Enterprising People

All over Gloucestershire, people are buying and selling goods and services, renting out space, running transport operations, negotiating contracts, managing budgets, developing staff. They are managing community enterprises to provide the facilities and services that local people need.

Community enterprise is nothing new for Gloucestershire – generations of local people have run their village halls while others have launched community shops, organised after-school clubs and volunteered to drive the infirm to hospital. But the number, size and scope of community enterprise is growing rapidly.

Community enterprises are businesses with social and environmental aims which can help deliver public services, regenerate deprived areas and achieve lasting social change. Well-known national examples include “Co-op” shops, The Big Issue and Jamie Oliver's Fifteen.

Community Enterprise Gloucestershire brings together networks of hundreds of community enterprises in the county to exchange information, share good practice and promote new ideas. It is hosted by Co-operative Futures, an agency which provides specialist support to co-operative and community enterprises.