Gaining power: the challenges facing activists
Help NatCAN and NCIA shape an event about community action this July. Do you have ideas about speakers, topics or even know of a venue in London we can use? Click here to read more and join the discussion (you need to register with NatCAN – just go to the NatCAN forum then click on ‘Sign up’ on the right-hand side). Alternatively email melaina@independentaction.net to get more information or to contribute your ideas.
NCIA event: is competition killing us?
Tuesday 29 May 2012, 9.30am to 4.30pm, at Resource for London, 356 Holloway Road, London N7 6PA
Free event: register now!
NCIA has joined with LVSC to organise this event to explore the effects commissioning is having on the voluntary and community sector.
Tell Unite about attacks on services
Unite is calling on voluntary sector members to share their experiences about cuts to services:
Open access to research
NCIA contributed to a new report on open access to academic research – read on for details of free research tools.
Who speaks for the voluntary sector… and does it matter?
Tuesday 15 May 6.00-8.00pm at LSE, London
Here’s something for those of you who are fed up with national bodies who say they represent the voluntary sector and then consistently put forward positions that infuriate us. Organised by the Galileo Group of academics, the discussion will focus on the adequacy of the so-called ‘leadership’ bodies and whether we should be looking for a radical alternative. Here’s what the organisers say:
Read April’s newsletter
Read the latest newsletter for NCIA’s take on the news, research and campaigns about voluntary action – are people getting more of a taste for fighting back or do we still have our heads in the sand about top-down clobbering? Let us know if you have a story to tell…
How to survive resilience
Read NCIA member Kevin Blowe’s blog on how a policy of community ‘resilience’ will stop people getting independent advice in Newham, east London.
Driven to market: youth work’s sheepish response?
There’s no sheepishness from 
In Defense of Youth Work! Join them for free events in London on 26 April and Manchester on 27 April to share experiences of how people are dealing with the marketisation of youth and community work and the wider voluntary sector.
In Place of Austerity – putting the alternative argument
Here’s a good read that elegantly puts together different pieces of the jigsaw – the state of the economy, private sector influences on it, the undermining of public services and the welfare state, and how we might come together to resist the plans that the neo-liberals have for us.
Best foot forward for NatCAN?
Our mates over at NatCAN (National Community Activists Network) want some feedback on how they can best develop the network. There’s a short survey out which will take you about 2 minutes to fill in. You can get it here: http://bit.ly/Ax7A8R. Views are welcome from existing NatCAN members and from any of the rest of you who are interested (plus the invitation to sign up of course…).
