Community Economic Development

Community Economic Development (CED) is what happens when members of a geographically defined community take action to ensure that the economy in their area works well for them. It is a process that is led by people living, working and running businesses in that area and may involve any of the following:

Residents, or representative groups of residents
Local businesses or groupings of businesses
Voluntary and community sector organisations working in the area
Major ‘anchor institutions’ such as businesses, colleges, hospitals, or other key institutions that play a significant role in the local economy
Credit Unions
The local authority.

CAN can provide the following services to CED programmes:

Technical support, for example:
- Developing policy to establish common cause between grass roots initiatives and local authorities
- Developing strategies to retain wealth within a community
- Training people for co-operative and social enterprise
- Diagnostic services and feasibility studies
- Help develop and launch Community Share Offers
- Forming partnerships with ‘anchor institutions’
- Help local authorities acquire 'Co-operative' or 'Social Enterprise' status
- Help access funding
- Work with Credit Unions to enable them to provide various forms of finance to start ups, cash flow support and matched funding
Assistance with designing and registering any corporate bodies that need to be formed, for example:
- Grass roots co-operatives
- Community businesses
- Enterprise support agencies capable of nurturing local enterprises in various ways.

CAN has worked with a number of CED projects, including recently:

In partnership with University of Bristol to produce the report Community and economic Development: Bulding Back Strong Bristol Co-operatives
A project pioneered by Great Yarmouth Borough Council to bring three urban community development initiatives together to support a number of local community-focused enterprises and lay the groundwork for the establishment of a virtual enterprise hub and community college
A village community enterprise at Little Canfield in Essex involving cultivating local produce, adding value and selling it through a pop-up café, monthly markets, the renovation of a barn as a community asset, bicycle hire, repair and other workshops
A Big Local project in East London setting up community based businesses
A community organisation in Milton Keynes, helping them develop their business plan and obtain funding to establish a community hub.

Our Community Economic Development trade sector lead worker is TBA.