Sir, – Your editorial (“Crunch time for charities” (December 22nd) asks if we need 8,000 charities to cater for “a limited number of aims in serving charitable needs at home and abroad”.
Charities are created when people come together voluntarily to address unmet need in their communities – most often in areas where statutory public services are either nonexistent or insufficient. Charities and statutory public service providers are both involved in essentially the same thing – providing public benefit and ensuring that people and communities receive the services and supports they need.
Public expenditure cuts have pushed many public services (delivered by both charities and statutory service providers) beyond the sustainability point, and the large increase in demand for the services of charities is often directly linked to cutbacks that have taken place in statutory services.
It is true that charities must look at how they can make the best use of the public funds that they spend, and most charities in our experience are doing just that (they have to in order to cope with the 20 per cent drop in incomes most have experienced since the beginning of the crisis in 2008).
Securing efficiencies and working collaboratively towards greater consolidation are only one part of what’s needed however – there is also a need for a wider societal dialogue about what kind of a society and what range of public services we want – and for engagement between the community/voluntary charity sector and the State about how we can ensure people receive the public services they require.
The Wheel is currently leading efforts to encourage greater collaboration in the community, voluntary and charitable sector. By way of example, our “Collaborate to Innovate Project” has already equipped 20 charities with the resources and guidance to explore collaboration, and where appropriate, merge. We will also publish a guide on collaborative working early in the new year.
Let’s make 2013 the year when we begin a collaborative effort between all sectors of society to ensure that people and communities receive the public services they need.
Yours, etc,
IVAN COOPER,
The Wheel,
Fleet Street,
Dublin 2.
Sir, – In reading your editorial, I am struck that you pose a challenge to the community and voluntary sector which is not without precedent. Within a broader awareness of the need for change and innovation, many have asked themselves about the possibilities of consolidation, and indeed there have been mergers within the sector.
However mergers are not necessarily the easiest or most effective solution. The first question is, what is the role of the sector and how best can it support those who experience poverty and exclusion? Only then can we consider structures and institutions. In my view the community and voluntary sector has three core roles.
First, the sector responds to new and emerging challenges, innovating in ways that the State is unable to. However innovative service delivery requires quality mainstream public services, which are unfortunately being dismantled by austerity.
Second, NGOs advocate for better mainstream provision of services, as well as other decisions that lead towards a more just and equal society. It is important that decision-makers and their institutions are supportive of and responsive to advocacy. The Advocacy Initiative report, referred to in your comment, raises serious concerns regarding the capacity of the sector and the State to maximise the benefit from advocacy.
Finally, the sector fosters citizen empowerment, critically engaging people and communities in the decisions that will impact their lives and futures. For this work to be more effective we need participative and inclusive democracy, a democracy in which many participate and feel they can make a difference. Voting levels in recent referendums suggest our democracy is not what it should be.
Some within the community and voluntary sector do all three of these things – providing services, advocating for change, and empowering citizens — others do one or two. Different responses to complex challenges.
So yes, the sector has a responsibility to deeply reflect on its future, and that should include the question of consolidation.
However the reality remains that there are immediate urgent reasons — such as the 4,000 phone calls received by the Society of St Vincent de Paul in Dublin in the last week – as well as broader societal challenges, that need to be placed front and centre of any debate on the future of the sector. – Yours, etc,