What's Out There?

There are lots of community and vountary organistions out there that work to support other organisations to get get their work done.  We in The Wheel call these organsiations Community and voluntary sector intermediaries.  Each intermediary will have a constituency of community/voluntary organisations that share certain characteristics, for example they operate in the same geographical area or target a similar client group.

The services intermediaries provide will be tailored to their constituent’s particular needs and will normally encompass the following areas:

• knowledge - improving understanding of the needs and issues of their constituents
• communication - providing channels for communicating with their constituents
• representation - informing their constituents of current policy issues, enabling them to crystallize views and communicate these views to policy makers
• support services - devising and providing relevant tailored direct support services and/or targeted training to constituents on both general, (for example fundraising, planning, project management) and specialist topics, (for example working with children)
• promoting good practice - facilitating sharing of good practice among constituents and exposing them to examples of transferable good practice from elsewhere
• growth and development - identifying new opportunities for their constituents, supporting start ups and helping them to develop and/or grow in response to changing needs and circumstances.

The extensive list below  includes ‘people networks’ which are community/voluntary organisations that support individuals according to their role as opposed to other community/voluntary organisations, (roles, for example like community development workers or board/committee members). The list also includes some support service providers which are organisations that support community/ voluntary organisations around particular strands of their activities, for example business development or evaluation.

Please note that this is listing is not exhaustive. A judgement has been made to include only those groups which are manifestly ‘intermediary’ groups, as defined above. There may be omissions and we would be very glad to have them reported to us so that we may update this list. As with all our work, we make it publicly available to facilitate networking and connection-making throughout the sector.