Voluntary sector organisations’  response to the rise in cost of living

A pioneer in flexible learning for over 30 years, The Open University Business School delivers transformational, high-quality business and management education.We are proud to be part of an elite and exclusive group of the top 1% of global business schools who are triple accredited.Privacy Notice - Open University Events booked through Eventbrite (pdf)

The Open University Business School

Join us to explore the vital role the third sector is playing when it comes to supporting communities facing economic challenges.

You are invited to join us for this year’s Centre for Voluntary Sector Leadership (CVSL) Conference, convened by Dr Fidèle Mutwarasibo, Director of the Centre for Voluntary Sector Leadership at The Open University. CVSL is an Academic Centre of Excellence and part of The Open University Business School. Once again, this event will be held online and is FREE TO ATTEND. 
Voluntary sector organisations are facing challenges linked to the current financial crisis and it is with this in mind that CVSL is convening a conference bringing practitioners, policymakers, funders and researchers to discuss their experiences and share ideas on how the sector can support the communities facing economic challenges. 
We are thrilled to announce Paul Streets OBE, Chief Executive of the Lloyds Bank Foundation, will be joining as our keynote speaker along with Ed Mayo, CEO of Pilotlight, and former CEO of Co-operatives UK, New Economics Foundation and National Consumer Council. 
Other speakers include Tom Lawson, CEO of Turn2Us, Binita Morjaria, Lead Black and Minoritised Communities Advisor from MK-Act Domestic Abuse Intervention Services, Kaveed Ali, Chief Operating Officer, UK Community Foundations, Maggie Lennon, Director of the Bridges Programme and Anna Trudgian, Operations Director for Open Road. 
This knowledge exchange event will energise and inspire you. You’ll receive hints and tips to take back to your organisation, will explore how to make funding go further, receive advice on how to keep your volunteers engaged and have new ideas sparked through our interactive polls, Q&A sessions and facilitated networking. 
The conference is split into three sections. The first will explore the impact of the cost-of-living crisis on Voluntary Sector Organisations specifically. The second will examine the impact it is having on communities, and the third will discuss its impact on volunteering. Although we encourage you to join us for the full day if possible, we appreciate many of our guests are managing multiple commitments, so feel free to drop in. The sessions will be chaired by three academics at The Open University. Dr Fidèle Mutwarasibo will be joined by Dr Carol Jacklin-Jarvis, an expert on collaboration and leadership in the UK voluntary sector. Carol has managed organisations and programmes in public and voluntary sectors for over 20 years. Dr Daniel Haslam, whose research focuses on the voluntary sector and in particular how the sector works in collaboration with other organisations, will chair the final session of the day. 
With over 150 guests already registered, we are mindful that many will have children to pick up from school, so we are ending the event at 3pm. However, an optional facilitated networking session is being held until 4pm to allow time for additional questions, thoughts and reflections. We will ensure there is plenty of time for questions and answers from the audience. 
If you have any questions, please email OUBS-CVSL@open.ac.uk and one of our team will come back to you. Be sure to follow us on twitter using the handle @OUBSchool and engage using the hashtag #CVSLConf2023. 
We hope to see you there!