Mike Locke was appointed in May 2008 to the newly created role of Director of Public Affairs at Volunteering England (VE), the national development agency for volunteering. Previously, he had worked with the Centre for Institutional Studies at the University of East London, as Director of the centre until March 2007 and then being seconded to VE’s Institute for Volunteering Research as Assistant Director. In 1997 he helped create the Institute with current VE Chief Executive Justin Davis Smith, through the association of Volunteering England and the University of East London. With the Institute for Volunteering Research, he has been involved a variety of studies, including evaluation of government policies and organisational programmes for volunteering, exploratory studies in faith-based voluntary action and community involvement, and the management capacities of volunteer-involving organisations. Mike was also a founder member of the Advisory Group initiating and developing strategy for volunteering for the 2012 Olympics and Paralympics.
Mike’s experience of voluntary organisations and voluntary action dates back to the early 1970s through involvement in community organisations in the North Kensington/Notting Hill area of London, and he has worked as a researcher and teacher with voluntary and community sector issues since the early 1980s.

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