Acronyms and Jargon Explained

We will try and keep jargon and acronyms to a minimum on this website. However, the work WYLDA is involved in seems to have quite a few that are used regularly. The most frequently use acronyms, or jargon, are explained here.

If you find other terms being used, and are unsure of their meaning, please do let us know by contacting the website administration on wylda@regionalforum.org.uk

BME (sometimes BAME) -is the abbreviation for Black and Minority Ethnic and is most often used to refer to groups or policies that affect people from non-white-UK ethnic backgrounds.

BMER – is a newer acronym for Black and Minority Ethnic and Refugees used to specifically include Refugee.

CEN- stands for Community Empowerment Network which are the networks of local voluntary and community groups, and local residents, to ensure that they have every opportunity to be involved in decision making at all levels. In the West Yorkshire context, there are CENs working in Bradford CNet, Kirklees Community Network, Leeds Voice and Wakefield VOX. They are often part of the associated Voluntary Action/CVS.

CVS - stands for Council for Voluntary Services – in the WYLDA context these are the five generic support organisations for the VCS working in each of the five districts of West Yorkshire: Bradford CVS, Voluntary Action Calderdale, Voluntary Action Kirklees, Voluntary Action Leeds and Voluntary Action Wakefield District.

Equalities strands - these are Gender, Race, Religion and Belief, Disability, Sexual Orientation and Age.

HR – stands for Human Resources which includes all aspects of employing people from recruitment and employment rights and legal responsibilities.

ICT or IT - stands for Information and Computer Technology or Information Technology and generally mean not just computers, but everything you need to go with them to make them work in an organisation.

IDP - stands for Integrated Development Plan - a plan which aims to set out the sets out the economic, environmental and social benefits for an area. It provides a framework for new developments and is used as a basis for making decisions regarding land use and planning applications.

Infrastructure - also referred to as "support services", third sector infrastructure means those organisations, people and activities that help build the skills and capacity of third sector organisations. They act as a voice for the third sector. (Definition adapted from the leaflet, VCS Regional Infrastructure and Networks Yorkshire and the Humber.)

ISO - stands for Infrastructure Support Organisations and refers to VCS organisations that provide support services to other voluntary sector organisations. These can also be called "second-tier" organisations, or "umbrella bodies".

LGB - is used as a collective term to refer to people who would describe their sexuality as Lesbian, Gay or Bisexual.

LGBT - LGBT as an acronym is used as a collective term to refer to people who would describe themselves as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual Trans or Transgender.

LIOs – stands for Local Infrastructure Organisations – these are the organisations that support front line third sector organisations through provision of advice, information and services.

SEA – stands for Strategic Economic Assessment and refers to the model used to analyse economic priorities to feed into the SRIP process.

SRIP – stands for Sub-Regional Investment Plan and in Yorkshire and the Humber, five-year investment plans were produced by each sub-region of North, South and West Yorkshire and the Humber. The central purpose of the plans are to ensure the most effective use of public funds by co-ordination of funding streams including Yorkshire Forwards' budget (the 'single pot'), European funds and other key public sector funds.

THIRD SECTOR – The third sector is used to collective describe all work and organisations described as not-for-profit. Therefore this includes voluntary and community sector organisations, as well as the whole spectrum of social enterprise. Third Sector is used to differentiate the sector as it is separate from Government and the 'for-profit' or private sector.

VCS, VS, VCFS, VolCom – all stand for some variation of the Voluntary and Community Sector, and can also be known as the Voluntary Sector, the Voluntary, Community and Faith Sector. WYLDA tends to use "third sector".

WYLDA - stands for West Yorkshire Local Development Agencies, and is pronounced "wilder". It is the name for the partnership of Infrastructure Support Agencies that work together in the West Yorkshire sub-region.