From Di Jennings and Lindsay Jeffs, CED Conference Organisers

At the Community Economic Development (CED) Conference held in Waitakere, Auckland in February this year, leading practitioners from Scotland, England, Canada, Australia and New Zealand made presentations on social enterprise development, social lending, community banking, asset development and creative approaches to community building. The conference catch cry was "people, place and prosperity".

On his return to Scotland from the CED conference, Aidan Pia, Director of Senscot, wrote the following "Having just returned from 10 days in sunny New Zealand, I can report that the Kiwi social enterprise community is alive and kicking. Whilst they may not have the same support infrastructure or government buy-in that we currently benefit from in Scotland, there is no denying that, at a grassroots level, there is plenty to build on."

And there is! We have community enterprises bubbling way in our neighbourhoods as well as some large scale social enterprises, notably in Maori and faith based organisations. But our sector is fragmented and there is minimal infrastructure or cross fertilisation of ideas and practice outside of our own areas, both geographical and cultural. But this is starting to change - for example, since the conference, Lindsay Jeffs has established a Social Enterprise School in Christchurch. The participants are developing social enterprise ideas for existing not-for-profit organisations. It is intended that this model will be rolled out to other parts of New Zealand in the future.

Community economic development offers a range of tools to build a strong, independent and resilient community sector. In particular it enables organisations to move beyond grant dependence and to look at innovative new ways of creating independent income streams. There will, of course, always be a place for grants and donations. But income derived from social enterprise activity (i.e. trading goods and/or services for a social or environmental purpose), supported by social finance, combined with the development and acquisition of physical assets, can enable stronger, more resilient and sustainable communities. At the CED conference this was expressed in a nutshell: "Community enterprise for viability: community asset ownership for sustainability".

Jess Steele, from the Development Trust Association (DTA) in the UK talked about the concept of a "community anchor". This is a neighbourhood organisation that plans to be around for the long haul through the development of local leadership, community enterprises and the acquisition of physical assets such as buildings and land. Annemarie Naylor, also from the DTA, heads the unit that provides advice and support for communities and councils about asset transfer. Annemarie inspired delegates with stories of poor communities in the UK that are acquiring assets from local councils for nominal sums to create community owned hubs.

It seems to us that the best way to describe this emergent sector is through our stories. When working in Scotland, Di Jennings developed "community anchor" case studies for the Local People Leading campaign. One of her favourite examples is from the island of Gigha where local people worked together to buy their island. Then they developed a range of income streams through tourism and renewable energy initiatives. A stroke of genius was to purchase three wind turbines that not only provided the islanders with renewable energy - but enabled them to sell excess power to the national grid to create a significant income. This has enabled investment in social housing and other services for local people.

In Waitakere, one of our leading social entrepreneurs is Lisa Wooley who heads the Friendship Centre Trust (FCT), a flourishing faith based initiative. The FCT provides a wide range of services for local people, but they are best known for their bold move into the provision of social housing for marginalised families. They have developed a significant community housing portfolio and are going from strength to strength.

CED has had a chequered history in New Zealand to date. At this time, the concepts and language are relatively undefined and this can make having meaningful conversations challenging. We need to build on the momentum that was created at the recent CED conference and create more opportunities to bring together community activists, social entrepreneurs and community savvy council officers (our "intrapreneurs") - to share new ideas, develop the concepts and language, discuss opportunities and inspire communities into action.

The CED conference created links with overseas social entrepreneurs that will enable New Zealanders to benefit from their experience. We don't need to re-invent the wheel - but we do need to explore which ideas are a priority at this time. 88% of conference delegates said that they want to participate in a Social Entrepreneurs or Social Enterprise Network. With this in mind the CED conference organisers have been meeting with community leaders to discuss how this can be shaped up and established. Some of the suggested ideas are as follows:

The CED conference organisers believe that a more innovative era is dawning in New Zealand. Social enterprise has the potential to develop as a significant sector that can enable more empowered communities, increased social justice and positive, environmental, cultural and economic change for all.

If you are interested in participating in a Social Enterprise Network please email Di Jennings at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

If you are interested in knowing more about the Social Enterprise School, contact Lindsay Jeffs at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

For more information about the CED conference visit www.cedconf.org.nz.