On Tuesday 7th November, we hosted a celebration of the work of our volunteers. We would like to thank our charity speakers, panellists and guests for helping us to create an insightful and interesting discussion, and a worthy celebration of our dedicated volunteers.

Our gratitude to our partners at Chicago Booth for generously hosting this event.

The evening

The evening began with presentations from James Probert, on behalf of City Year UK, and Vidhya Alakeson, CEO of Power to Change. They discussed their work and the learnings from their Pro Bono Economics reports. James stated "Our work with Pro Bono Economics will play a key role in creating 'voluntary national service' status", and Vidyha spoke of the way in which "Using data and Pro Bono Economics we will measure the increased community cohesion created by our charity, Power to Change". These reports are due to be published soon, so keep an eye on our website and social media channels to read these reports in full.

We then welcomed further discussion from our panel of experts. Lord Gus O’Donnell (PBE Chairman), Peter Kellner (NCVO), Bronwyn Curtis (JP Morgan) and David Rossington (DCMS) made thought-provoking contributions to the discussion about community businesses and the power Community Asset Transfers (CATs), and commented on the rhetoric surrounding full-time volunteering and a “National Service.”

The audience’s questions delved deeper into specific issues, such as the current economic and social barriers faced by young people. Discussion about a proposed full-time volunteering programme, and the sectors that could benefit, encouraged everyone to think about the best approach for rolling out a programme, and policy barriers to overcome. The audience were also inquisitive about the measurement of profits – both social and financial – from CATs, and supported the creation of a framework to guide local authorities and community businesses through the complex processes of CAT development and evaluation.

Become an Economic Associate

We would like to remind guests that we are currently recruiting for our Economic Associate panel. If you are interested then please see the recruitment pack, which offers further information and details on how to apply.

Our annual lecture is due to be held on the 28th March 2018, so please hold this date in your diary!

13th November 2017