Organisational Resilience in Third Sector Youth Organisations in Bristol
Findings on organisational resilience
The Professional Liaison Network (PLN) have been fortunate to take part in a collaborative research project with Bristol City Council and Quartet focusing on organisational resilience in third sector youth organisations in Bristol. Six of our amazing students acted as student researchers to investigate factors that help to foster resilience, both in youth sector organisations and in young people themselves, working closely with Dr Jack Nicholls from the University of Bristol and Lucy Gilbert, Head of Research & Learning at Quartet.
There have been several phases to this research and the first phase produced a fascinating report which was published in January 2021.
This first report included important lessons about what factors support resilience in organisations and what funders should prioritise for their support and a model of organisational resilience was developed that included five key components:
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organisational development
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organisational structure
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funding
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networks
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community engagement
A second phase of the research took place later in 2021, revisiting some of the organisations that had been interviewed and refining and adding extra factors that may support resilience in youth sector organisations, including:
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establishing a positive organisational culture;
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enhancing staff wellbeing, an issue which was highlighted as critical for some organisations during the pandemic;
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investing in branding and marketing, often seen as non-essential spending for charities, but which is actually crucial for increasing groups’ online presence and reach.
The overall findings from this research project have influenced the Youth Sector Support Fund’s criteria for funding and Quartet’s work more widely and although focused on the youth sector, the lessons that emergedare likelybe applicable to the VCSE sector generally.
Blog: Lucy Gilbert, Quartet Community Foundation
"The contributions of all three sets of students have been really valuable to Quartet’s work"
