won by the Liberal Democrat candidate and he wrote: “Six or seven years ago we had what Labour lost its majority on the Council. The I think was the last old style demonstration at new administration proposed significant cuts to the Town Hall, where we protested against the voluntary sector support. sale of council premises. It had catastrophic effects and the then leader of the Council was A group led by IVAC devised a campaign a bit taken aback. IVAC took a two thirds cut against these cuts, proposing an alternative in funding. After this episode we adjusted our to LBI’s medium term financial strategy, with tactics – as you would. Since then we have support from the Charities Aid Foundation and taken IVAC and the voluntary sector to a new the New Policy Institute, researching and in level of partnership working in the true sense some cases correcting the Council’s figures. of the word. I realised that the future success of the sector would be diversity in funding and The new council administration promised an this has proved to be the case.” external review of the voluntary sector by the New Policy Institute but despite some New central government funds were made concessions the result was a further rounds of available such as SureStart (early years), the cuts, now amounting to £2.1m. As a result, 200 Children’s Fund, (5-13 year olds, at risk of jobs were lost in the sector and thousands of social exclusion), Connexions (marginalised Islington residents suffered a loss of service. 13-25 year olds), Neighbourhood Renewal, and the New Deal for Communities (housing Nevertheless, membership grew from 169 estates) - all involving the voluntary sector. in 1997 to 357 in 2000. IVAC joined the With increased support from the Cripplegate successful campaign to have a Health Action Foundation and other charitable trusts, Zone in Camden and Islington, opening up a together with LBI funding for a Partnerships partnership with the Health Authority. Development officer, IVAC made up the gap created by the LBI cuts. New chair David Vandivier adopted a new approach to build fences with the Council. Looking back after a decade as chair in 2008, 28 Celebrating 50 Years of Service