ACEVO: Association of Chief Executives of Voluntary Organisations
http://www.acevo.org.uk
ACEVO's mission is to contribute to the increased effectiveness of the voluntary sector through: i) support and development of chief executives of national and international voluntary organisations (ii) promotion of higher standards of executive leadership through mutual support, sharing of expertise, training and publications. The website contains information about the organisation and lists of publications and training events.
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ACRE
http://www.acre.org.uk/
The ACRE website details the work of this organisation, which is the national association of Rural Community Councils in England. ACRE aims to improve the quality of life in local communities, especially for the disadvantaged. The website gives information on its policy and current projects. ACRE also responds to consultation papers issued by the government. There are details of relevant publications and events. ACRE runs a village hall information service, and provides a free electronic update of new content on its website. ACRE also works with the Regional Development Agencies, most of which have their own websites.
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Action without borders
http://www.idealist.org/
Action Without Borders, formerly called the Contact Center Network, is a nonprofit organisation. Founded in 1995, it now has offices in the United States and Argentina. It promotes the sharing of ideas, information and resources through a global network of individuals and organisations. This is done through Idealist, which enables any nonprofit or community organisation to post and update detailed information about its services and volunteer and job opportunities via the website.
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Advicenow
http://www.advicenow.org.uk/
The Advicenow resource guide brings together information on the law and rights in England and Wales from a wide range of advice and information services. The website gives access to a searchable database of hand-picked links to information on over 200 websites. Information is arranged into broad subject headings including benefits, communications, consumer affairs, education and training, employment, environment and countryside, families, government, law and rights, health and social care, housing and homelessness, immigration, money and tax, police and crime and transport. These are broken down into more specific categories and links are given to related web resources. Topics can also be browsed alphabetically or searched for using the site search engine. There are leaflets to download and a directory of solicitors and advice services that can be searched by town or postcode. Advicenow is a not-for-profit project of Advice Services Alliance the coordinating body for independent advice services.
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ARVAC
http://www.arvac.org.uk/
ARVAC, the Association for Research in the Voluntary and Community Sector is a membership organisation for those interested in research on community organisations. ARVAC runs seminars and conferences, and produces occasional publications. Their information service produces a quarterly bulletin of research information and a database of community research. ARVAC also runs a community research project which enables small groups to embark on research via a training programme and making them aware of best practice.
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askNCVO
http://www.ncvo-vol.org.uk/advice-support
askNCVO is a free online best practice resource for the voluntary sector maintained by the National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO). The website provides information and advice on a wide range of topics including finance, human resources, laws and regulation, trustees and governance and campaigning. The askNCVO topics database can be browsed by topic category or searched by keyword. The site is W3C and Bobby approved and has larger text and text only versions.
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Better Together
http://www.bettertogether.org/
Better Together is an initiative of the Saguaro Seminar on Civic Engagement in America, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. It aims to revitalize community involvement in the USA. An important aspect of this is increasing political engagement and participation amongst American citizens. The site provides information on the aims of the project and access to the full-text of some of its reports which include examples of community involvement projects.
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Black and Ethnic Minority Community Care Forum
http://www.bemccf.org.uk
The Black and Ethnic Minority Community Care Forum supports the black and ethnic minority voluntary sector in the London Borough on Newham, users and carers in getting their voices heard in terms of the planning, provision, monitoring and evaluation of local community care services. The website contains background information on the organisation and its aims and objectives, and information on section on community care and information on the Community Involvement and Transport projects.
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Building Community: ISCV Articles
http://www.libertynet.org/edcivic/commfram.html
The Institute for the Study of Civic Values has been working to build community in the City of Philadelphia for more than twenty years. The neighborhood leadership program has involved thousands of grassroots activists in seminars and workshops that helps them establish goals and strategies for revitalizing blighted areas throughout the City. What distinguishes the Institute's approach in this area is that it helps people define not merely their interests and assets, but the broad ideals which they are prepared to work together to achieve. The papers developed for this program apply this approach to building community to problems of deterioration in urban neighborhoods are common to cities throughout the United States. The site contains full-text of papers on: Building Community in a Neighborhood; Ceasar Cavez: Leader as Organizer; The Case for Community Development; The Neighborhood Agenda; Self Sufficiency Agenda; and Reviving Community Development.
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Centre for Social Action
http://www.dmu.ac.uk/faculties/hls/research/centreforsocialaction/index.jsp
The Centre for Social Action is based in the Faculty of Health and Community Studies at De Montfort University in the UK. The Centre aims to promote social action with "an approach that enables groups of people of all ages and circumstances to take action to achieve their collectively identified goals". The work of the Centre includes research, training courses, consultancy and evaluation, and publications. Some of the publications are available from the website in PDF. format (Adobe Acrobat Reader required to view). The Centre undertakes contract work in the UK, former Soviet Union, Eastern Europe and the USA.
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Centre For Social Justice
http://www.centreforsocialjustice.org.uk
The Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) is a think tank which was founded by leading Conservative Party members in June 2004. Key figures include former Conservative Party leaders Ian Duncan Smith and William Hague and Oliver Letwin, MP. The site provides information on the purpose and current activities of the think tank. It includes press releases, transcripts of speeches and details about ongoing projects. Areas of concern include: poverty in the UK, social exclusion, broken homes and the impact of divorce upon children, teenage pregnancies, homelessness and poor housing, drug and alcohol addiction, juvenile delinquency and youth crime, anti-social behaviour, community development and the welfare of old people.
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Centre for Voluntary Action Studies
http://www.ulster.ac.uk/cvas/index.html
The Centre for Voluntary Action Studies (CVAS) was established in 1995 and is a research centre in the School of Policy Studies at the University of Ulster. The website gives details on the research projects and associated publications produced under its strategic research themes: governance and civil society; legal framework and voluntary action; social inclusion and voluntary action. Full text reports are also available in PDF file format. Users will require Adobe Acrobat Reader software to view the PDF files.
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Changing neighbourhoods: The impact of 'light touch' support in 20 communities
http://www.jrf.org.uk/knowledge/findings/housing/2031.asp
Published March 2007 in the findings section of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation this report evaluates the key findings from the JRF Neighbourhood Programme on a 'light touch' to supporting groups at neighbourhood level which was launched in 2002. The full report can be downloaded free of charge as a pdf file.
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Charity Commission
http://www.charity-commission.gov.uk/
Website of the Charity Commission of England and Wales which aims to "provide the best possible regulation of charities in England and Wales in order to increase charities' effectiveness and public confidence and trust." The website contains information on guidance for charities, promoting effective performance as well as sector news and recent updates to the website.
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Cities Research Centre
http://www.bne.uwe.ac.uk/cities/default.asp
The Cities Research Centre is based within the Faculty of the Built Environment at the University of the West of England, Bristol. It brings together staff from a wide range of disciplines to explore the challenges of urban change through original research, evaluation, action research and policy analysis. Sustainability and evaluation are key themes linking the various strands of work together. Current research themes include neighbourhoods; modernising local government; partnerships and governance; community capacity; and sustainability and quality of life. The Centre's website provides information about staff, research students, publications since 2001, seminars and news.
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Civil Renewal
http://www.communities.gov.uk/communities/communityempowerment/
The home page of Civil Renewal, part of the Department of Communities and Local Government, which promotes the active involvement of citizens, communities and public bodies in working together to improve people's quality of life. The website gives a definition of civil renewal and includes sections on citizens and democracy; health and sustainability; regeneration and cohesion; learning and research. Some of the reports are in pdf format and users will require Adobe Acrobat Reader.
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Communities Online
http://www.communities.org.uk/
Communities Online is a not-for-profit registered company which "aims to address issues of sustainability, regeneration, social inclusion and healthier economies by focusing on the use of new communications technologies in communities and neighbourhoods." The website provides news items, information on events, a list of resources and links, and a directory of organisations relevant to communities online.
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Community Change
http://www.communitychange-ni.org/
Community Change provides support, training and advice to community groups and networks in Northern Ireland. The website contains information on best practice and successful community development ideas.
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Community development corporations and their changing support systems
http://www.urban.org/UploadedPDF/310638_ChangingSupportSystems.pdf
This paper by Christopher Walker, for the Urban Institute, was published in December 2002. It uses research to analyse the success of community development corporations in the United States during the 1990s. It questions how successful they were in achieving their aims to support poor communities to revitalise their neighbourhoods. The article is in PDF format and access to Adobe Acrobat Reader is required.
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Community Development Foundation (CDF) 
http://www.cdf.org.uk/
The Community Development Foundation (CDF) is a public body with charitable status, which maintains a close and strong relationship with its sponsoring department, Communities and Local Government. "CDF's mission is to lead community development analysis and strategy, in order to enable people to influence decisions that affect their lives." CDF works in partnership with those in the community development field, the community sector, and public sector membership bodies. Their work is organised under three themes: community cohesion, community engagement and stronger communities. They produce publications, give funding, run programmes and are active in policy, practice and research.
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Community Development Journal
http://cdj.oxfordjournals.org/
This is the website for the Community Development Journal, published quarterly and circulated in over 80 countries by the Oxford University Press. The journal " ... provides an international forum for political, economic and social programmes which link the activities of people with institutions and government. Dealing with the theory and practice of the policies, programmes and methods employed, the Community Development Journal covers a wide range of topics including community action, village, town, and regional planning, community studies and rural development." The website contains contents tables and abstracts from 1966 onwards, as well as information about subscriptions, the editorial board, advertising and subscription rates, and instructions for prospective authors. Full-text articles back to 1996 are available to subscribers in the PDF file format. Users will require Adobe Acrobat software to view these files.
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Community Work
http://www.infed.org/community/b-comwrk.htm
This article reviews how community work has developed in the UK and offers a book list on this topic. The article examines the early development of community work and how comunity work developed in the 1980s and 1990s. The article is written by Mark K. Smith, and is part of infed, a website for informal education run on a not-for-profit basis.
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Currents: New Scholarship in the Human Services
http://www.ucalgary.ca/UP/journals/currents/
This peer reviewed online journal (ISSN 1499-6073)is produced from the Faculty of Social Work at the University of Calgary, Canada. The journal is concerned with new work that will interest scholars and professionals working in the human services, with a particular emphasis on work by graduate students. Articles are available in full from this site.
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Department for Social Development in Northern Ireland
http://www.dsdni.gov.uk/
The Department for Social Development has strategic responsibility in Northern Ireland for urban regeneration, community and voluntary sector development, housing, social security benefits, pensions and child support. The site contains: press releases; publications (freely downloadable in PDF format); statistics; benefit law; a search facility; and a comprehensive range of other information of relevance to social welfare in Northern Ireland.
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Directory of Social Change
www.dsc.org.uk
The Directory of Social Change is an independent charity "with a vision of an independent voluntary sector at the heart of social change." It was formed in 1974 and provides essential information and training to the voluntary sector. It runs courses and publishes books on fundraising, management, organisational and personal development, communication, finance and law, the details of which are available from the website. It also provides information on conferences, news and the services it provides to the voluntary sector.
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