John Diamond

John Diamond

Hello – I really pleased to be involved in this project. I am the current Director of the Institute for Public Policy and Professional Practice (I4P) at Edge Hill University in West Lancashire ( www.edgehill.ac.uk/i4p ). We set I4P up to work with practitioners, residents and researchers in a variety of different settings and professional areas (from working with children and young people to supporting voluntary sector and civil society networks to learning from and with community arts and well being groups). A really important part of what we try to do in our practice is to support and promote ways of working which are collaborative and which value shared learning and thinking. Sometimes it works and sometimes we need to go away and reflect on what has happened and think seriously about what we have learnt ! I have just stepped down as the national chair of ARVAC (the Association for Research with the Voluntary and Community Sector). ARVAC is one of the partners in this project and was set up in 1978 by a group of voluntary sector activists and university researchers who felt that small organisations or networks had little access to research skills and knowledge which the larger national organisations had or it was easier for them to get access to. For nearly 40 years ARVAC has promoted the importance of supporting small organisations and those individuals or groups which want to develop their skills and capacity in order to influence decision makers or policy makers.

I live in Manchester and I am really looking forward to being involved. I like the idea of jointly creating shared spaces where we can work safely and co-operatively and whilst there are practical things we need to do we are, also, creating opportunities for the unexpected – especially those moments (or series of moments) which shape or challenge our thinking and practice.