About Peak Partners
Peak Partners for Rural Action is a partnership of voluntary organisations that provide infrastructure services at a secondary level, in the Derbyshire Dales and the High Peak areas of Derbyshire.
Through mutual support, information sharing and co-operation, Peak Partners aims to increase the effectiveness of individual partner organisations and enhance the ability to respond to gaps in service and infrastructure provision.
The partners will also work together to ensure that strategic organisations have a greater knowledge and understanding of the contribution that infrastructure organisations make.
This will result in a cohesive, well-resourced and sustainable voluntary and community sector that is able to influence and have an impact on the decisions and work of strategic organisations.
Criteria and expectations for membership have been defined and the management structure established with regard to how the partnership runs, the style of working and protocol for meetings.
The following voluntary and community infrastructure organisations are currently partners:
Peak Partners for Rural Action has an agreed set of values and principles that underpin both what it does and how it works.
The partnership plans to focus on five key areas of work over the next two years in order to realise its purposes.
A series of objectives have been developed for each area of work. A 2 year Action Plan has been developed by the 8 members to determine how these will be delivered. It has been developed through a series of workshops held over a 6 month period in the autumn and winter of 2005 – 2006 and builds on the plan for the previous 2 year period.
The plan aims to:
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Describe the partnership’s overall purpose
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Outline the values and principles underpinning the partnership’s work
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Describe each area of activity the partnership will undertake to fulfil its purpose
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List and time scale the actions for each area of work
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Outline an action plan for the implementation of higher priority objectives
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Outline the membership and management structure of the partnership
“Voluntary and Community Sector (VCS) organisations provide capacity building support to voluntary and community organisations (VCOs), they represent VCO interests and provide a voice for VCOs in policy making.
They also facilitate joint working between VCOs and across sectors. Infrastructure organisations exist at national, regional and local levels and they may also be known as ‘umbrella’ or ‘second tier’ organisations. This is because they provide support to ‘first tier’ or ‘front line’ VCOs.
There are generic infrastructure organisations which provide support to all VCOs within a specific geographic area, and specialist or sub sectoral infrastructure organisations which provide support to VCOs working with specific communities / client groups or within specific service areas.”
Voluntary and Community Sector Infrastructure: A Consultation Document
Active Community Unit, September 2003
