Jargon Buster
There are a lot of acronyms and jargon used
in the voluntary and community sector. To help, we have compiled a list
of terms and meanings below:
Active citizenship: Citizens taking opportunities
to become actively involved in defining and tackling, with others, the problems
of their communities and improving their quality of life. Active citizenship is
one of the three key elements of civil renewal (see below)
Best value: Regime that
aims to continuously improve local government performance through a programme
of reviews and inspections
Cabinet: A way of
running local authorities based on the
Westminster
model of cabinet government
Capacity building: "Training and other methods to
help people develop the confidence and skills necessary for them to achieve
their purpose" (Wilcox 1994, 31). Community capacity building is defined as:
Activities, resources and support that strengthen the skills, abilities and confidence
of people and community groups to take effective action and leading roles in
the development of their communities.
Citizens: The wider public / society who may have a
right and interest in being involved. Citizenship is a political act, involving
people taking responsibility on behalf of the wider society (e.g. citizens
panels) (Involve 2005).
Citizenship education: Citizenship education equips
young people and adults with the knowledge, understanding and skills to play an
active, effective part in society as informed, critical citizens who are
socially and morally responsible. It aims to give them the confidence and
conviction that they can act with others, have influence and make a difference
in their communities (locally, nationally and globally).
Civic participation or engagement: People
engaging through democratic processes such as signing a petition or contacting
their local councillor.
Civil renewal: The renewal of civil society
through the development of strong, active and empowered communities, in which
people are able to do things for themselves, define the problems they face, and
tackle them in partnership with public bodies. Civil renewal involves three
essential elements: active citizenship, strengthened communities and
partnership in meeting public needs.
Commissioning: The process
of seeking to purchase services through contracts
Community: A community is a specific group of people
who all hold something in common. Community has tended to be associated with
two key aspects: firstly people who share locality or geographical place;
secondly people who are communities of interest. Communities of interest are
groups of people who share an identity - for example people of
African-Caribbean origin or lesbian and gay people, or those who share an
experience or cause - for example the homeless or those campaigning on a health
issue.
Community cohesion: Community cohesion incorporates
and goes beyond the concept of race equality and social inclusion. It describes
a situation where:
- there is a common vision
and a sense of belonging for all communities
-
the diversity of people's
different backgrounds and circumstances is appreciated and positively valued
-
those from different
backgrounds have similar life opportunities
- strong and positive
relationships are being developed between people from different backgrounds in
the workplace, in schools and within neighbourhoods. (Adapted from LGA Guidance
Community Cohesion Unit)
Community development: The process of collective
action to achieve social justice and change by working with communities to
identify needs and taking action to meet them. It is based on an agreed set of
values and has been shown to result in a range of broadly defined outcomes,
helping to achieve specific objectives such as improved levels of basic skills
and increased community cohesion.
Community engagement: Community engagement is the
term for processes which help to build active and empowered communities. Its
characteristics include enabling people to understand and exercise their powers
and responsibilities as citizens, empowering them to organise through groups to
work for their common good, and requiring public bodies to involve citizens in
influencing and carrying out public services.
Community participation or involvement: This is
the involvement of people from a given locality or a given section of the local
population in public decision making.
Community organisation or group: A
community organisation or group differs from a voluntary organisation in that
the control lies in the hands of the beneficiaries as individual users, members
or residents. Community groups or organisations tend to be smaller
organisations with limited funding and no or very few staff, however they
cannot be defined in this way. There are some larger organisations that are
community organisations such as some community centres, or residents'
organisations by virtue of the fact they are for mutual benefit and are
controlled by their members.
Community Strategy: Plans
councils must draw up for improving the quality of life for local people. They
must be completed with the help of businesses, voluntary groups and citizens
Compact: An
agreement made by voluntary sector representatives and government covering the
relationship between the two
CAA: Comprehensive
Area Assessment - is a new way of assessing how effectively local partnerships are working
together to deliver local people's priorities. It's a joint assessment made by
a group of independent watchdogs about the performance of local public services
CPA:
Comprehensive Performance Assessment - Used to determine whether a council
ranks as excellent, good, fair, weak or poor in the local government league
table system
Consultation: Have deliberations (with a person); seek
information or advice from; take into consideration (Concise Oxford English
Dictionary)
Consumers: Users of products and services.
Well-established in the private sector, and with an increasingly important role
in public service delivery and design (Involve 2005)
DAT: Drugs
Action Team - Local multi-agency partnership that operates the government's
drugs strategy at a local level. Usually includes police, social services,
health authority and voluntary sector groups
Empower: Authorise, license (person to do); give
power to, make able (person to do) (Concise Oxford English Dictionary)
Indicators: Indicators are 'headlines' that indicate
progress or achievement within an assessment or evaluation framework. The New
Economics Foundation has developed a method for choosing effective indicators -
AIMS:
- Action focused. If there is no action that can be
taken as a result of collecting data on a particular indicator, it is probably
not worth using that indicator.
- Important. Indicators must be chosen to be
meaningful and important to stakeholders as well as evaluators.
- Measurable. It must be possible to allocate
data to the indicator.
- Simple. So that collecting the data is
relatively easy and so that whatever data is collected can be widely
understood.
Faith Communities: A faith community is a
community of people adhering to the same religion or belief system. They share
a world-view or 'life stance' that involves a set of moral and spiritual values
and beliefs about the nature of life and the world. They will usually, but not
always, believe in a god or gods. People of many different cultures and ethnic
groups may adhere to the same religion or belief.
Formative evaluation: Evaluation undertaken from the
beginning of the project under review, that feeds into the development of the
project (see also Summative)
Governance: The process
by which management and trustees oversee and determine the direction, finance
and day to day running of an organisation
GOYH: Government
Office for Yorkshire and the
Humber
LAA: Local Area
Agreements
LSC: Learning
and Skills Council
LSP: Local
Strategic Partnership
Participation: Have share, take part; have
something of (Concise Oxford English Dictionary).
PCT: Primary
Care Trust
Procurement: The process
of purchasing services
Public services: Services that are wholly or
partly funded through taxation. They include national, regional and local government
and statutory agencies
Qualitative research: Qualitative data is gathered
from what people say and feel, and what is observed and deduced, and provides
for description and interpretation
Quantitative research: Quantitative data involves
collecting numbers and statistical analysis and is about measurement and
judgement
Social capital: The UK Government has formally
adopted the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's definition
of social capital: "networks together with shared norms, values and
understandings that facilitate co-operation within or among groups". In
particular, social capital involves building 'bonds' and 'bridges' between people
as a foundation for social support and relationships
Social exclusion: This is what can happen when a
combination of linked problems such as unemployment, poor skills, low incomes,
unfair discrimination, poor housing, high crime environments, bad health and
family breakdown lead to people or places being excluded from the outcomes and
opportunities enjoyed by mainstream society
Stakeholders: Those that feel they have a stake in the
issue - either because they may be affected by any decision or be able to
affect that decision. Stakeholders may be individuals or organisational
representatives (Involve 2005)
Sustainable development: Development that meets the
needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to
meet their own needs
Third Sector: Third sector organisations
can be described as the organisations that occupy the space between the state,
the citizens and the private sector, what is sometimes referred to as
non-governmental organisations, not for profit organisations or simply civil
society.
VAWD: Voluntary
Action Wakefield District
VCS: Voluntary
and Community sectors
Volunteers: May be formal or informal
-
informal volunteering: giving unpaid help to those who are
not family members; and
- formal volunteering: giving unpaid help through groups etc.
to benefit other people or the environment. (Munton T. and Zurawan A. 2004, Active
Communities: Headline Findings from the 2003 Home Office Citizenship Survey,
Voluntary sector: Groups whose activities are
carried out other than for profit but which are not public or local
authorities. These organisations would normally be formally constituted and
employ paid professional and administrative staff. They may or may not use
volunteer help.
VOX: Community Empowerment
Network for the Wakefield District.
WMDC: Wakefield
Metropolitan District Council
WDP: Wakefield
District Partnership