Blog

In the blog post, Dr Francesca Calo reflects upon a study that she carried out with colleagues at Glasgow Caledonian University. The team assessed the potential of three methodological approaches common in health evaluation – a systematic review, realist evaluation and quasi-experimental investigation.

Dr Carol Jacklin-Jarvis, Director of the Centre for Voluntary Sector Leadership, explores the opportunities and challenges found in collaboration, particularly during uncertain times. Is partner collaboration the ideal way to pool limited resources or can the process end up causing more issues?

'It is perhaps time to re-visit the very notion of charity and the acts and organisational forms and practices that proceed from that notion'. Dr Carol Jacklin-Jarvis, Director of the Centre for Voluntary Sector Leadership, prompts readers to reflect on the role of charity in an increasingly complex and unequal society.

'In times of a global pandemic, we are constrained to live in confined local spaces instead of travelling across the globe. But what does ‘global’ mean?' Carolin Decker-Lange, a Senior Lecturer in Management in The Open University Business School explores this question.

Dr Fidèle Mutwarasibo, Visiting Research Fellow at The Open University’s Centre for Voluntary Sector Leadership, reflects on the challenges and opportunities COVID-19 has presented for online, facilitated engagement. Fidele uses the example of local Leadership Learning Clubs to demonstrate the positive outcomes of moving facilitation to online. 

Dr Fidèle Mutwarasibo, Visiting Research Fellow at The Open University’s Centre for Voluntary Sector Leadership, reflects on Refugee Week 2020, marked during the COVID-19 pandemic and contextualised by the Black Lives Matter Social Movement.

Lindsay Wilson Jones is a PhD student in the Faculty of Business and Law at The Open University. In this blog, she discusses her research and outlines some of the key challenges she has faced when collecting data, particularly in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.

This week, we are marking the National Volunteers’ Week, a timely reminder of the difference millions of volunteers make in the daily lives of many. In this post blog, Dr Fidèle Mutwarasibo, Visiting Research Fellow at the Centre for Voluntary Sector Leadership, explores why we should celebrate volunteering.

In this testimonial, Dr Peta Wilkinson, Chief Executive of Willen Hospice and alumna of The Open University, discusses the benefits gained from her involvement as a participant in the pilot CVSL Leadership Learning Club, co-hosted with MK Community Foundation and Community Action MK.

New research suggests that the voluntary sector may lose £4 billion of funding during the current crisis. Social media campaigns with the hashtags #EveryDayCounts and #NeverMoreNeeded are highlighting the real cost if this funding gap is not urgently addressed.