CVSA elected reps are leaders of the community and voluntary sector in Croydon. They represent the sector’s interests, sharing their knowledge and expertise across a broad range of partnerships and agendas. Reps influence strategy, policy and decision making, ensuring the voices of the community and voluntary sector are heard and understood.

• Collective action is more influential than a series of single voices
• To ensure you are in the loop and know what’s going on
• To protect the sector’s interests
• To bring the views of your community to the table and influence decisions
• Decisions made at a borough wide level will impact on you at some point in time and it is better to have a say than not
• Service providers that take account of a range of people’s views are better informed and deliver better services
• There is an increasing emphasis on the role of the Community and Voluntary sector as a key player in local service delivery
• Tackling issues by influencing the solutions at the root of the problem rather than fire fighting

• Ensuring inclusion and diversity by engaging with and meeting the needs of under-represented groups
• Being part of change and developing new ideas and services
• Identifying gaps and developing solutions
• Influencing agendas to include and promoting the Sector
• Sharing good practice
• Building a sense of shared purpose, values and goals with public and business sectors
• Acting as a conduit for information sharing with the sector
• Making sure that community engagement is meaningful and undertaken effectively
• Improving communication with and understanding of the Sector
• Focussing on holistic and preventative services
• Ensuring participation of service users
• Enhancing collaborative working
• Securing new delivery opportunities and tailoring activities to local priorities
• And ultimately… Improving local quality of life

Croydon Voluntary Action (CVA) has been electing and supporting community reps for many years. During that time, reps have consistently fed back on benefits gained by taking on the role including:

• Increased knowledge of Croydon and its decision making structures
• Deeper understanding of a particular themed area of work
• Being involved in decision making
• Gaining new opportunities to network and build relationships across the sectors
• Developing skills in representation, facilitation, writing reports and giving presentations.
• Belonging to the wider Sector
• Meeting like-minded people, networking and building personal and social connections
• Raising the profile of your organisation
• Developing communication skills, diplomacy, negotiation skills, assertiveness

• The capacity of the sector means there is a tendency for the same individuals and organisations to put themselves forward as reps
• Organisation vs sector representation, i.e. reps are there to represent the whole sector, not only the views and interests of their organisation.
• Making time for feedback and communication to the whole sector as a vital part of the work
• Cultural differences and power imbalances
• The nature of the long road vs the tendency to want quick wins; i.e. quick wins around the partnership table tend to be tokenistic and unsustainable but more permanent changes can be slow to achieve, which can result in frustration amongst those with a tendency to ‘do it now’!

This varies according to how many partnerships reps attend throughout the year and what other influencing work they identify as essential to their role.

As an approximate guide, reps commit around 20-30 hours per quarter (most partnerships and networks meet quarterly) which equates to around 6 - 10 hours per month.

1. Do you have the full support of your organisation and the time to attending meetings and take part in other related activity? Elected representatives hold their seats for 2 years. Is this commitment understood and agreed by your Chair/Board of Trustees or Committee?
2. Do you have enough capacity in your job to perform a representative role on behalf of the Community and Voluntary Sector? Representatives are accountable to the CVSA membership and in addition to attending meetings are expected to feedback to the wider sector.
3. Do you know enough about the expectations of the Elected Reps role? If you’ve any queries or questions, please contact the CVA office to find out more!

For more information contact: sarah.burns@cvalive.org.uk or sara.milocco@cvalive.org.uk