Voluntary and community sector partnerships : current inter-organizational relations and future challenges

The community and voluntary sector sits alongside the state sector and the private\ud sector. As such, it is sometimes referred to as the ‘third sector’. Organizations within\ud this sector play a number of important and active roles in society. For instance, they\ud may focus on:\ud providing services to strengthen communities;\ud _ mutual aid and self-help for members of organizations;\ud _ policy advocacy or campaigning;\ud _ advocacy on behalf of individuals; and\ud _ expressing and fostering culture and identity.\ud Some of these roles are either relatively new or have changed over the years.\ud Many of them involve different types of inter-organizational relations (IOR). For\ud instance, as an advocate for change on behalf of their constituents, voluntary and\ud community organizations (VCOs) have often formed coalitions involving a number\ud of VCOs working together. In their role as a service provider, they have always relied\ud on other organizations, to some extent, in terms of funding their programmes.\ud This is especially true in terms of their relationships with government agencies\ud and/or foundations. In addition, they have often worked together with each other\ud in order to better serve their clients. More recently, in terms of their relationships\ud with government, they have become involved in a more active role, one in which\ud they work alongside government agencies and other stakeholders in new forms of\ud collaborations