Who we are
National Coalition for Independent Action (NCIA) is an alliance of individuals and organisations who believe that we need to unite in independent voluntary and community action.
We meet four times a year as the NCIA assembly to share experiences, get ideas and guide our direction. The planning group provides co-ordination, and agrees and reports on the practical work we do. Our directors take decisions about money and keep us legal.
NCIA gets some money from funders who share our perspectives. Andy Benson is our paid director and we have a paid co-ordinator post which is a job share between Melaina Barnes and Rachael McGill.
Most of us are working on an unpaid basis, or are able to contribute through the organisations we work for. Our approach is based on trust and we expect that we will disagree with each other, as well as find consensus. Each person contributes what they can.
NCIA is not a lobby group. We provide position papers and case studies when arguments need to be made but our main interest is to encourage, as practically as we can, community groups, voluntary sector organisations and support organisations to pursue independent voluntary action.
