The advisory group

Richard Grice is Assistant Director of Customer Services at the London Borough of Barnet. In that role he has responsibility for customers’ experience of council services and developing the council’s insight into customer needs and behaviours. Richard previously held several posts at the Improvement and Development Agency for local government (IDeA), latterly as Head of Strategy and Development.

Arianna Haberis is Head of Community Empowerment Research and Evaluation at the Department for Communities and Local Government (CLG). Her research programme aims to provide high quality and timely research and analysis to inform the design and delivery of government empowerment policy.

Jayne Humm is Community Development co-Director and Head of Research at the Community Development Foundation where she has been working since 1994. She co-ordinates research and evaluation across the organisation. She is also board member of ARVAC (The Association for Research in the Voluntary and Community Sector).

Richard Jackson is Chief Officer of Voluntary Action Leeds (VA-L). He has worked in the voluntary and community sector for 23 years, mostly on projects aimed at re-engaging young adults with social and/or educational barriers. A project manager at heart, Richard is currently part of a small team responsible for developing and delivering the 2010 Leeds Year of Volunteering Programme.

Paula Jeffery has been Chief Executive of Enfield Voluntary Action (EVA) for the past 19 years. She devised the Enfield Community Empowerment Network (ECEN) structure which facilitates the involvement of 50+ voluntary and community sector representatives in the Enfield Strategic Partnership and the bodies that support it. She also worked with the trainer, Ian Beever, on developing an accredited Community Empowerment and Leadership course delivered to ECEN representatives to support their participation.

Mike Locke is Director of Public Affairs at Volunteering England (VE). During 2007-08, Mike had combined the role of Reader at the University of East London with that of Assistant Director of VE’s Institute for Volunteering Research (IVR). He was previously Director of the Centre for Institutional Studies at UEL.

Jonathan Moore is Chief Executive at Suffolk Association of Voluntary Organisations, Suffolk Volunteering Association. He is a strong advocate for volunteering and helped found the Suffolk Volunteering Federation now an alliance of 38 groups promoting better volunteering and volunteer management in the country. He has served full terms as trustee of The National Centre for Volunteering, Volunteering England and NCVO. Jonathan’s own volunteering includes a number of trusteeships, scouting, youth football, youth theatre and youth sports.

Colin Rochester has worked in and with the voluntary sector for more than forty years – as practitioner, manager, trustee, researcher and lecturer. He has recently retired as Director of the Centre for the Study of Voluntary and Community Action at Roehampton University which he founded after leaving LSE’s Centre for Voluntary Organisation.

Marilyn Taylor (chair) is Emeritus Professor in the Cities Research Centre at the University of the West of England, Bristol and a Visiting Research Fellow at the Institute for Voluntary Action Research. She has been involved in research on community engagement, neighbourhood renewal, the third sector and partnership working for many years and is the author of Public Policy in the Community (Palgrave 2003).

Joanna Wheeler’s key areas of expertise are citizenship, participation, and rights-based approaches, developed through participatory research and evaluation experience. Since 2003, she has been the research manager for the Citizenship Development Research Centre, at the Institute of Development Studies.