9. About ARVAC
Promoting effective community action through research
ARVAC, the Association for Research in the Voluntary and Community Sector, was founded in 1978 as a network for researchers in the voluntary sector. It now provides information and training in research for and about the community sector.
We believe that
• healthy, diverse and inclusive communities make a fundamental contribution to people’s quality of life and living conditions
• effective local organisations help create and sustain healthy communities
• research has a major role to play in promoting, supporting and developing the work of local organisations and groups by:
- developing awareness of the valuable role played by community organisations
- informing and improving the ways in which community organisations are led and managed
- informing policy-makers how to encourage and support community organisations
- participation in the research process and access to its products should be freely and widely available and not restricted to academics and other professional researchers.
ARVAC aims
- to act as a resource for people interested in research in or on community organisations
- to promote and help develop effective and appropriate forms of research in or on community organisations
- to encourage and facilitate networking and collaboration between people working in this field
- to ensure that the findings of research in and on community organisations are made available to policy-makers at all levels
Proving feedback on this toolkit
If you use this resource then we would like to hear about your experience of what you researched and how it helped you. We’d be grateful if you could take a few minutes to go to this link and complete a short feedback form.
