!
@bayesbschool.bsky.social @ncvo.bsky.social @volactionislington.bsky.social