Last week I met with a group of people from Norway. They work for an organisation called Fruvillighetnorge which is much like EVOC in its function. Our debate covered short term funding, creating sustainability, the social as well as service value of the sector, measuring our impact and outcomes and working with local and national political administrations. Some interesting facts – 84 % of Norwegians are members of one or more voluntary organisations and 48% of the population do some form of voluntary work every year which is equivalent to 115,000 full time employees!
It will be no surprise to hear our colleagues from Norway are facing exactly the same issues we are and heartening to see the same passion and motivation on behalf of the sector. Our visitors were particularly interested in community planning structures and the way our views are increasingly sought in defining issues as well as being part of the solution. The integration of Adult Health and Social Care also stimulated some interesting comments – with the central question being “working from a person centred approach how is it possible to provide support without integrated health and social care”.
As always when we meet visitors from another country it gives us a short time to reflect on really good and progressive pieces of work but also what are the issues we still face. In partnership with Edinburgh Social Enterprise Network and Volunteer Centre Edinburgh we recently asked you to complete a Survey Monkey about the services we provide and what we should be providing. The results of this will form the basis of our partnership work plans over 2012 – 13 so watch this space for information.
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