Social enterprises create community wealth and support 88,000 jobs across Scotland

An effective model of locally owned business that builds community wealth are social enterprises.

These are innovative, independent businesses with the purpose of delivering a specific social and/or environmental mission with their profits being reinvested in the business. Mostly locally owned they are more likely to employ, buy and invest locally. In this way the wealth that is created through their business activity stays circulating in the community.

There are people working on building community wealth in the Highlands through social enterprises. You may shop at or receive the services of a social enterprise regularly but not realise that’s how they are set up. It might be your local community shop, community hall or café.

New Start Highland provides a range of services including housing support, employability training, furniture provision and mentoring to help people get back on their feet.

Velocity Cafe and Bicycle Workshop is a social enterprise based in Inverness since 2012. They combine three worlds; a vegetarian cafe, bicycle workshop and range of projects to promote health, wellbeing and sustainability.

Calman Trust is a young people's service based in the Highlands. They know young people are capable of achieving great things and give the the appropriate support to overcome the challenges they experience on the way to independent adulthood. They run Cafe Artysans in the heart of Inverness.

These three Inverness area social enterprises I’ve highlighted are not alone, there are around 6000 social enterprises in Scotland delivering in a range of areas and contributing £2.3billion to the local economy and supports 88,000 jobs, while giving us all the opportunity to play our part in building community wealth.

Scotland has been leading the way with the social enterprise model and I was honoured to recently host Social Enterprise Scotland’s awards at the Parliament. It was a fantastic celebration of the many social enterprises building community wealth across Scotland to enhance the lives of individuals, families, our communities and our environment, and build community wealth.

Social Enterprise Scotland is the gateway for social enterprise, whether you want to set one up, or learn more about how you can support them. And you don’t need to set one up to get involved, often the model of a social enterprise involves a board of directors so you could take part that way.

Another way to support your local social enterprise is coming up. Small Business Saturday UK's 10th anniversary is being celebrated on Saturday 3 December. You could show your support for one of these Inverness and Highland enterprises or other ones you know by joining in with what they have to offer. We have great opportunities to play our part in community wealth building by keeping it local.

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