Institute for Volunteering Research reports to an Institute Advisory Group which consists of researchers from academic and professional communities, VE and Birkbeck College representatives, chaired by an independent academic. Members of the advisory group are listed below.
You can also find information on our research associates and consultants below:
Institute Advisory Group members
Duncan Scott - Research Fellow, University of Manchester - Chair of advisory group
Duncan is the chair of the Institute Advisory Group. He gained a Phd on Ethnic Community Politics in 1972. Since then he has lectured and researched and been active in voluntary and community contexts. He is now semi-retired but has recently co-authored publications on the use of qualitative case studies in the voluntary and community sector (2005) , on community development in rural areas (2004), and on social enterprise in the voluntary and community sector (2004,2007). Duncan is currently researching in a Pennine town, with a view to co-authoring a strategy/delivery plan for partnership between the VCS and the local authority.
Professor John Annette - Professor of Citizenship and Lifelong Learning, Birkbeck College, London University
John Annette is Professor of Citizenship and Lifelong Learning and Pro Vice Master for Lifelong Learning and Engagement at Birkbeck, University of London. He is currently researching and publishing in the areas of citizenship education in schools and for lifelong learning, community based learning and community partnerships in higher education, and on community leadership and involvement in community development and local governance. He has been active in working in partnership with local communities in north London and facilitating capacity building for community involvement for many years. He is an advisor to the Department for Education and Skills on youth volunteering, also the Civil Renewal Unit of the Home Office on capacity building for citizenship and community development. He is on the Executive of the Universities Association for Lifelong Learning (UALL) and Chair of the 'Higher Education Community Partnership' national network.He is an advisor to the Department for Children, Families and Schools on youth volunteering and citizenship education and a trustee of Student Volunteering England. He is a board member of CITIZED and also advises the QCA. He has been involved in the recent IPPR commission on public involvement in the public services. He is an adviser to the London Civic Forum, which supports the new Greater London Authority and the Mayor, and he chaired the Steering Group of the 'Active Learning for Active Citizenship' national programme of the Civil Renewal Unit of the Home Office which is now part of the Department for Communities and Local government. He is on the steering committee of the London Empowerment Network which is the London network of the National Empowerment Network, which is supported by the DCLG. He was a member of the national Commission on the Future of Volunteering, chaired by Dame Julia Neuberger.
Dr Justin Davis Smith - Chief Executive, Volunteering England Dr Justin Davis Smith is Chief Executive of Volunteering England and formerly Director of the Institute for Volunteering Research. He has over 20 years experience in the volunteering movement and has advised the UK Government, the World Bank and the United Nations over the development of volunteering policy. Justin is a trustee of the youth volunteering charity v, and former chair of the Nationwide Foundation. He was a member of the Commission on the Future of Volunteering and has been assisting the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games (LOCOG) with the development of its 2012 volunteering strategy. He has written widely on volunteering and is a Visiting Professor at Birkbeck, University of London.
Jon Griffith - Principal Lecturer, University of East London School of Social Sciences, Media and Cultural Studies
Jon Griffith is a part-time principal lecturer in the School of Social Sciences, Media and Cultural Studies; a member of the Centre for Institutional Studies; and leader of the postgraduate programmes in Voluntary Sector Studies, and Social Enterprise: Development and Management. Since 1982, he has worked as an independent consultant, facilitator, trainer and researcher with not-for-profit organisations (while also teaching and researching on short-term contracts with UeL and its predecessor institutions) before taking up a permanent (0.5) post with the University in 2002. He has a fashionably short list of publications, and has not yet been invited to give a keynote speech anywhere. He has on the other hand delivered the usual tentative papers on incomplete ideas in places as far afield as Geneva, Vienna, Toronto, Los Angeles and Milton Keynes; given invited lectures at the Judge Business School, Cambridge University; and taught a postgraduate course on Organisations, Learning and Change at City University. He has peer-reviewed for Philosophy of Management, the Social Enterprise Journal, and Learning for Democracy.
Veronique Jochum - Research Officer, NCVO
Veronique Jochum joined the National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO) in 2002 and leads the research team's work on voluntary action, participation and active citizenship. Recent publications include: Faith and voluntary action: an overview of current evidence and debates and Civil renewal and active citizenship: a guide to the debate. Veronique is also co-author of the annual Voluntary Sector Strategic Analysis. Prior to joining NCVO, Veronique worked for several management consultancy firms in France and the United Kingdom.
John Knights - Policy Manager-Volunteering, OTS Cabinet Office
Sarabajaya Kumar - Senior Research Fellow, Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship, Saïd Business School, University of Oxford
Sarabajaya is currently a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Oxford where, amongst other things, she is working closely with Dr. Alex Nicholls in relation to research on State-Sponsored Social Enterprises. Prior to this she was a Lecturer in Social Policy, Voluntary Organisations and Civil Society and Programme Director for MSc (Voluntary Sector Organisation) at the London School of Economics and Political Science. Sarabajaya’s research interests are broadly in the areas of accountability, governance, state-third sector relations, partnerships and organisational theory. In addition to her extensive research experience, she has managed partnerships between the charitable voluntary sector, local government and the NHS - where she also managed a team of researchers. Her particular interest is in ‘participation’ and ‘voice’ in organisations. Sarabajaya has acted as an advisor to the Home Office - as a member of the Governance Strategy Group - set up to advise and oversee the development of an integrated Governance Strategy for the Third Sector and is currently a Trustee of a social justice organisation (Praxis), a Governor of an inner-city secondary school (Mulberrry School) and a member of the NCVOs Advisory Council.
Mike Locke - Director of Public Affairs, Volunteering England
Mike Locke was appointed in May 2008 to the newly created role of Director of Public Affairs at Volunteering England (VE). For the past few months, he had combined the role of Reader in the School of Social Sciences, Media and Cultural Studies at the University of East London with that of Assistant Director of the Institute for Volunteering Research, and he was previously Director of the Centre for Institutional Studies at UEL. Mike’s experience of voluntary organisations and voluntary action dates back to the early 1970's through involvement in community organisations in the North Kensington/Notting Hill area of London, and he has worked as a researcher and teacher with voluntary and community sector issues since the early 1980s. Ten years ago, he helped create the Institute for Volunteering Research (IVR) with current VE Chief Executive Justin Davis Smith, through the association of Volunteering England and the University of East London. With the Institute for Volunteering Research, he has been involved a variety of studies, including evaluation of government policies and organisational programmes for volunteering, exploratory studies in faith-based voluntary action and community involvement and the management capacities of volunteer involving organisations. Mike was also a founder member of the Advisory Group initiating and developing strategy for volunteering for the 2012 Olympics and Paralympics.
Joy Maderios - Managing Director of Oasis UK Joy is Managing Director of Oasis UK.Oasis is a charity that works in a wide range of communities across the UK, delivering services including health, volunteering, youth and community programmes.Faithworks is part of the group of organisations that makes up Oasis in the UK. As Public policy Director for Faithworks Joy has responsibility for working with churches, Christian organisations and other faith groups on the wide range of issues related to the faith agenda. She has pioneered work on equality within Christian organisations and has developed and piloted guidelines for the Government in response to religious discrimination legislation. Prior to her appointment at Faithworks, Joy spent 12 years with the YMCA as the Director for Human Resources. In this capacity, Joy developed the HR function with the aim of reflecting and strengthening the Christian distinctive of the YMCA. Working with 160 locally-based YMCA groups, she supported them from a change management perspective to build capacity in areas such as organisational development, governance and trusteeship employment legislation and management and development of staff and volunteers.
John Mohan - Professor of Social Policy, University of Southampton
John Mohan is Professor of Social Policy, University of Southampton, Deputy Director of the recently-established Third Sector Research Centre, a collaborative venture between Southampton, Birmingham, Kent and Middlesex Universities, funded by ESRC, the Office of the Third Sector, and the Barrow Cadbury Trust (see the TSRC website), and Director of the Centre for Charitable Giving and Philanthropy's strand of work on charity and social redistribution (in collaboration with colleagues at Kent University). He is co-author of Mutualism and Health Care (with Martin Gorsky, 2006), and author of Planning, Markets and Hospitals (Routledge, 2002), as well as of numerous historical and contemporary studies of voluntarism and volunteering.
Cathy Pharoah - Visiting professor, CASS Business School
Colin Rochester - Senior Research Fellow, Roehampton University
Colin has been involved in voluntary action for forty years – as practitioner, manager and trustee and – since 1987 – as a researcher, consultant and teacher. He recently retired from the staff of Roehampton University but has been appointed to a senior visiting research fellowship and continues to contribute to the work of the Centre for the Study of Voluntary and Community Activity, which he founded and led for seven years. Colin is a committee member of ARVAC (the Association for Research in the Voluntary and Community Sector) and the Voluntary Action History Society and a member of the planning group of the National Coalition for independent Action.
Elaine Willis - Consultant, Elaine Willis Consultancy Ltd
A freelance voluntary sector consultant, specialising in volunteering, Elaine has been a supporter of IVR since its inception because she see its work as vital in three areas. One, IVR’s research helps to persuade policy makers that there is a case for encouraging and supporting volunteering; two, those who organise volunteering can be helped through research findings to make judgements and decisions about the best ways to do this; and three, research into what makes a good volunteering experience can make it more fun and productive for everyone involved.
