Established around 20 ago, Community Enterprise Ltd first started operating as Community Enterprise Lothians in 1987. Originally funded by the Urban Regeneration Fund, CEL worked in deprived areas of Edinburgh developing local businesses and supporting local people. 

As the role of Social Enterprise in regenerating our communities has become more recognised, particulary with the launch of the Social Enterprise Strategy for Scotland and the Enterprising Third Sector Strategy and Action Plan, so has the importance of delivering ‘hands-on’ business development support to community organisations wishing to become social enterprises. This change in environment and need has also led to the evolution of CEL itself. From being an intermediary organisation operating in Edinburgh, signposting community organisations to possible assistance, we have now become the direct deliverer of that assistance and expertise and operate through out Scotland, but with the magority of our work taking place in East Central Scotland. 

We now provide a range of targeted organisational and business development services directly to other social enterprises, voluntary and community organisations wishing to trade to be more independent and sustainable. The direct support we provide helps these organisations overcome obstacles in their organisational growth and therefore aims to improve their delivery of key community and public services. 

We believe that social enterpirse is a means to an end. Our mission statement is that we are: 

"..passionate about supporting Social Enterprises as thriving businesses essential to regenerating our communities " 

Our core delivery is in the area of specialist professional skills capacity building - in simple terms we deliver coaching, expertise and hands on support in the key areas that have been identified as barriers to Social Enterprise growth. Areas of support include product development, business planning, marketing, procurement, finance planning and systems, organisational development and management and access to loan and grant finance. These services are delivered by our in-house experts via seminars, small targetted workshops and one-on-one support, advice and coaching sessions.