NAVCA | What we do

Our vision is that every local area has a thriving voluntary and community sector, and strong social action to drive justice and active citizenship. Our mission is to champion the voluntary and community sector, through high quality local support organisations - NAVCA members.

Our work to support NAVCA members covers four categories, which you can read more about below, as well as our five year strategy.

Advocating for system change

We champion local infrastructure at a national level, using members’ insights to influence policy and inform practice. We promote the value and impact of local infrastructure across health systems, local and central government, and funders.

NAVCA Annual Conference

Equity, equality, diversity and inclusion

We want our work to reflect the diverse communities our members support. Through our Allyship Champions programme, EEDI audit tool, critique and challenge of members and ourselves, we support members to embed equity, equality, diversity and inclusion in everything they do.

Networks, connections and influencing

We bring members together to share ideas, learn from eachother, and build strong connections. Our regular networks and events create space for support, conversation and collaboration across the NAVCA network.

Tools, resources and information

We offer practical tools, training and guidance to help NAVCA members strengthen what they do. From our Quality Accreditations to topic-based resources, we’re here to support learning and development.

NAVCA Annual Conference

NAVCA strategy 2023-2028 Who we are – local focus national voice NAVCA is the national membership body for local support organisations building a thriving voluntary and community sector. We want every local area to be a great place to live and work. We lead a movement with a national voice which believes in social change to improve people’s lives. We are ambitious for local charities and community groups to be at the heart of flourishing and fair communities. What we do Our vision is that every local area has a thriving community and voluntary sector and strong social action to drive justice and active citizenship. Our mission is to strengthen and champion a thriving and influential voluntary and community sector through high quality local support organisations. Our strategic ambitions are to: • influence change and innovation in systems and services, locally and nationally, to shape a more fair and equal future and improve people’s lives; • bring together thinking and action to increase the impact of our network; • create a valued hub of knowledge which is shared widely to strengthen our action and impact; • ensure the NAVCA movement has the tools, resources and connections it needs. We are guided by a set of principles to ensure we stay true to our ambition. • We embrace diversity by ensuring inclusivity and equity are central to our thinking and practice; • We place people and communities at the heart of everything we do, building trust through integrity and accountability; • We believe empowering people and enriching democratic engagement creates resilience, innovation and impact; • We believe in collaboration both within our network and with other sectors. We are focussed on headline outcomes: • Every community and every VCSE sector in England has access to high quality infrastructure support. • Equity and diversity are reflected in our work and decisions. • Local infrastructure organisations have stronger connections to learn from each other, share successes and address challenges. • National and local intelligence influences the movement’s work. • Social action, democratic engagement, and volunteering locally are strengthened. • NAVCA and its members have a strong voice locally and nationally to influence decision making.

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What We Do