ERIN is the regional Voluntary and Community Sector (VCS) infrastructure consortium for the East of England. It was formed in 2003 and is funded under the Government’s ChangeUp/ Capacitybuilders initiative.

ERIN’s vision is that communities in the East of England benefit from a strong, vibrant, diverse, high quality, influential, outcomes-focused, sustainable third sector which communicates, collaborates, coordinates, and enables infrastructure support effectively across the region.

ERIN currently has close to 25 organisations on its membership list. All ERIN members:

• Are third sector organisations or networks
• Are regional in scope i.e. working in two or more sub-regions
• Have infrastructure support as a primary part of their work.

The unique value of ERIN is that it brings VCS specialist and generalist networks together with the aim of sharing expertise, fostering partnership work and promoting good practice in the field of support and development services.

Generalist support services are represented within ERIN by COVER and RISE. COVER (Community and Voluntary Forum: Eastern Region) is the VCS umbrella body for our region while RISE (Regional Infrastructure Services East) represents the county-level infrastructure consortia which, in turn, support Councils for Voluntary Service and Volunteering Centres operating at local level. Together, COVER and RISE bring to the ERIN table their vast experience and expertise in dealing with generic VCS issues such as access to funding, governance, promotion of volunteering, workforce development etc.

Other ERIN members also have extensive understanding and experience of those issues. But the specific contribution they make to ERIN is linked to their in-depth knowledge and expertise of their own specialism. Currently, the following areas of work are represented on ERIN:

Meet ERIN Members

A number of research projects were commissioned on behalf of the consortium and/or by consortium members which have helped to develop ERIN and its strategic planning.

• The related literature review is available by clicking here.
• To read a summary analysis of the needs of the voluntary sector in general and of infrastructure services in particular over the period 2004-2009, click here.