BME – Black & Minority Ethnic

Capacity – All the resources available to an organisation, including people, money, equipment, expertise and information

Capacity Building – Often taken to mean anything which will increase the capacity of the voluntary sector to provide services or take action. It is about ensuring that organisations have the skills, knowledge, structures and resources to realise their full potential.

Civil Society (previously known as Third Sector)

Typically organisations in the Civil Society sector have three common characteristics:

• They are non-governmental
• The are value-driven
• They have a not-for-profit ethos and reinvest financial surpluses to further their charitable objectives

Civil Society encompasses grass roots, neighbourhood, voluntary & community organisations, charities, faith-based organisations, social enterprises, cooperative and mutual societies, large and small.

CVS – Council for Voluntary Services: The co-ordinating and support body for voluntary and community organisations in a geographic area, although actual structure and facilities vary immensely across the country. Also known as a Local Support and Development Organisation (LSDO).

Frontline Organisations – Organisations working directly with the public, or particular target groups or communities.

Infrastructure – The physical facilities, structures, systems, relationships, people, knowledge and skills that exist to support and develop, coordinate, represent and promote front line organisations, thus enabling them to deliver their missions more effectively. Infrastructure can operate at local, regional and/or national levels, and can be generic or sub-sectoral (concentrating on a particular part of the voluntary sector, such as childcare). Such support can also come from organisations outside the voluntary sector, such as local authorities , Business Link, funders, private sector training.

Local Strategic Partnership (LSP) – Local Strategic Partnerships bring together the public sector as well as the private, business, community and voluntary sectors and are responsible for developing and driving the implementation of community strategies and Local Area Agreements.

Local Support and Development Organisations (umbrella body) – Those organisations that work to ensure that local voluntary and community groups get the support they need in; identifying and filling gaps; raising standards; enabling communication and collaboration; providing a voice and promoting strategic involvement.

Office for Civil Society (previously known as Office for the Third Sector) – the government department for the Voluntary and Community Sector

Representation – In terms of this project, representation refers to individuals who take up positions on strategic decision making bodies on behalf of particular communities i.e. BME, refugee etc.

RCO – Refugee Community Organisation

Stakeholder – In sector terms, this usually refers to anybody who has an interest in the work of an organisation: member, volunteer, staff, management, board member, funder or contracting body, client, ‘community of interest’ such as locality or grouping of people who might benefit (beneficiaries). For this project, stakeholder refers to those infrastructure support organisations and agencies that have a direct interest in the work of the Greater Manchester BME Network.

VCS – Voluntary & Community Sector