In 1999, Community Matters commissioned research to celebrate the achievements of the community association movement, and to better understand their relevance to 21st century Britain. From a series of workshops with members and a nation wide survey, the VISIBLE framework was developed.
During 2007-2008 Community Matters worked with five member organisations to pilot the VISIBLE Standards. After a review of these pilots the national VISIBLE Standards and their accreditation were launched as the VISIBLE Communities™ programme in Jan 2009.
In 2009 VISIBLE received the Charity Commission endorsement.
In 2016 Community Matters closed and the VISIBLE standards were taken over by Advising London, who also closed 3 years later. At that point Community Matters Yorkshire managed to rescue the standards fromthe liquidator. They already have a strong background in Quality and Quality Assurance as managers of the Improving Quality standard and scheme. They are now working hard to update and revise the VISIBLE standards and to make them available once again.